Is the economy in Seattle (especially IT field) as bad as many other parts of the country?

I'm planning on moving to Seattle within the next couple of years and was wondering if the economy has been profoundly affected. Has the housing prices changed?Is the economy in Seattle (especially IT field) as bad as many other parts of the country?
Yeah, it is... jobs are tight here, but it's not as bad as California. The whole reason I moved back up here was because I lost work down there...



There's a lot of tech work up here with companies like Microsoft and Real and all those guys, but then, Microsoft laid off thousands of people a few months ago, so competition is gonna be fierce. I'd make sure that you have the job set in stone before you move.



Housing and rental prices here have fallen somewhat. The place I'm in here costs $1095/mo (really nice, 1000 sq/ft remodeled 2-bed with a palatial living room in Maple Leaf with a huge deck), but we're probably gonna move again this summer because prices fell a couple hundred bucks or so per month.Is the economy in Seattle (especially IT field) as bad as many other parts of the country?
The economy is down, but not nearly as much as some areas of the country. Housing is down, but not nearly as much as elsewhere.



One of the big things protecting the economy is the Boeing and aerospace industry in the region. Aerospace tends to trail the economy by 2-3 years, so the industry is just now starting to feel the pinch of the economy. It just takes a while for the slow down in the economy to translate into less people on airplanes, then translate into less airlines buying new planes. The downside is that its likely that the area hasn't seen the worst of the economy yet. Aerospace is also slow to recover when the economy goes back up, because after a big downturn, airlines need 2-3 good years before they can afford to start buying new planes again.



As for IT, its down, but not as bad as many industries in many areas. Microsoft had some layoffs, but they amounted to only a very small fraction of total employees. The thing about IT is that there are tons of companies across all industries that hire a few IT people. If those companies are hurting, they're more likely to squeeze the IT department and hold off on technology upgrades.