The Seattle Times did a nice summary of what the Seattle Real Estate Market has done in the last 5 years last week. When looking at these facts remember to look at the big picture, the value of real estate is constantly changing. We saw a big spike in value in 2007 and people are still comparing their property value to that year.
I do believe things are starting to turn around and get back to normal, whatever that is!
This weekend I took my boys to the Everett Imagine Children’s Museum. One gripe I have to get out-of-the-way, why do adults have to pay? Do you think I enjoy playing “bank” when I can do that in real life? Ok, I feel better!
The museum provides a safe environment for kids to play on an airplane, cafe, pet center, waterworks station, train set, all sorts of things. The glow in the dark room was pretty cool!
Downstairs there is a construction room and this time they had large foam blocks to build towers and things. This is where I saw the most kids stay in one area for any length of time and the kids worked together to build tall towers and then crash them down. It was really cool.
The other cool part is on weather appropriate days the rooftop playground is open. There is a fun play set, some music creating toys and the best part, a digging for fossils exhibit. There is ground up rubber bits and kids dig to find dinosaur bones and such. Really fun!
My guys are 6 years old and it was just barely worth it for us to go. I feel it’s better suited for younger kids but that’s my opinion. It was something to do on a gray winter day. You are allowed to bring in lunch and they have lots of tables downstairs to eat.
If you’ve never been, try it. Usually the museum is closed on Mondays and Thursdays is half price admission after 3:00. Keep in mind they close at 5:00pm everyday, don’t learn this the hard way like I did!
According to CNNMoney Bellevue, WA is the 4th best small city to live for 2010. That is not a typo 4th! They describe Bellevue as follows:
If forested cityscapes are your thing, this is your kind of place. Bellevue’s compact downtown bristles with new skyscrapers that seem to hover above Lake Washington — and when the clouds part, mountain views loom.Real estate isn’t a bargain, but the town’s jobless rate is more than two points below that of the Seattle metro area, thanks to a recent influx of jobs from such employers as Microsoft (which has moved 6,500 positions here), T-Mobile, Verizon, and Expedia. In fact, Bellevue has more jobs than it does residents.–Jessica Levine
The only other city in Washington to make the top 100 is Shoreline.
Well for the second year, ForbesWoman has crunched the numbers to determine the U.S. cities that offer the most to working moms.
To compile the list they began with the 50 largest metropolitan areas in the U.S. Safety, of course, is important, and great schools and health care also all play a part–but when it comes to quality of life for women, there are other issues to consider.
Seattle came in ninth in the report. Click here to read the report. I read this report and tried to think of what’s important to me as the husband of a working professional woman. It’s interesting to consider how we all have differing priorities on such issues. The Puget Sound area is changing quickly. More people, more traffic, greater stress on all levels.
What issues are important to you? We’d love to hear your thoughts.
Seattle Rattle Blog 
