The Blur of Belltown

You hear of the following situation all the time: Person 1 and Person 2 both live in the city of Seattle. Person 1 lives “Downtown” and person 2 lives in “Belltown”. Person 3 hops in the conversation and says he lives in Queen Anne. Sure, most everyone living in the city knowd that these areas are distinctly separated from one another, but what are the actual boundaries? Where does one end and the other begin? Belltown has some of the most varied opinions. Many say its southern border starts anywhere from Blanchard Street (my coworker), Virginia Street (Belltown.org), or Lenora (Zillow.com) to the mostly undisputed Denny Way bordering the north side. My point is, the lines are blurred. Some organizations or websites like Seattle.gov don’t even list Belltown as a choice for selecting a neighborhood map. It’s logical to assume that most out-of-towners are going to consider everything from Belltown to Denny Regrade to Pioneer Square (and everything in-between) is “downtown Seattle”. However, if you’re local to the city, or in my case (and other co-workers) are a licensed real estate agent, you have to know the difference. Yet, your directional understanding may not always be what your counterpart agency’s XYZ agent is. For example, after searching for the condominium building (without specifying neighborhood) Cristalla, a total of 9 listings showed up. Six of these listings were specified in the Belltown community, and three were under the downtown community. Many agents experience this issue, and it’s not limited to only these communities. The area known as Interbay, between Queen Anne and Magnolia and the area between Fremont and Ballard are both prime examples of similarly blurred boundaries. Although I couldn’t find definitive (nor harmonious) Belltown borders, it’s good to know that people are fairly forgiving if you ever slip up. For the record, the Ewing and Clark office is located on Western between Lenora and Blanchard, and we have always considered ourselves to be located in Belltown.