do most people LIVE in Seattle or not? (Tacoma, Kent: real estate, apartments)

[Anders15]

From what I've gathered no one really LIVES in Seattle, at least downtown Seattle due to the prices right? Is it correct to say most people live outside of Seattle and travel into the city for work, entertainment ect only for the most part?

I'm just a tab bit confused because I remember reading where you can get a 1b1ba condo in Seattle for the price of a full home outside of the city. Is that correct also?

I calculated and my current pay here would change to $37,650 for the city of Seattle. Would I be able to survive with me a 4y/o and a teenager on that within the city? if not there then where? I was considering Auburn but I could not get price specifics that detailed just the major cities like Seattle & Tacoma. I look forward to your replies. thanks.

[allforcats]

Hi RonMaverick. Your questions, in order:

Lots of people live in the city of Seattle. The City-Data Seattle page says that 595,000 people live in the city of Seattle. This is full of stats:
http://www.city-data.com/city/Seattle-Washington.html

Comparatively few live in condos and apartments in "downtown" Seattle, due to the fact that most of the land is used for office buildings and retail stores, not residences. It's a business, entertainment, hotel and government downtown. The condos and apartments which are there are expensive because they are using land that would otherwise have a different tax base.

The vast majority of people who work in downtown Seattle live outside downtown. Many of them live in the city of Seattle, but not in downtown. The city of Seattle is a large geographic area, including a large quantity of different, and named, neighborhoods.

Because of the unavailability of land to build on in downtown Seattle, yes any residential space would cost more there than the same size, age and configuration would cost outside of the downtown area. That relates to downtown, not to the rest of the city of Seattle. As for a downtown condo costing the same as a house elsewhere, that's a cute story and the facts are entirely subject to the ups and downs of the real estate fads at any given time.

Your budget is kind of low, but you could probably do it -- in any one of many neighborhoods in the city of Seattle but not in downtown (where you don't want to raise children anyway because there's nothing there for them). You would not have to go as far away as Auburn. There are many Seattle neighborhoods and many other cities much closer to downtown Seattle where you could find an affordable rental.

You ARE talking about renting, right?

Hope this helps!

[azoria]

Originally Posted by RonMaverick804

I calculated and my current pay here would change to $37,650 for the city of Seattle. Would I be able to survive with me a 4y/o and a teenager on that within the city?

No way no how.

Frankly I don't know where in the entire state of Washington you could live and support 2 kids on $37,650.

[CityGirl72]

37K is really really low even if you were to rent. Will you need daycare? In Downtown, when my son was in daycare it was $1250 a month (for a 4 year old)

[Anders15]

No I work night shifts here to avoid that so I'm hoping to do the same there. I figured I would not be able to live in the heart of the city right now. Also I won't stay on that salary because it will depend where I work and I will be a RN soon. So will it really be IMPOSSIBLE? I am not a big spender or anything (obviously) it's all in how you manage it. I used this site to convert the salary.

[azoria]

I looked in a couple of different places, the median income for a family of four in the state of Washington is between $60,000 to $72,000 a year (depending on the source).

37k is really poverty level. Rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in the Puget Sound area is going to be at least $1,000 a month.

We are a family of 3 people making gross about $50,000 a year, no car. We just barely squeak by every month.

[Ira500]

If you can find a place with really cheap rent, I think it's possible, and there are some areas with cheaper rents. Within the city of Seattle, most neighborhoods will be out of reach, but some parts of West Seattle and some parts of South Seattle will be more affordable. Also, the adjoining areas to the south will be less expensive, like Tukwila, Renton, Kent, and Burien. All of those places have some bad parts, but are not entirely bad by a long shot and have nice areas as well.

[mikec34]

Originally Posted by RonMaverick804

From what I've gathered no one really LIVES in Seattle, at least downtown Seattle due to the prices right? Is it correct to say most people live outside of Seattle and travel into the city for work, entertainment ect only for the most part?

I'm just a tab bit confused because I remember reading where you can get a 1b1ba condo in Seattle for the price of a full home outside of the city. Is that correct also?

I calculated and my current pay here would change to $37,650 for the city of Seattle. Would I be able to survive with me a 4y/o and a teenager on that within the city? if not there then where? I was considering Auburn but I could not get price specifics that detailed just the major cities like Seattle & Tacoma. I look forward to your replies. thanks.

Maybe look into Kent. You can find a cheap place to rent in burien/Whitecenter for as well, and both those places will be closer to Seattle (emplyment).


Salary calculators:
Those calculators often compute the value based on the predefined living costs of each place, which they gather from resources that often are not stated . If you make $X in city1 and city2 costs 20% more than city1, then you will make ($X *1.2) according to their computations. Not sure which one you used, but if it's like that it's not really reliable. Just because city2 costs xx% more than city1, does NOT mean you will make that much more in city2. This is why it's called 'higher cost of living'. If the math in real life worked liked that then you'd have the same standard of living in Denton, Texas as you would in New York City, which we all know is not hardly the case. There may be an increase in salary, but probably also expenses that may exceed the increase in salary.

Try and use the US census as well and get the median income value of each place and the median housing of each place and you might have a more valid idea of the difference in income and what that income will afford you. See where you stack up in your current locationa nd assume you will do the same in your new location.
State and County QuickFacts

[Anders15]

Originally Posted by azoria

I looked in a couple of different places, the median income for a family of four in the state of Washington is between $60,000 to $72,000 a year (depending on the source).

37k is really poverty level. Rent for a 2 bedroom apartment in the Puget Sound area is going to be at least $1,000 a month.

We are a family of 3 people making gross about $50,000 a year, no car. We just barely squeak by every month.

Thank you for clearing that up!! Also I am renting a 3b 2 1/2 ba, 1400 sqft here and it is 1,500 a month. I will check into Kent and Auburn to see if there is anything if not i guess i cant move here . Again thanks everyone for your help.

[toughguy]

Lots of people live in the city core, check out all the condos going up in SLU, Belltown, Denny Triangle, etc.....just expect to pay through the nose to do it.