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Living in Seattle. 2person 1bed-1bath 1166/mo w/utilities? No parking-internet
JamesKeenan
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
I'm looking at living at a place for about 1,000 a month. It comes with most utilities except internet and phone. Problem is, there's no parking lot.
My dilemma: Pay for a parking garage or something... or just go without a car and use buses.
I'll be going to school around 23 minutes (according to Google) from where I'll live, and I might have to get internships or jobs outside the city.
How much is it to use the public transit, is it reliable? All these things matter, but I just don't know them.
My dilemma: Pay for a parking garage or something... or just go without a car and use buses.
I'll be going to school around 23 minutes (according to Google) from where I'll live, and I might have to get internships or jobs outside the city.
How much is it to use the public transit, is it reliable? All these things matter, but I just don't know them.
JamesKeenan on
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Where exactly are you at, and where do you need to get to? There are some places you can get to from just about anywhere nearby (UW campus, downtown), but other than that you'll most likely have to transfer if you're coming from outside the city, and depending on how the routes line up that can make it take a LOT longer.
This site will give you options for getting from one point to another using the bus system. It'll usually take about 20% longer than driving to use the bus, but you can also get lucky if you live near major corridors or transit stations/park and rides, since they almost always have express routes from there. It also don't mind the extra time much - when it's a choice between half an hour driving in traffic, or 40 minutes sitting on the bus playing DS or reading, so I'll take the bus every time.
It would help a lot if you would give us a better idea of where you are going to/from. Most areas of Seattle have street parking, unless you are living in Belltown or some parts of Capitol Hill.
Personally, I just park on the street. Have you looked into that as an option?
Well, here's the thing. My living conditions might change, and we could move to a place that just has free parking. Ah, well, I kind of wrote my OP in haste, since my battery is dying.
Background. Most important detail, my living there is a year away. A full year. Long time, but I'd rather know now, because the more general info I have, the better. I'm obviously counting on parking rates, gas prices and many other factors not to change in the time of a year.
I'd be living on student-sponsored housing of the Art Institute in The Cornelius on Blanchard St, or the Lenora on... Lenora ST, I think. I'd be attending Digipen Institute on 150th Ave in Redmond. Google maps has it as 21 minutes driving, appr. 40 mins public transit. No big deal.
I'm not asking anyone to sweat and bleed to bring me the best answers possible, just a best guess or estimate. Here's what I've got to work with.
So it's not quite 1K a month, but it's just about. I'd also be sharing the load with one other person.
I'm mostly asking cause I don't quite know the rules governing most of Seattle. Ultimately It'll be my choice entirely, I'm just asking for your own experience rehashed as sensible advice.
I suppose it comes down to how restricted I'll be or feel without a car.
[edit]: Parking on the street... I doubt that's free, else sure, I'd do it. Also, if there's actually housing options cheaper than that, tell me. I'll look now, I suppose, but I had basically just been working with the idea that the school housing would just be cheaper than what was available to the general public. I honestly hadn't even bothered looking yet.
And there's no reliable street parking anywhere in the ride-free area.
The room would either be Studio or 1 bedroom. Important detail #2, I'd be married to my roommate.
Hell, it's possible to find a one-bedroom apartment in Capitol Hill for $1000-1200. There are a ton of grocery stores, clothing shops, theaters and restaurants, and it's within walking distance of downtown. Queen Anne? $700-900 for a one-bedrooom, and there's a major bus hub that'll get you downtown in minutes. You could even give Wallingford a shot, as there're several Sound Transit bus routes that go to Redmond.
Regardless, I'd eschew the car altogether, especially if you stick with the student housing. The bus system here is reliable and covers the city very well. The two buslines--Metro, for in-city travel, and Sound Transit, which covers north/south/east out-of-city travel--share transfers, so you can hop on a bus from one line and transfer over to one from the other without paying a new fare. Regular service runs from 5:00AM until 12:00/12:30/1:00AM, with a few additional night-owl routes running between 2:00AM - 5:00AM. Fare is $1.50 ($1.75 during peak hours), and you can ride in downtown for free. It's a good system overall.
As long as you don't have to be on the road from 6ish until about 10ish in the morning, and from 3ish until 7ish in the evening, though, you should be fine. And that's really not bad rent for a studio in the downtown/Belltownish area (assuming your wife stays for free). I mean, it's not a great deal, but you're not getting ripped off, either.
If you decide to go with the student housing, I'd ditch the car, just because parking in that area of Seattle is fucking expensive. If you want to hang on to your car, move to Bellevue, Redmond, or another area of Seattle (either south to, like, Beacon Hill or Capital Hill, or north to Queen Anne, Wallingford, or Green Lake). A car isn't necessary in this city, but it is frequently helpful.
This advice is pretty spot on.
I make the opposite commute, Redmond to Seattle in the morning, and its about a 30min bus ride. Bus coverage is pretty reasonable through downtown Seattle and the outlying areas. Bellevue and Redmond isn't quite as good, and you may find yourself having to walk a ways, depending on where you need to go. I definitely prefer the bus for commuting. I don't have to stress about traffic, I can chill out, read, nap or whatever. My company pays for bus passes (mine is $90 a month) which also factors in to my decision.
If I were you, I'd look for housing on the Eastside (Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond) to make the commute easier. Rent can be kind of spendy though.
tl;dr: Ride the bus if you're going to commute across the lake. Ditch the car if you are going to live downtown. To make it easy on yourself, find a place to live on the eastside.
Only problem is, living on the East side, it'll be my wife who'll get to make the commute, and I'll only feel bad about that.
"Hey, remember that inconvenient daily commute I really wasn't looking forward to? You get to make it!"
[edit]: Thank you all grandly for the help, by the way. It will definitely be of use and you should all feel good for positively affecting someone's life today.
There is an express bus (545) from downtown (westlake / 3rd) to the MS campus at the Overload Park & Ride. It then goes on to downtown redmond (park & ride, then redmond town center, then Bear Creek out by the MS Milenium campus).
Now, Digipen is very near the RedWest campus but that is a ways down the street from main campus (Microsoft rents or owns most of Redmond at this point). You could just take the 545 and walk a few. It's less than a mile. You could also look into transfering to a more local bus. The 540 goes right by there for example.
Work is the easy part. The main thing is choosing a place to live such that you can easily walk to / from a decent grocery store. Commuting on the bus is fine. Read. Play games. Whatever. Bringing groceries sucks ass.
Edit: Something to consider is that there is a major transfer point (Montlake Freeway station) at the edge of the U-Distruct near Huskey Stadium / the Hospital where all the 520 freeway busses stop. I take the 48 from greenlake to there then get an express across the lake. In the morning going to Redmond is usually takes less than 20 minutes (sometimes just 10) even in bad traffic to get from Montlake to Overlake (MS main campus). It's coming back in the evening that can be a problem. The stretch between Overlake and the 405 interchange on 520 can get deadlocked from 5-6 and even the busses get stuck. Once you are a bit past 405 the busses are quite fast (the bridge itself is not the choke point).
The bus number (as of today, but I'd bet a dollar it will be the same in a year) that you will be taking to/from Seattle is the 545. Fortunately, it has a stop like a block from Digipen, on the NE 51st street exit.
http://www.soundtransit.org/x7200.xml
The problem with this bus is that if you live anywhere but downtown, you will have to figure out how to get to/from one of the stops on the Seattle side of things.
I do, and that would be exceptionally useful, except with the grocery/shopping situation. I imagine I could just buy one of those bikes with the huge baskets in the back and just bike all the way to and from a nearby grocery store.
Sure...
If you haven't settled on a place yet just find an apartment near a good store. There's plenty around. Much less downtown (though there's a couple new stores round Mercer, edge of Belltown area) but lots around North Seattle. Rosevelt, U-Villiage etc...
I just found out the housing rates for Marrid couples differ from the advertised rates.
Differ like this: Housing rates for "Married Housing" is 3,500. That's a total of one thousand dollars more than I thought it'd be.
It had boiled down to about 833 a month which we'd each pay part of. Now it's a lovely 1166 a month, and it'd still only be a studio or one bedroom, depending on availability.
So I should be looking for housing elsewhere now, right? Right.
I pay 1450 for a 2 bedroom house in Greenlake. It has a little yard. Garage. Large furnished attic. Appliances etc....
There are several houses for rent around here in the 1500-1600 per month range. You can get a really good 1 bedroom apartment for 1000 a month if you look around.
I bet I live just a couple blocks south of you. I'm a block off of I5 near 65th and Ravenna. There is also the Whole foods off Rosevelt 1 block south of the QFC.
And yeah, I forget about Whole Foods. There's also the Trader Joe's down by 45th.
1050 a month each or in total? Is it a nice place?
Like I said, I found a few places on Google after just once search that was far cheaper a month than 3500/3 months, so I'll probably already be moving, but I'm now curious about utilities and such.
With the 3500/3 months, "reasonable use of utilities" are all included, including 24/7 washer and dryer. I'd only have to pay for phone and internet.
If your budget is in the 8-900+ range for a 1 bedroom then it should have a washer and dryer in the unit. Cheaper apartments will have pay-for-use washer-dryers in the basement usually. This sucks.
For phone and internet there are a number of good companies available. I use speakeasy ( www.speakeasy.net ) and don't have a land-line phone at all. A cell is plenty nowadays.
Yes, it is true we'll probably just keep our cell phones. We had already thought of this, and realized our cells were enough, especially given that it'd be free to call most anyone in our family, and each other.
But, by "handled by the city" do you mean that water, power, sewer and garbage services are free? As in as long as I'm within city limits I don't have to pay for any of it? I just move in?
Oh no. Not free. Handled by the city as in they are who you will be paying. Check that website for more info about cost. I figure I pay about $125 a month for the lot. But that's largely because power bill is above average as the heat in this uninsulated 80 year old house is electric.
I have the rates up for water and power, but they're essentially given in terms of consumption, which would be nice, if I knew how much I'd consume.
Frankly, I can't get an idea whatsoever about how much I'd actually be paying. My biggest request yet:
Given experience, how much do you honestly estimate utility cost to come to? In all for moderate usage between two people, basic utilities. Water, sewage, garbage, power, internet...
I pinky swear I'd be ecstatic to receive your help, because I just couldn't calculate how much it'd be. I just have no basis. I don't really even know what my family pays, or theirs, or how much energy/water we'd consume living on our own and working/schooling most of the time... So, what, 125 for everything? I don't even really know how much a kilowatt is in terms of consumer use.
In a decent apartment for 2 people who don't run the heaters too much utilities should be less than $100 a month.
And that 1050 per month rent is *total*, not each. And that includes water, sewer, and garbage.
No one in Seattle has a landline.
In Greenlake there are 2 buildings, one with studios that are <400 square feet that go for $700 month. Water/Sewer/Garbage incl, pay your own electric, phone, etc. Pay laundry available on site. The building is really old and I think it's kind of a shitty deal, but you are directly across from the lake. For the Seattle natives this is NE side of the lake, by World Wrapps and Blue Water.
The other building has 1 bedrooms <900 square ft. $1150 month. WSG included, you pay everything else. Gas fireplace, stove, furnace (you pay gas bill) are in the unit as well as a washer dryer (those stackable ones). You also get a parking space. The building is about 15 years old and is still in pretty good shape.
Now over in Greenwood there are 2 bedrooms about 900 sq ft for $850. The building is shit, but a better deal if you don't care about Greenlake.
$1200 for a place Downtown is a good deal. It's not fantastic, but not a rip off either. If you want to live in a different part of town you can get a lot more for your money.
The bus system is pretty good as long as you want to go to the main hubs - UW, Downtown, etc. ie I live in Wedgewood, and if I wanted to go downtown I could hop on 2 different buses at the end of my block. If I wanted to go to Greenlake which would be a 5 minute drive at most, I would have to transfer, or walk half the way there. If I wanted to go to Capitol Hill, Ballard, Northgate - more transfers.
Not only does it take longer, but you have to manage two different bus schedules - if one bus is late, do you miss your next bus?
Overall I like the buses, but if you plan to not have a car then downtown actually makes a lot of sense.
It's in the Belltown area... wherever that is, and the two places are on or right near Lenora St and 3rd Ave, which is supposed to be right there in downtown, but as I've said, I've never lived there, so I wouldn't know.
We also have a huge living room.
Not a good place to live.