I received many inquiries about relocating to Seattle Puget Sound recently. Let me share some thoughts with you.WA & OR are two of the states that didn’t get much affected by mortgage meltdown. Also, WA does not have state income tax and property tax is about 1% on assessed value. If you like outdoor, fishing, hiking, cycling, boating, skiing, I bet you will love the lifestyle in the Northwest. There are couples of questions you may answer to yourselves:

1. Do know where will you work? -That’d be much better to live close to work, save lots of time in traffic.

2. Are you single or married,…? -For singles, many people prefer Capital Hill, Ballard, Wallingford (all of them are districts in Seattle), or downtown Kirkland (on Eastside)

3. Do you have children? If you do, how old are they? -For parents, they prefer Mercer Island & Bellevue due to school districts. There are three (3) public high schools on the top 100 in US in Bellevue School District.

4. Does your employer provide temporary housing? For how long?-That may affect your decision making of buying or renting.

People who work in Redmond, e.g. Microsoft, like living in Sammamish (traffic is not as good during peak hours but it is surrounded by big evergreen trees), Issaquah (Issaquah Highland is still developing, there is park N ride, an elementary school, street malls/ cinema/ hotel/ hospital to be built in a year or two; Klahanie (a community in Issaquah) is close to Issaquah Highland, less restrictive as I.H., slightly older community), Kirkland due to closer to Microsoft campuses.You can check out Issaquah Highland. It is a well planned community with built green properties and there is Microsoft shuttle bus.  Single people like to see and to been seen, hanging out at Kirkland downtown by pubs, restaurants and beach is very nice. All those cities are on Eastside and very convenient to go hiking, skiing or shopping.