Hi, Tom88. Krypton727 makes some really important points -- the most important being that you should choose an area, such as but not limited to
the Seattle area or the Olympia area, and live and work in or near there. You can't commute from one to the other: the distance is too great, the availability of transit from one to the other is almost nil, and you would spend your non-working life commuting by car.
Regarding
paralegal work and other fields: Seattle has a large gaggle of law firms both large and small, and the cities around Seattle have even more, mostly small firms. Olympia is the state capital, so it too has quite a collection of law firms. Mailing resumes to HR departments is normal; companies in all fields in western Washington are quite accustomed to receiving resumes from out of state.
Here are two job market resources:
the combined classifieds of the two leading newspapers around the Seattle area:
Seattle area jobs, employment advice and information | NWjobs
and
The Olympian for the Olympia area:
Thurston County's Homepage - The Olympian - Olympia, Washington
As Krypton mentioned, there is good
bus coverage within the city of Seattle, and additional bus coverage in other cities within King County, then significantly less coverage in adjoining counties. If you lived within the city of Seattle you would not need a car for commuting. Living in the other cities in King County, or other areas within a rational commute time to Seattle, your transportation options would depend on exactly where you locate your home and where your job would be. You would need
a car for recreation to the countryside, mountains, water, islands, rain forests, Canada, Oregon, etc.
"...safe areas to live without areas of extreme wealth or poverty"
This whole area is pretty safe, and has few spots of extreme wealth. It has no spots that I've ever seen of extreme poverty, and no hotbeds of crime, violence or drug usage. There is more property crime (car breakins, for example) than personal crime (muggings, for example). Western Washington is largely a relaxed mix of ethnicities, economics, and all other individual characteristics.
"Affordable"? That depends on your definition. It's somewhat expensive to live here, but then salaries are pretty decent. It's definitely not "cheap" here, and the clean air, beautiful surroundings, relaxed people and astonishing variety of things to do are, to me, part of the benefits of living here. I spent the first 30 years of my life in Manhattan...
Here's the rentals section of that Seattle resource, nwsource.com -- click on any name in the little map to drill down to smaller locations:
NWapartments: Seattle apartment rentals, house rental listings, rental classifieds and other property rentals in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue and other Washington areas, cities and neighborhoods
I hope this helps! Happy contemplation for a new life!
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