I’m considering potential employment in one of these two cities.
I have never been to either and while I will certainly do a lot of research I’d like to know what everyone here thinks.
What are the pros and cons of each city and if you had to decide, which would you pick?
My biggest piece of advice is to choose your home in the same city as you work in, or at least close. If you both live and work in Redmond, then your commute will be relatively trivial. If you live in Redmond and work in Seattle, your commute will be hellish, time-consuming, and expensive. (Tolls on the 520 bridge range from $5.00 to $7.50 per day, and they’re now planning to put similar tolls on the I-90 bridge.)
You could probably get more complete advice if you stated where your job is going to be.
Read your post a little more closely. My advice would be to pick Redmond. Seattle has more amenities regarding theater, entertainment, public transport, etc., but it’s big and, at least to me, way too crowded. And, at least according to the evening news, way more crime-ridden; I and my wife call the 5:00 PM TV news the “Seattle Body Count”. If you like living in a big city, Seattle would be it. If not, Redmond would be a much better choice.
BTW, whichever one you choose, I think you’re going to be very pleased. The Pacific Northwest is by far the most pleasant place to live I’ve ever seen. I and my wife both came from the Midwest, and you couldn’t drag us back there with wild horses.
See the thread currently running right here at IMHO: Seattle or Portland?
(And my advice is to pay very close attention to the many comments about the weather–it’s a serious issue.)
Redmond and Seattle will pretty much share the same weather, they’re only 20 miles apart.
Seattle is a medium-sized city. Redmond is a suburb of a medium-sized city.
Which one you should pick depends on whether or not you like suburban or city life. If you like big cities (NY, LA, Chicago), neither is probably for you.
If you live in Redmond, you will drive everywhere. Do not even think of living in Redmond and working in Seattle. The reverse commute is not that much better. If I had to choose, I would choose Seattle, but then I like to walk, use public transit, etc.
Whichever I chooses I’d live and work in the same place (2 possible job opportunities).
I’m kind of leaning twards living and working in Redmond because the park system looks so impressive, and visiting Seattle every once in a while.
A lot of Microsofties live around Redmond for the convenience, but I know a lot who live in Seattle.
Basically you should think of Redmond as the suburb, and Seattle as the city. Once you live in the east side, you aren’t going to hoof it into the city all that often, even if you intend to. Traffic around Seattle is OK, not terrible, but bad enough at times to dissuade travel.
As someone who has never lived in the pacific NW before, I think you’d be doing yourself a disservice by not experiencing Seattle for a short time before confining yourself to the suburbs.
My suggestion is to rent in Seattle proper for a year and then, if you want, buy a place in Redmond. You’ll learn the area, you’ll know the roads, you’ll see all the awesome places in the city, and then you’ll retire to east side feeling like more of a Seattle-area native.
I agree, it depends on if you prefer city living or suburbia. Redmond is more expensive now due to Microsoft, but there are other, less expensive options close by.
I live in south Bellevue. I am 15 minutes from downtown Seattle via I-90 and have a 20 minute “reverse” commute to Redmond. It’s perfect for my lifestyle.
If forced to choose between ONLY those two options, I would choose Redmond because it’s closer to my work, but I would be disappointed in being farther from the city.