Issaquah/East Highlands Renton/Redmond OR Kennesaw, GA (Seattle, Bellevue: 2014, how much)

[modc]

What about the differences in culture between suburban Seattle vs suburban Atlanta? Do you care if your community is liberal or conservative? I'm not sure I would want to live and raise kids in a place where a lot of people have guns in their homes.

[HawaiitoKennesaw]

Originally Posted by perigee

Wow, a mother screwing over her own kid and grandchildren, just wow!

OP, I can see now why there is the urgency to move.

Coming from a high COL with a large family, I am sure you guys know your way around a budget, but if you think there might be a little more way to save, Mr. Money Mustache is a great community to look into. They run the gambit from people who are super frugal to those that say, back off the maid service is needed for the sake of the marriage.

As another poster mentioned $70k with your family size is doable, you might have to get creative with activities for the kids as those can really start to add up. The good news, the area is very geared towards families. The King County Library system has a variety of free programs and classes, from coding to movie night, to young authors. Google will lead you to even more free family activities.

Just be warned traffic is bad, so it's generally recommended to get a house as close as you can afford to your work place.

If I had to choose to raise a large family on $30k a year in a low COL or over double that here, I pick Seattle, even with the negatives.

Best of luck with your decision.

Yeah getting screwed over really sucks! Especially by your family. Thanks for sympathizing.

Yes, we definitely know our way around a budget for sure but thanks for the info on Mr. Money Mustache!

As far as traffic, I know people keep bringing it up but you have to understand that Hawaii has the worst traffic 2nd only to LA. There is no such thing as rush hour. It's Rush all day....everyday....even on the weekends! No joke. There are over a million people on this tiny island and everyone has somewhere to go!

[HawaiitoKennesaw]

Originally Posted by modc

What about the differences in culture between suburban Seattle vs suburban Atlanta? Do you care if your community is liberal or conservative? I'm not sure I would want to live and raise kids in a place where a lot of people have guns in their homes.

We don't really care if the community are liberals or conservatives. To each his own. Not really sure how we feel either way as most people in Hawaii could care less about such things. We're so far away from the mainland that no one really gives it much thought. But it is something to think about now for sure.
Thanks for making that point.

[kaday]

Originally Posted by HawaiitoKennesaw

We don't really care if the community are liberals or conservatives. To each his own. Not really sure how we feel either way as most people in Hawaii could care less about such things. We're so far away from the mainland that no one really gives it much thought. But it is something to think about now for sure.
Thanks for making that point.

Don't really need to worry about that. Atlanta specifically Cobb County is chuck full of transplants from everywhere especially the Northeast. It was traditional one of the most conservatives counties in the state but the years I lived there that shifted. There a little bit of everything.

[HawaiitoKennesaw]

Thank you everybody for all the info and input. I must say this is BY FAR the MOST help I have gotten and the friendliest bunch of folks! No one is arguing with each other and no one is scolding me about moving without a job (because I never said I would) So a BIG MAHALO (Thank You) to all of you!!

[noah]

I agree with this. Literally you will meet as many transplants as natives in Metro Atlanta.

Originally Posted by kaday

Don't really need to worry about that. Atlanta specifically Cobb County is chuck full of transplants from everywhere especially the Northeast. It was traditional one of the most conservatives counties in the state but the years I lived there that shifted. There a little bit of everything.

[HawaiitoKennesaw]

Originally Posted by misscross

FWIW our families (different sides) don't particularly love GA. The Hawaiian side hates GA they were lured there by low cost of living and feel stuck there. The white side left pacific northwest due to weather and cost but they were seeking a retirement situation where retiring in a cheap place is key.

those Seattle Eastside neighborhoods you mentioned (Issaquah, Sammamish, Redmond) are pricey because there are many who work in tech (high salaries) living there. If you don't work in tech, is there a compelling reason you need to be in those areas? As another poster said Lynnwood has Hawaiians and is cheaper, as are Edmonds and Shoreline.

FYI I feel sometimes the cost of housing is a big exaggerated on these forums like oh any decent house is $1mil which isn't true if you're willing to buy a bit smaller or older home. For example I just got notified of the Redfin listing below and it's a bit above $500k and on the Eastside just west of Redmond in Kirkland: https://www.redfin.com/WA/Kirkland/1...33/home/463080

Hello, I was wondering. What exactly about GA does the Hawaiian side hate? I get the being lured by the low cost of living for sure. But just wanting to know specifically what they don't like.

[Wheatridger]

Originally Posted by HawaiitoKennesaw

We don't really care if the community are liberals or conservatives. To each his own. Not really sure how we feel either way as most people in Hawaii could care less about such things. We're so far away from the mainland that no one really gives it much thought. But it is something to think about now for sure.
Thanks for making that point.

There's an old saying: "You may not care about politics, but politics cares about you." The quality and outlook of your elected leaders can and will affect the lives of you and your children. For example, are you prepared to buy your mandatory home gun, and live around the kind of folks who demand you keep one?

The politics of Washington and Georgia couldn't be more different. I have relatives around Kenesaw who are liberals, but they know how outnumbered they are. The city of Atlanta may be the most diverse and liberal place in the South, but it's still surrounded by deep red states on both sides. Just today from neighboring Alabama, I read of a state legislator who wants to make it illegal for food stamp recipients to own a car. If that doesn't make sense to you, a great deal of the public life of Georgia won't either. If you want to live in a recreation of the Old Testament, go on down there. If you're not sure of all that implies, I'd stay away.

Let me reinforce what others have said about Southern summers, and add that they last about five months. It's a subtropical climate, which might imply "not-quite-tropical," but actually the latitudes around 30 degrees tend to experience even hotter weather than the equatorial zones. Don't imagine you'll get by without air conditioning. No one else does, and no one will visit your home without it. The electric rates may be lower that HI, but you'll get very used to that low rumble in your home. In the last few years before I moved out of Tennessee, I tried to work and go out at night as much as possible, for half the year. Try visiting a local wet sauna, set to 100 degrees, and ponder this for an hour or so before you decide.

You should check crime rates, too. The South always reports a higher rate of violent crime than the rest of the country.

Instead of Atlanta, maybe some coastal Southern town like Columbia, SC, might offer some of Hawaii's pleasures at a lower cost. Don't know about job opportunities there, though.

[RotseCherut]

Originally Posted by Wheatridger

There's an old saying: "You may not care about politics, but politics cares about you." The quality and outlook of your elected leaders can and will affect the lives of you and your children. For example, are you prepared to buy your mandatory home gun, and live around the kind of folks who demand you keep one?

Oh geez Wheatridger, seriously?? Yeah, he should move to a less religious place with better weather, where the crime rates are lower, like New Jersey or Chicago, Illinois. Yeah, watch out for those crazy bible thumping conservatives, they will force you to own a gun at gunpoint.. Sure beats having a gun pointed to your face and being thrown in prison for 5 years for the crime of just owning a gun to defend yourself, in crime-ridden places like California, New York or New Jersey. BTW, Kennesaw's gun ownership law is more of publicity stunt and moral statement to defend our 2nd Amendment. I have yet to hear of anyone being cited for failing to comply with the law ($100 fine at worst) and most Georgian people are probably all too happy to follow it..

Have you checked Kennesaw's crime rate or crime rate of most of suburban Atlanta? Most of Atlanta's suburbs are lower or as low as any place in the more liberal, enlightened cities.

As far as the awful weather, the worst of it is in the summer time and many will put up with living in a house with central Air conditioning for a few months than having to dig their way out of mounds of snow and freezing to death in miserable wind chills and blizzards that may be dumping for 4-5 months of the year like in much of the Midwest or Northeast. As far as costs, I paid $400 to heat my 1600 sq ft house in the month of January in Seattle. Good luck beating a bill like that in the worst month of heat in Georgia.

Poor food stamp recipients , our tax money pays for their food, so why should they have the luxury of buying a car? If they can own a car, they can probably pay for their own food. I personally don't support the law banning cars for food stamp recipients, rather I support law banning food stamps period.

Anyhooo..

Most of the violent crime you will see in the South is in ethnically segregated areas, which is unfortunate. However, the violent crime rate in the South is decreasing significantly, as those once segregated neighborhoods are becoming gentrified and the economy of many Southern cities are booming. In fact, the worst amount of violent crime in the nation seems to be now centered in the Midwest and Northeast. Places like St. Louis, Kansas City, Chicago, Detroit, Camden, Baltimore, etc are literally war zones and have double, tripe or quadruple the crime rates of many of the worst cities in the South.

The only thing I will say about Wheatridger's comment that I agree with is that politics should concern you. Make sure the government is not trying to stick their nose into your personal freedoms and liberties. You should not have to have your tax money redistributed to the crackheads down the street so they can get their food stamps and free government paid housing while they get high all day on your dime. You should not have your 2nd Amendment rights infringed and have the government telling you what guns you are allowed to own and that you have not the right to defend yourself and your loved ones, despite the fact that your average criminal is armed to the teeth. And, once again, you should have the right to worship or not worship any G-d you want , as long as that belief does not result in you harming the freedoms and liberties of another human being.

Yes, it's good to be concerned about politics, because you cannot trust any damn politician. Hence why we have a Constitution.

[Seacove]

Agree with Wheatridger here but there are people that love the South like Rotse obviously does.