So, how did you end up in Western Washington?
Was it a conscious choice that seemed like a good idea at the time, was it something involuntary like a job transfer, or are you a native?
It'd be interesting to hear people's stories about how they came to be in the Seattle area and at what point they realized that living here was not for them.
(Coming back to this). In my case, embarrassingly enough, it was a conscious choice. I moved here from a higher (that's right) cost of living area (not California, however) and though that I was making a pretty good choice given that I could ostensibly get more for my money for a home here and, overall, I had only heard positive things about Seattle.
Of course, I hadn't factored in the shoddy construction common to the Seattle metro area or the fact that one of the reasons there is so much positive press about Seattle stems from the fact that there was always a city-booster campaign designed to draw industry and an educated workforce to the area to keep its precarious economy afloat.
Then, of course, once you find that Seattle is overrated and has its share of annoying problems, stating your opinion about that mostly generates passive-aggressive arguments (note for the newcomers: when a Seattleite asks a question and states "just curious" it means they completely disagree and the conversation will increment into a low key debate; expect at some point they will engage in an ad hominem attack toward you whilst you're merely talking about Seattle and not them personally).
Despite all of the warning signs during my first year here, I was determined to follow up on my plan and purchased a home. Then, as luck would have it, the economy took a turn for the worse and the housing market fell. Hence, here I am, patiently waiting for a more auspicious time to sell the house and move.
I think one of the reasons I take the opportunity to opine about Seattle's shortcomings is to warn away others. Had I been presented with more information, I'd have maybe chosen another city (or maybe not; it's hard to convince someone who's determined to move that they are making a mistake) over this one.
I find it best (on a daily basis) not to dwell on how much I dislike living in the Seattle area, but every once in a while it's good to vent.
I'm not even sure which city I'd like better. Many places are nice to visit (Seattle, in fact, didn't appear too bad when I was just visiting -- living and working here, however, is another story). As far as moving back to where I came from: their housing market has actually sustained a little better than Seattle's -- so, not getting much of a break there, while taking a loss here makes it sort of unappealing.