Is this a realistic budget for Seattle area?

[wannabeaTexan]

Originally Posted by azoria

Seattle isn't as class conscious as DFW. People here don't seem to get the same joy out of flaunting their leveraged lifestyles. Hundreds of square miles of McMansions don't exist here. Don't see the gaudy cars--the pimped Lincoln Navigators and Excursions and cherried Mustang convertibles. Seattle is much lower key.

I think this is true...only spent 3 days in Dallas last summer and I saw more higher end vehicles on the freeways at one time than I ever do here.

[texastrigirl]

txex94, didn't mean to ignore you. Just been busy. We live in Sammamish near Pine Lake just a few miles off of I-90. Main cross streets are 228th and Issaquah Pine Lake RD. Plenty of houses in the 650-750 range with tons of kids running around. You should have seen the end of the school year BBQ at our house tonight. About 12 kids roasting marshmallows over our fire pit lovin' life. Our kids go to Sunny Hills Elementary (ISD) and we find it compares very well with our grade school in Austin. In our area off of 212th and Issaquah Pine Lake Rd, there are a few great neighborhoods infested with kids. Our neighborhood is older but it was what we could afford and houses rarely come up for sale here for some reason. I like Pine Lake Estates at 212th and SE 34th or Pennington right there as well. Farther out on the other side of Sammamish you have a new neighborhood like you would be used to in McKinney called the The Trossachs and also an older one that I love called High Country. All in great schools. You will be in great company out there...lots of TXEXes running around. My husband is McCombs 98 grad and he goes to UT get togethers frequently. You see lots of Longhorn stickers on the Eastside as many work at Microsoft. We get together all the time and talk about how much we miss Chuy's. You can DM me and I will give you more info if needed.

[texastrigirl]

And for any other Texans moving to the Eastside, generally there are not huge subdivisions like you are used to. There are a few (Trossachs, Klahanie, Iss Highlands) but generally subdivisions are smaller. Ours only has 57 houses in the HOA and that is common as it is hard for developers to get permits for large blocks of land.

[kattwoman2]

LOL! I'm a Texas girl by birth (Galveston Island anyone?) and I think it's sort of funny how all my relatives wanted to move to Texas in the 80's and now 20 years later a lot of them want to head back to Washington. I will be living around the Kirland area.