OfferUp user ratings of the friendliest places in the U.S. (OfferUp Graphic)

Greetings, new Seattle-area tech worker. Good news! You can take off the scarf and mittens — the “Seattle Freeze” is a myth!

Pacific Northwest newcomers taking jobs at Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, Google, this startup, that startup, Amazon, Amazon and Amazon, may have heard — somehow, but not by talking to a local! — that the locals can be a bit chilly. If that’s the case, let’s see if anyone is buying what OfferUp is selling in a new survey.

The online marketplace for buying and selling stuff released its 2019 Good Neighbor Report — just ahead of Saturday’s National Good Neighbor Day — to tell us that Seattle is the second friendliest city in the United States, trailing San Diego and outpacing Norfolk, Va., San Antonio, Texas, and Phoenix. Washington state ranks as the friendliest state, OfferUp found, followed by Arizona, Nevada, Hawaii and California.

Those of you from the Midwest who just coughed on all that neighborly charm you’ve been known to possess might be a little surprised by the results, especially if you’re having a hard time adjusting to more than Seattle’s fall weather.

(OfferUp Graphic)

But OfferUp says it surveyed more than 2,000 Americans, and nearly 80 percent of the users of the platform in the Seattle area were rated as “friendly” by those who they interacted with on the app over the past year. It doesn’t come across as especially scientific data, and it may seem hard to imagine that the person who just bought your used stuff super cheap is going to call you unfriendly on the app where your transaction originated.

But the survey did get to the heart of what it means to be a good neighbor, like whether we ever shake hands as a greeting, whether we intentionally avoid eye contact with neighbors outside, or if we’re even willing to lend a helping hand, among other things.

If you do believe in the “Seattle Freeze,” now you’ve got something worth talking to your neighbor about.

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