Ditto-ing Esposito here on the housing situation.

Inventory is at all time lows and pushing lower every week/month.

If you can buy... buy and lock in the monthly payment. There's no bubble, just a crazy housing shortage.

And please dont NIMBY once you arrive :)

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36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
I ka nana no a 'ike -- by observing, one learns | Kulia i ka nu'u -- strive for excellence
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Outside the box thinking.

Get something in West Seattle. (Link is coming... at some point). Bus in to work (or ride) but then for TT work take the ferry out to Vashon. It's a quite rural location that I've found to be great for riding either road or TT.

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36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
I ka nana no a 'ike -- by observing, one learns | Kulia i ka nu'u -- strive for excellence
Garmin Glycogen Use App | Garmin Fat Use App

Hi and welcome to the Seattle area.
There are a lot of nice places around Seattle. You should pick the one that has what you think is important.
I live in Sammamish and work for a e-retailer/cloud company downtown.
Why Sammamish? Quality of schools, parks, easy to workout, low crime, international environment, etc.
Yes I have a little of commute, but that is no problem.
I also can just head to I90 and drive 45 minutes to go skiing.

Hah, as a 31 year old who started his professional career two years too late to buy before the Amazon era truly began, this is spot on.

Condo/apartment inventory has finally stabilized, but single-family residential inventory is expected to stay low as more areas get rezoned for multi-unit housing. Amazon's hiring has slowed considerably since the announcement of a second HQ, but it's a seller's market a million times over, and will likely continue to be so for the foreseeable future.

I'm super confused here. Don't you live in Boulder?

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

When you are fighting wanker nimbys you research and learn from places that have had success in growing to accommodate new arrivals in a way that doesn't add more single occupied vehicles to the mess that's already there.

Portland, Bay Area, Boulder, Denver, Seattle, Austin.... all fighting uphill battles.

I'm engaged civically around these parts :)

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36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
I ka nana no a 'ike -- by observing, one learns | Kulia i ka nu'u -- strive for excellence
Garmin Glycogen Use App | Garmin Fat Use App

Mark's an honorary Seattleite.

This is largely to attract the single-fresh-out-of-college talent. The newer companies and startups that are moving north from the valley are trying to stay downtown because its hip so they can attract the younger talent. Most of the 30plus crowd is married with kids and doesn't quite fit the "hip" demographic that these companies are trying to promote. And alternatively, it also plays to their advantage because unlike the married with kids crowd, these employees don't have other engagements outside of work and can crank out work for multiple hours without having to worry about taking kids to soccer practice :D :D
[source: I used to work in some of these startups and hip companies in DT Seattle, and eventually realized that I was the old geezer and found something a little bit more diverse]

Hi mglash, welcome. I'll mostly be dittoing what others have posted here, lots of good advice. When you say downtown, where do you mean? Pioneer Square? Amazon (South Lake Union)? Also, what kind of price range are you looking in? I think the median home price in Seattle has now passed $700K and I don't think it's slowing down.

Traffic is very bad throughout much of the day. Driving south to downtown can be especially bad. That being said, you might find some decently priced options in the Arlington area, north of Everett. Finding somewhere you can take the Sounder from is a decent idea, that and other light rail is currently expanding. I grew up in Issaquah (it's changed A LOT in the 20+ years since I left), my parents still live on Tiger Mountain. You can take an express bus from the Issaquah park and ride to King Street Station that works pretty well. I had a buddy who lived in North Bend who did that every day. Out where my folks live you can still be 'in the woods', but the Issaquah-Hobart road is also apparently grid locked in the mornings (a far cry from me and my friends driving down it at 90mph getting to school in the mid 90s). Avoid 405 like the plague that it is.

If I were going to buy in the city I would look for Ballard/Fremont, those places are 'cool'.

As others have said, fatter tires can provide you with a lot more training options. I do lots of training on my CX bike. Lots of good bike shops have been mentioned. There are a lot of races around as well, you really can race most weekends in the summer. Some one said that the tri season is fairly short, mid may to mid September. Isn't that the tri season in most places? Doesn't seem overly short to me. The big races are the several 70.3s within driving distance. Also lots of great races in BC (http://www.dynamicraceevents.com/, especially the half in Oliver, one of the best races around). I don't think there are any BIG races in Washington anymore, Lake Padden is very popular.

I don't know if you are interested in anything else, but there is a lot of recreation around here, competitive and non. The tri scene is big, but cyclocross is bigger (I raced 19 times over 15 weekends from September to December last year). Tons of running races around, swims, MTB trails all over the place. Also lots of other stuff that I don't know anything about but I recognize as fun. Canoe/kayak/rock climbing/skiing.

I'm lucky enough to live in Bellingham now. Hopefully you can make it up for some MTB or the Lake Padden or Lake Whatcom tris.

Good luck.

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Any run that doesn't include pooping in someone's front yard is a win.

Totally, which is what makes it such a great place to observe for housing and multi-modal strategies. Denver, Houston, Dallas and more can just vomit out in every direction, no geological features to stop them.

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36 kona qualifiers 2006-'23 - 3 Kona Podiums - 4 OA IM AG wins - 5 IM AG wins - 18 70.3 AG wins
I ka nana no a 'ike -- by observing, one learns | Kulia i ka nu'u -- strive for excellence
Garmin Glycogen Use App | Garmin Fat Use App