Hi bigotuda,
I'm actually new to this forum as well, and was just about to post my own question about saving, when I saw your post, and since I live in Seattle I thought I'd offer some ideas.
Queen Anne is a nice area, fairly urban, upscale, with a lot of apartments, condos, houses, small parks, nice views, restaurants, coffee shops, grocery stores, etc. It is probably on the more expensive end of the scale, due to its location. I'd say yes, he could walk to work from there, depending on how far he is willing to walk and which part of QA you live in.
You also mentioned the bus, and that opens up a lot more options. Seattle has fairly good bus service for many parts of the city, and a number of buses pass through the South Lake Union area from other parts of the city. If you check out this map, there are many neighborhoods north of Lake Union (Wallingford, Ballard, Ravenna, Green Lake, Maple Leaf, Roosevelt), that are probably within a 30 minute bus ride (or bike commute) to/from South Lake Union.
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Seattle,+WA/@47.6626181,-122.3475788,13z/data=!4m2!3m1!1s0x5490102c93e83355:0x102565466944d59aI'd say all of those might be good options if you want to find a slightly less expensive apartment. There is also Magnolia, which is west of Queen Anne, and there is the East Lake neighborhood on the east side of Lake Union. If you like urban life and high rise apartments, there will probably also be many options around South Lake Union and in Belltown.
I haven't rented an apartment in many years, sounds like it can be competitive now (I live in a house in North Seattle).
If it were me, and if you have the time, I'd try AirBnB and rent a few places for a few days in different parts of town, to see how you like them. I'm actually doing this very thing right now in San Diego -- as I'd like to relocate here one day :)
Cheers and good luck