Cost and Living for new immigrants (Seattle, Bellevue: sales, apartment, lease)

[sabgo]

Hi all

we are a family of four moving from the Netherlands Europe to probably Redmond (Wa). We have a job offer and are trying to determine whether the base compensation is sufficient for our standard of living. we need some help to determine costs for a family of four (two kids aged 5 and 6). We are planning to rent a home and would like to know the average costs for the following per month:

- cost of water
- cost of electricity/Gas
- Garbage
- TV
- Internet
- cost of taxes related to the house when you are renting
- other taxes which you need to pay (which are not automatically deducted from your salary but need to come from your net income)
- school for the kids

Of course it all depends on what type of home, square feet etc. But an estimation would be nice.

Any suggestions regarding quality public schools for our children are of course very welcome but maybe we should start a separate post for that?

Furthermore we are trying to get a feel for monthly expenses related to the following categories which might be more expensive for us as we are new immigrants
- insurances (car, house, liability, travel etc)
- car lease or maybe we should buy second hand

All the help is welcome... we are very excited about our move to Redmond but need additional information to make this a substantiated choice. Also please let us know if we are forgetting any important cost categories besides rent and health (which will partly be covered by the benefits as included in the job offer).

Thanks in advance

[flyingsaucermom]

Too many questions for me Many of these questions have already been answered, but you'll need to search...

Let's just say:

If you are working at Microsoft and bringing home a base salary of around $150k then you will do perfectly fine.

[sabgo]

Hy Flying Saucer Mom,

thank you for you answer. I know! loads of questions.. We feel excited and are literally ' new immigrants '

I have googled the forum and yes there are some answers out there but some of these date back to 2011. Not sure if it makes sense to use these as a reference point.

answers to some of the questions would already help :-)

by the way are you telepathic ;-)

thanks again for answering us

[flyingsaucermom]

Originally Posted by sabgo

Hy Flying Saucer Mom,

thank you for you answer. I know! loads of questions.. We feel excited and are literally ' new immigrants '

I have googled the forum and yes there are some answers out there but some of these date back to 2011. Not sure if it makes sense to use these as a reference point.

answers to some of the questions would already help :-)

by the way are you telepathic ;-)

thanks again for answering us

Schools, neighborhoods, traffic patterns are all the same with the exception that 520 became a toll road.

Rents have increased... substantially, I'm told....

As for the telepathy... well, as we sometimes say in this country: "been there, done that" and "it takes one to know one".

[CrazyDonkey]

I can only speak in generalities...

The primary variable is housing costs, which are spiking in the Seattle-Bellevue area due to a very hot tech job sector. The general rule is that if you live close-in, you will pay more for less, while if you live further out, you will pay less for more, BUT will spend more, in time and money, on transportation. With four of you, I'd suggest you look further out (but still within decent commuting distance) - Bothell, Woodinville, Cottage Lake, Duvall, Carnation, Snoqualmie, Fall City, Issaquah, etc. For a shorter commute, check Redmond, Bellevue, Newcastle, Kirkland. For those areas, check Zillow or Redfin for house prices and Craigslist for rents, and you should have a good idea of what your housing costs will be.

Despite all the complaining here, most other things should be cheaper here. Taxes are lower. Utilities and gas are a LOT cheaper. Cable, high-speed internet, and mobile can be more expensive. Healthcare can be significantly more expensive. Private schools are expensive, but public schools can be very good, or very bad, depending on the area. Of the areas I listed, Bellevue, Kirkland, Bothell, and Issaquah all have very good schools (and none are "bad").

[bluefeather1978]

we are recent immigrants from not so long ago ourselves.. so I will pay forward all the help I got from the forum

we live in a 3000 sqft SFH we bought last year in Issaquah. Family of 4 - 2 boys, aged 3.5 years, one going to Issaquah school district preschool and another to a private preschool. Here are our expenses and what could be relevant to your situation

Rent - we paid $ 2200 for a 1450 sqft apartment in Bellevue before we bought the house. the rent generally varies widely based on time of year you start your lease. The same apartment we rented was going for as low as $1800 in the winter

Utilities - expect to pay ~ 100 for water, trash+ sewer living in an apartment. Its actually much cheaper for us now with ~ $50 and we are billed bimonthly

Water - ~ 30 per month (billed bi-monthly)

Electricity + Gas - we are paying $300 combined in winter- we expect it to go down to ~ 150 in the summer

Cell phone for 2 of us (non contract, monthly billing) is ~ 100

Comcast for internet without TV is ~$ 50

There is a great infrastructure for car loan/home loan for new immigrants with First tech credit union, which I believe MS employees have access to. We had no credit history but were extended a 30 K car loan the month we landed here at 3.7 % interest ! and a home loan shortly thereafter (we still did not have a credit history).

Hope this helps..

[Gardyloo]

Originally Posted by sabgo

Hi all

we are a family of four moving from the Netherlands Europe to probably Redmond (Wa). We have a job offer and are trying to determine whether the base compensation is sufficient for our standard of living. we need some help to determine costs for a family of four (two kids aged 5 and 6). We are planning to rent a home and would like to know the average costs for the following per month:

- cost of water
- cost of electricity/Gas
- Garbage
- TV
- Internet
- cost of taxes related to the house when you are renting
- other taxes which you need to pay (which are not automatically deducted from your salary but need to come from your net income)
- school for the kids

Of course it all depends on what type of home, square feet etc. But an estimation would be nice.

Any suggestions regarding quality public schools for our children are of course very welcome but maybe we should start a separate post for that?

Furthermore we are trying to get a feel for monthly expenses related to the following categories which might be more expensive for us as we are new immigrants
- insurances (car, house, liability, travel etc)
- car lease or maybe we should buy second hand

All the help is welcome... we are very excited about our move to Redmond but need additional information to make this a substantiated choice. Also please let us know if we are forgetting any important cost categories besides rent and health (which will partly be covered by the benefits as included in the job offer).

Thanks in advance

Prices vary from one jurisdiction to another; for example here in the city of Seattle electricity is provided by a public utility; in other areas electricity is provided by a (regulated) private company.

For Seattle, an older 3-bedroom but not terribly large house, prices are like this...

- cost of water - Combination utility bill covers water, sewer, solid waste, recycling - approximately $150 per month. Water is metered, solid waste depends on the size of containers required.

- cost of electricity/Gas - Many homes use gas for heat but electricity for hot water; my year-round average is approximately $125 per month for electricity and $75 per month for natural gas (cooking and heating.) Obviously higher in the winter, very low in summer.

- Garbage - included with water/sewer, above

- TV - Totally depends on selection of programming options - premium channels, etc. Basic cable can be anywhere from $40 per month up to $150+ depending on options. (See internet below.)

- Internet - Often bundled with cable TV; my premium package (top of the line, high mbps plus most premium cable channels and VOIP) runs around $200 per month, but I'm going to reduce that soon.

- cost of taxes related to the house when you are renting - None, built into your rent.

- other taxes which you need to pay (which are not automatically deducted from your salary but need to come from your net income) - Local sales tax (billed separately not like VAT built into prices) - 9.4% to 9.75% depending on location (varies by city.) Not charged on most food items, or some services (e.g. medical.) Washington has no state income tax, unlike most other states.

- school for the kids - Public school is free, private school fees can be very very high - up to $20,000 per year.

- insurances (car, house, liability, travel etc) - Renters' insurance is fairly reasonable, car insurance is highly variable depending on the level of coverage required, age and make of the car, ages and driving records of the drivers, etc. I can't compare it to the Netherlands, but my rates are very comparable with friends who live in the UK. I'd probably budget something like $100 - $200 per month for average drivers, but that could be off.

- car lease or maybe we should buy second hand - It's all in the numbers. Generally car ownership in the US costs considerably less than in Europe, factoring in the cost of the car, fuel, maintenance and repairs, etc.

Hope this helps.

[sabgo]

Dear all,

it has been a while since I checked in here but this has all been a great help! Just the info I need and all listed by you in this great forum!

thanks a lot and I hope to return the favour to others in the future

[crf450ish]

Originally Posted by sabgo

Hi all

we are a family of four moving from the Netherlands Europe to probably Redmond (Wa). We have a job offer and are trying to determine whether the base compensation is sufficient for our standard of living. we need some help to determine costs for a family of four (two kids aged 5 and 6). We are planning to rent a home and would like to know the average costs for the following per month:

- cost of water
- cost of electricity/Gas
- Garbage
- TV
- Internet
- cost of taxes related to the house when you are renting
- other taxes which you need to pay (which are not automatically deducted from your salary but need to come from your net income)
- school for the kids

Of course it all depends on what type of home, square feet etc. But an estimation would be nice.

Any suggestions regarding quality public schools for our children are of course very welcome but maybe we should start a separate post for that?

Furthermore we are trying to get a feel for monthly expenses related to the following categories which might be more expensive for us as we are new immigrants
- insurances (car, house, liability, travel etc)
- car lease or maybe we should buy second hand

All the help is welcome... we are very excited about our move to Redmond but need additional information to make this a substantiated choice. Also please let us know if we are forgetting any important cost categories besides rent and health (which will partly be covered by the benefits as included in the job offer).

Thanks in advance

don't move to king county unless you make a minimum of $100k a year....

[RVD90277]

here's my take:

- cost of water
$75

- cost of electricity/Gas
$150

- Garbage
$50

- TV
$75

- Internet
$50

- cost of taxes related to the house when you are renting
(included in rent)

- other taxes which you need to pay (which are not automatically deducted from your salary but need to come from your net income)
(just sales tax which is something like 9.5% of whatever you buy)

- school for the kids
public school is free

- insurances (car, house, liability, travel etc)
$150

- car lease or maybe we should buy second hand
$400

rent for a house: $3000

As others have said, if you have a base salary of...

<$100k: don't move here
$100k-$125k: tough but you'll need a strict budget, some penny pinching, etc.
$125k-$175k: should be ok with minimal penny pinching
>$175k: you'll be fine, can save for retirement, etc.

in general, i think it's much cheaper here than europe but the USD is pretty strong these days so maybe that has changed a little bit.