The Usual Suspects: Seattle's 3 urban nesting grounds

So, where do wanna-be yuppies who can't afford to breed in downtown Seattle start looking for nests? We're on the hunt for a new home after (sadly) discovering that it is impossible for a family to live in Seattle's downtown.

General loacation requirements:

• Within 2.5-mile radius around Space Needle
• Within walking distance of at least one coffee shop, one restaurant and one grocery store. Bar is bonus

This pretty much narrows our search to these usual suspects:

Queen Anne
It's very difficult to accept the fact that this might be our perfect nest. Just feels too Volvo-y. But we need to face facts - QA is perfectly located and has a lot of gorgeous little (expensive!) homes. And we could still walk to a Macrina. And we don't have to live on top of the hill. Somehow, staying low makes us feel we can live in QA and retain our street credibility. (Of course, admitting that we've looked at homes in Magnolia kinda blows that credibility away, no?)

Capitol Hill
We'll use Capitol Hill to encompass everything from Volunteer Park to 1st Hill and Madison. Lots of diversity in those areas but the areas with homes for sale are mostly similiar and share Cap Hill's attributes: the highest prices around, proximity to downtown, unique homes and its own neighborhoods and business cores. Even with all this, Cap Hill's yuppie hoods aren't the slam-dunk choice they used to be. Overpricing and decay around areas like Broadway make the area less attractive. But as long as lots of people read that and say 'Good. Glad you don't like it. Let us have it!' the family home areas of Capitol Hill will be in high demand. We want to be there mainly because that is where our friends are and we kinda dig false bohemia. Groovy. But maybe our friends will move to QA to be where we are.

Magnolia
We're not sure why more people don't talk about Magnolia as an option for young, family-raising types. Strip away the urban grit and false bohemia of Capitol Hill and you'll get Magnolia -- near downtown, filled with a mix of very expensive and some relatively affordable houses and replete with its own little retail core. Magnolians refer to this area as 'The Village' and there aren't any smack dealers -- so the Capitol Hill comparison is a bit of a stretch, but you get the idea.

There are a few options outside this immediate ring of potential nesting grounds -- but no sense insulting those places until we actually are thinking about living there :)