Situated 10 miles northeast of Seattle, smack dab between the Cascade Mountains and the majestic Puget Sound, sits the booming little city of Redmond, Washington. A popular residential destination for young urbanites, married couples, and families alike, Redmond boasts some of Washington’s most attractive and luxurious apartments for rent. Sound like your cup of tea? Of course it does! But before you pack your bags and head for the Pacific Northwest in search of your dream dwellings, there a few things we thought you might like to know about life in Redmond to make your apartment search as seamless as possible…
One of the niftiest aspects of living in Redmond is that the city’s local economy is among the strongest in the Puget Sound region
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Situated 10 miles northeast of Seattle, smack dab between the Cascade Mountains and the majestic Puget Sound, sits the booming little city of Redmond, Washington. A popular residential destination for young urbanites, married couples, and families alike, Redmond boasts some of Washington’s most attractive and luxurious apartments for rent. Sound like your cup of tea? Of course it does! But before you pack your bags and head for the Pacific Northwest in search of your dream dwellings, there a few things we thought you might like to know about life in Redmond to make your apartment search as seamless as possible…
One of the niftiest aspects of living in Redmond is that the city’s local economy is among the strongest in the Puget Sound region. Redmond is a city of well-paid technology workers, many of which are employed at the 8,000 square foot Microsoft Corporation headquarters (which employs 40,000-plus techies). Other major players in the tech industry, including Nintendo of America, Concur Technologies, Solstice, and Wild Tangent, are headquartered in the city as well. With an unemployment rate of barely 7% and a wide range of employment opportunities, Redmond is a city whose tenants rarely have a problem bucking up for their monthly rent and saving a buck or two in the process as well.
Another cool thing about living in Redmond is that you’ll rarely run out of things to do, no matter if you’re an early bird or a night owl. Within Redmond’s city limits you can find more than a thousand acres of public park space, nearly 20 miles of hiking, biking, and equestrian trails, a velodrome, tons of unique shopping destinations, and a wide variety of live music venues, clubs, corner pubs, and other after-hours hotspots. Plus, with Seattle a mere 15-minute trek away, you’ll find no shortage of culture and excitement while living on the Eastside.
Let’s not kid ourselves: What really matters to most of us isn’t how much our apartment costs, or how to entertain ourselves after the sun’s gone down, but how nice the weather is on a daily basis. Luckily, the climate in Redmond is about as good as it gets in inland America. Sure, you’ll come across more than a few gray and cloudy days between October and May, but the summer months in Redmond are postcard-perfect. Even in the winter months you can usually get by with nothing but a sweater. What this really boils down to for renters is that they don’t have to worry about setting aside too many extra greenbacks for heating and cooling costs.
Another reason Redmond continues to attract new residents (the city’s population has mushroomed 10% in the past decade and continues to grow) is that there aren’t any red-flag danger zones that residents should avoid at all costs. Crime is rare (but not unheard of, obviously), so whether you’re targeting an apartment in Bear Creek, Grass Lawn, Rose Hill (even the names sound pleasantly suburban, don’t they?) or anywhere else in Redmond, you won’t have to worry too much about getting robbed, mugged, accosted, harassed, or lashed ten times with a wet noodle (which happens in some cities, you know).
Apartments, meanwhile, are tremendously easy to come by and waiting lists are extraordinarily rare, giving renters the luxury of scouring the market leisurely and thoroughly for the best deals. New units, especially in and around the Overlake Village business center and near the Microsoft building just north of the Bellevue border, continue to sprout up each year. State-of-the-art amenities (modern kitchens, patios, spacious floor plans, community playgrounds, pools, business centers, etc) are standard fare at most complexes. A few pads even feature pet parks (finding a pet-friendly apartment is super easy in Redmond), private ponds, and complimentary public transportation to Microsoft, Nintendo, etc. In other words, living in a Redmond apartment equates to living it up in the lap of luxury.
Unsurprisingly for such a modern and affluent city, Redmond apartments often come with a steep price tag attached to them. Most 1BR crash pads go for at least a grand and spacious 2-3BR family units typically cost no less than $1500. The city’s cost of living index, which factors the cost of necessities like groceries, gasoline, and utilities, is nearly 50% (nope, not a typo!) higher than the national average. The good news, of course, is that since Redmond residents tend to make small fortunes in the tech industry, they don’t exactly have to pinch pennies to make ends meet anyway.
Every rose has its thorn, as the old saying goes, and Redmond’s thorn comes courtesy of a maddening amount of daily traffic on the roadways. Downtown Seattle may be a measly 18 miles away, but it’s common, during rush hour, for the journey to take up to 2 hours (again, not a typo!). Luckily, city officials are taking measures to improve the flow of traffic (including expanding the SR-520 highway and bridge and developing a light rail system from Seattle to Redmond), so an end to your gridlock nightmares is in sight. For now, though, you’ll have to grin and bear the ungodly congestion (which is a small price to pay for living in such an über-pleasant community!) that plagues Redmond.
And now that we’ve got all the basics covered, let’s get down to business and scour the listings for the perfect apartment! Best of luck, welcome to Redmond, and happy hunting!
