Seattle, the next stop for tech workers
On a cozy afternoon, I walked from the Amazon office, passing the Pike Place Market where the mixed smell of fresh fish and marijuana smoke wafted. I found a park bench at the waterfront and sat down with a cup of Starbucks coffee and enjoyed the peach sunset over Puget Sound. It was a typical day living in Seattle.
Resting on the northwest shore with a less than three-hour drive to Canada, Seattle is best known not only for coffee but also its landmark, the Space Needle. It is also ranked as one of the top five best cities to live in the U.S. This Emerald City has been gaining more attention as one of the top choices when people consider moving.
Migration to the North
“I’m moving to Seattle because everything just becomes too expensive in the Bay Area,” said Mark, a friend who has lived in California for over four years. His salary might not be the highest, but it is still in the top 10 percent of the U.S. average income. Sadly, buying a single-family house in the Bay Area is still an unreachable dream to him.
There are indeed more job opportunities in the Northern California. Though, the soaring cost of living and overpriced homes are driving people further north — to Seattle.
What makes Seattle one of the best cities on the list? It is an ideal alternative for those who love the west coast. The temperature stays in a comfortable range, and it seldom snows. Nevertheless, it rains very often, if you don’t mind getting wet.
The best part of living in Seattle is that there is no income tax in Washington. As opposed to the higher average salary in California, people can have a higher after-tax income in Washington.
“Seattle came out on top as the city where the cost of living was low, but the salaries for tech industry workers are high,” reported by Business Insider.
A modern tech city
Among the Fortune 500 companies, there are eight companies that call Seattle home, including Amazon and Microsoft. Amazon built its online retail empire in Seattle downtown areas, while Microsoft occupied Redmond as its base. Together, they created 60,000 jobs, and the number will be doubled by 2020.
Those California-based tech giants cannot neglect this flourishing tech hub. Google, Facebook, and Apple are hustling to stretch their territories to Seattle. Google marched its army to the South Lake Union, just next to Amazon’s headquarters, employing 4,000 people. Facebook set foot in Seattle with almost 1,000 employees. Apple opened a new office for software development just last year.
New job openings not only welcome more tech workers but also attract new constructions of office buildings and condominiums. Unlike New York City, these buildings are new and shiny, pristine and neat. Of course, thanks to the high demand, house prices are skyrocketing. The rent of the apartment I used to live in grew from $1,600 to more than $2,000 a month. The town is booming.
A hotbed for innovation
In an accelerator demo day, the onstage founders of startups showed off their innovation and products, while hundreds of investors and venture capitalists listened to each presentation carefully to not miss the next billion-dollar idea. It was not Silicon Valley. It happened at one of the events hosted by Techstars, a Seattle-based accelerator. Each year, Techstars raises a dozen successful tech startups in Seattle.
World-famous accelerators such as 500 Startups and Y-Combinator also host training programs for startups in Seattle. With more resources pouring in, it wouldn’t be surprising to see these startups become the next Amazon.
An inviting home for tech workers
When I graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in 2012, most of my classmates chose the Bay Area as their top choice for work. However, with the rising tensions between great job opportunities and cost of living in recent years, many of them are considering moving. Silicon Valley has lost the throne of the best place to work.
Seattle holds the balance between great job opportunities and quality of living. People can work for a leading tech company, or start a business with plentiful resources in a complete startup ecosystem. In the meantime, they can still afford a house in a good neighborhood and enjoy a great cup of coffee at a random corner of the city. Seattle can be the next stop for tech workers, as long as they can bear more than 200 days of rain in a year.