News, Your salary is $46,075? You can't afford to live in Seattle. (Tacoma: how much, new home)

[ST CRoix To Seattle]

we were making 120k+ DINK when we moved here earlier this year,right now by choice about 60k and we pay our mortgage 1700 plus apt 750.00 and are doing just fine.I have the summer off but when I go back to work my income will be a lot smaller and the wife plans to change jobs for a 40k position working 4 days a week.We moved here to get our cost of living down and have no intention of ever needing 120k again to pay bills as we did for the last few years.Go Seattle we love it here!

[jinj]

The cost of living goes up every year in Seattle because the residents keep voting 'yes' on all tax increases. Voting yes on a sales tax issue, increases all costs including rent.

fyi, the sale tax in Seattle is 9.0% on regular purchases and 9.5% at food/drink places. This will probably increase to over 10% in November when they vote yes on the terrible sound transit idea, that might be be finished in 2030.

[70Ford]

Nickels anounces Seattle $145 million housing levy proposal

Hrmmm....interesting concept... helping someone afford housing in a place where they can not normally afford housing. Seems to be a lot of that going around these days....in Vegas, Florida, and California.

[garfield206]

Yeah houses here are expensive but you can still get apartments rental houses.

Also when they say one house they include the houses that are rented into 4 homes as one so that is actually only like 100,000 a home.

[yukiko11]

Living within your income is possible, but you have set your priorities.

Mine was to own my own home so I do. In the time I have owned this home bought in 1992 my income was right at that 46K level, went down to 30K and over 10 years climbed to a little over the starting point. In my case, I do not have children, but I think the same considerations would apply to anyone trying to set their priorities.

What don't I do

Visit nail and hair salons
Belong to the local gym
Buy new clothes every season
Buy designer anything to impress others
Wear expensive jewelry
Go out to restuarants, bars, the movies, baseball games, casinos on my own dime. Buy $200 worth of fireworks on the 4th of July. Buy CD's, movies or download music from the internet.
Take vacations requiring flying, cruising or resort stays
Pay for high speed dial up internet
Pay for a fancy cell phone
Give expensive Christmas gifts
Put anything on my credit card that I cannot afford to pay off at the end of the month.

What I actually do instead

I do my own nails and have my hair cut once a year
I mow my own lawn (1/2 acre) and walk 1/2 mile to the state park to keep fit
I stick to classic styles and replace worn clothing articles, but stay away from trends. I buy summer play clothes off season and put them away for next year.
I shop for handbags, and accessories at 2nd hand stores.
I don't wear any jewelry at work except a watch or items received as gifts.
I occasional invite friends to my home to have a meal and watch a rented movie, I play on line poker and other games for free, I watch baseball on TV. I blog on this site. I go to concerts in the park and local street fairs and festivals. I watch my neighbors fireworks on the 4th of July. I listen to the radio.
I send my best friend in California a check for $350 every Xmas. She can use it to buy what pleases her or buy an airline ticket to visit me. She usually comes to visit. We go out and have fun, but have never spent more than $2-300 for the whole week because we are like family and enjoying each others company
I use regular dial up. Unless you are working from home on a network which your employer should pay for, I don't see the need for speed. Being on the internet is what you do when you have nothing else to do. You have time.
I keep a prepaid cell phone in my car for emergency purposes.because I live in a rural area It coses me $30/for 6 months and even if you run out of $$ calling 911 is always available. I share a long distance 800 number with my best friend. We can talk for 10 cents a minute and we take turns funding it. About $300/yr We limit our calls to about 3 times a month but don't feel guilty talking for 2 hours.
One of the best gifts I ever received was on my 50th birthday. One of my friends gave me a plastic box with a label that "50 great things about (me)" Inside were 50 small pieces of paper like the fortune in a fortune cookie. Each one said something about me that they liked. I do the same thing. I try to be thoughtful instead of over the top. Instead of buying myself a gift, I decide what I would want and donate that much in toys to the local food bank.
A credit card is nothing but an empty purse full of somebody else's money. I use mine to purchase everything to get the points that I can spend on gifts or items I want but wouldn't ordinarily buy myself, but I have a budget and I never overspend it. If I have an emergency, I re-work my budget for the next several months so see what I can cut to pay off the extra expense as soon as possible.


I am not living your life, only mine, but if you really sat down and decided what is really important to you and your family and arranged your life accordingly, you would be surpised what you can afford.

[Casportsfan]

Originally Posted by azoria

I read that article and it said that the typical Seattle home is now worth $440,000. Yeowza. Not very affordable.

Whether or not taxpayers should subsidize affordable housing is a question I can't answer. But I do know that California in particular is struggling with the same problem.

Average teachers, firefighters, police, general middle income families cannot afford housing in California. And the result has been twofold: those workers are leaving the state to more affordable places, and recruitment of replacements is difficult. It is creating middle class flight from the state leaving them with a decreasing number of stable families, and remaining are the poor and the rich. This is not a demographic prescription for future happiness.

I believe New York is also facing the same issues.

Perhaps with subsidized affordable housing Seattle might be able to avoid the pitfall examples of California and New York.


(I know we can never afford to buy a house here. On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I don't want to buy a house here anyway.)

Lol Yeowza? As a California resident, it's hard to keep a straight face when others complain about a $440,000 median home price or the cost of living in Seattle in general.

Coming from Northern California, one of the draws of Seatlle is actually the cost of living, not to mention the fact that there is no state income tax. Houses in the $300-400K range are nothing to complain about unless you are moving from somewhere in the South or Midwest, where the cost of living matches the quality of life.

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by Casportsfan

Lol Yeowza? As a California resident, it's hard to keep a straight face when others complain about a $440,000 median home price or the cost of living in Seattle in general.

Coming from Northern California, one of the draws of Seatlle is actually the cost of living, not to mention the fact that there is no state income tax. Houses in the $300-400K range are nothing to complain about unless you are moving from somewhere in the South or Midwest, where the cost of living matches the quality of life.

Alright, Casportsfan, have you ever been to the South or midwest? The quality of life in both places can be phenomenal depending on where you find yourself. I live in Austin now, and I will tell you the quality of life far exceeds what we had in Seattle and I know many SoCal transplants here that find it exceeds life there as well. Quality of life includes things like friendly and open people, a sane pace of life, the ability to save for the future, etc.

BTW, I've known many folks that moved from CA to Seattle and all were surprised at how expensive it was up in Seattle. Other than housing, which is much lower in Seattle than in Northern CA, prices for groceries, utilities, entertainment, and gasoline were similar.

Houses in the 300 to 400 K range are something to complain about if salaries are not commensurate with those prices. We just sold our house up there for 400k, we paid 250K for it eight years ago. Honestly, after having to spend 8 years in the place I wouldn't pay 250K for it today. It just wasn't worth it for us.

[dpgtfc]

Originally Posted by mmcguy

Cable TV: $50/month (basic). Forget over-the-air reception. There are too many hills and valleys. You need cable or dish to get any reception.

I just checked Seattle Comcast online, and just recently signed up for service in tacoma. The cost for basic cable is 30 dollars, not 50. If you are paying more you are getting ripped off.


As for reception, really? I asked about sattellite recently and everybody said they got good reception. As for HD/digital broadcast TV, seems that it goes further than the usual analog. I currently live in a hilly area and get all 3(1) channel (one channel, three sub-channels).

High Speed Internet: $50/month (cable or DSL)

First 6 months 19.99, afterwards 29.99, not 50 a month. Again, just looked and signed up. Comcast.


All the rest seem reasonable really. I only know these because I just signed up for them, but can't comment on the rest yet. Good guide. I mean, realisically, 30 bucks isn't MUCH different than 50.

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by dpgtfc

I just checked Seattle Comcast online, and just recently signed up for service in tacoma. The cost for basic cable is 30 dollars, not 50. If you are paying more you are getting ripped off.


As for reception, really? I asked about sattellite recently and everybody said they got good reception. As for HD/digital broadcast TV, seems that it goes further than the usual analog. I currently live in a hilly area and get all 3(1) channel (one channel, three sub-channels).


First 6 months 19.99, afterwards 29.99, not 50 a month. Again, just looked and signed up. Comcast.


All the rest seem reasonable really. I only know these because I just signed up for them, but can't comment on the rest yet. Good guide. I mean, realisically, 30 bucks isn't MUCH different than 50.

Well those are today's prices when we were in Seattle we paid $56 a month for comcast high speed internet access (taxes included). We didn't have cable TV. We moved away about four months ago but our monthly charge was $56 at the time we left.

[yukiko11]

[quote=dpgtfc;8590571]I just checked Seattle Comcast online, and just recently signed up for service in tacoma. The cost for basic cable is 30 dollars, not 50. If you are paying more you are getting ripped off.


As for reception, really? I asked about sattellite recently and everybody said they got good reception. As for HD/digital broadcast TV, seems that it goes further than the usual analog. I currently live in a hilly area and get all 3(1) channel (one channel, three sub-channels).


First 6 months 19.99, afterwards 29.99, not 50 a month. Again, just looked and signed up. Comcast.

You have a good deal. You can only subscribe to the cable company that services your area. We only have Wave broadband where I live and the basic cable is 59.65 incl taxes. We can't have dish service because of the trees and hills so we are stuck. High speed dial up starts out cheap but right now after the deals you are going to pay 39.99.

This is still cheap entertainment considering taking a family of 4 to see one movie in a theatre would cost you about $70 including snacks and drinks.