{"id":505481,"date":"2026-10-23T15:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-23T15:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505481\/"},"modified":"2026-10-23T15:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-23T15:54:09","slug":"i-lived-in-seattle-for-a-month-to-see-if-i-wanted-to-move-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/505481\/","title":{"rendered":"I Lived in Seattle for a Month to See If I Wanted to Move There"},"content":{"rendered":"

After 18 years of living in San Francisco<\/a>, I was seriously starting to consider moving.<\/p>\n

I loved the life I had built there, but taking the next step \u2014 like buying my own house with a yard \u2014 felt out of reach for me. However, I was afraid I would regret leaving the place I had called home for so many years.<\/p>\n

When thinking of places I’d like to live, Seattle immediately came to mind. I figured the city would offer similar energy and career opportunities as San Francisco<\/a>, and I loved its proximity to striking natural beauty.<\/p>\n

Plus, I’d visited the West Coast city<\/a> many times and had a good friend who lived there, so it seemed like a logical move. But instead of taking the leap immediately, I decided to test out living in the city for a month to make sure it was the right fit for me.<\/p>\n

Through HomeExchange, a platform that allows users to swap homes<\/a> with people from around the world, I traded my Noe Valley condo for a house with a yard in the Ballard neighborhood of Seattle for the month of July.<\/p>\n

I got to experience Seattle as a local instead of a tourist<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

It was interesting being able to experience the city as a local would.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heather Snow<\/p>\n

Although I’d visited Seattle<\/a> many times over the years, this was my first chance to test everyday life there with my dog, Pepper \u2014 not just experience the city as a tourist.<\/p>\n

I worked remotely, went grocery shopping<\/a>, and checked out the Ballard Farmers Market on Sundays. Pepper and I explored different parks on morning walks and went to local breweries in the evenings.<\/p>\n

I really prioritized spending time in Ballard, since that was the neighborhood I was most interested in possibly calling home. I loved that the residential parts were filled with single-family homes on tree-lined streets, but the location was also walkable to a historic core filled with shops, restaurants, and bars.<\/p>\n

It felt like it could be the perfect combination of having a home with a yard in a residential neighborhood, while still having the city life and walkability I loved in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

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\"A<\/p>\n

I mostly spent time in the walkable Ballard neighborhood.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heather Snow<\/p>\n

However, staying for a month also allowed me to experience some of the pain points I’d deal with as a local.<\/p>\n

For example, although I found Ballard incredibly walkable, once I left the neighborhood, Seattle as a whole felt much more spread out and suburban than San Francisco. I found myself driving and sitting in traffic more than I’m used to.<\/p>\n

One night, I was invited to go to my friend’s house for dinner. What I thought would be a quick, 30-minute drive turned into a 55-minute headache in rush-hour traffic. In this moment, I realized moving around the city would require more planning than I initially expected.<\/p>\n

Having Pepper with me also gave me insights into dog regulations that I never would have noticed on vacation. Although Seattle is a very dog-friendly city, I found there are more restrictions around water access and off-leash areas than I ever would have known about as a tourist.<\/p>\n

I’m used to letting Pepper run off-leash in the sand at Fort Funston in San Francisco, but I found that most sandy beaches in Seattle don’t allow dogs. Luckily, she was still able to sunbathe and people-watch from the yard of the house we were staying in.<\/p>\n

The house swap helped me figure out what I want from a permanent home<\/p>\n

\"Heather<\/p>\n

Even though Seattle isn’t for me, it helped me figure out what I want next.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Heather Snow<\/p>\n

Having someone stay in my home gave me insight into what she loved about it, and it made me appreciate what I already had.<\/p>\n

The woman I traded homes with mentioned that many of my neighbors greeted her and that people were friendly on her daily dog walks in Noe Valley. I wasn’t surprised that she felt this way. After all, the community in my neighborhood is one of my favorite things about San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Spending time away gave me clarity on what I value in the home I already have, and some perspective on what I want in my next home.<\/p>\n

A month in Seattle made it clear that the city is not my place. It also confirmed that I wanted some things that are out of reach for me in San Francisco because of the cost of housing, like a house with a yard.<\/p>\n

Ideally, I’d like to find a place that combines the best parts of both cities: affordability, a walkable neighborhood<\/a> with a sense of community, and natural beauty. I also realized that avoiding heavy traffic and crowds may mean looking beyond major cities.<\/p>\n

Thankfully, trading homes was a relatively low-cost, low-risk way to test a major life decision like moving. Before making an expensive move, I was able to refine my list of what I want in my next home, and what I don’t.<\/p>\n

For now, I’m still searching for my new city, but my vision of what the next chapter will look like is much clearer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After 18 years of living in San Francisco, I was seriously starting to consider moving. I loved the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":505482,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[195363,1409,2899,1073,9172,3906,45707,290,30637,1410,101,103,102,7853,104,106,105,58476,1539,72],"class_list":["post-505481","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-ballard-neighborhood","tag-city","tag-dog","tag-home","tag-house","tag-month","tag-natural-beauty","tag-neighborhood","tag-pepper","tag-place","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-seattle","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-spending-time","tag-yard","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505481","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=505481"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/505481\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/505482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=505481"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=505481"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=505481"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}