Want to Leave Puget Sound area...how did you do it? (Seattle: health insurance, houses)

[cdelena]

Originally Posted by Tony1790

It boils down to one word for me.....TRAFFIC, I mean really I can barely stand to leave the house, it is just so damn hard to get around here.
....

Washington may have some bad congestion but by more than one recent survey it is not bad enough to make the list of very congested and getting worse:


1. Los Angeles, Long Beach, Santa Ana, Calif.

2. San Francisco, Oakland, Calif.

3. Washington, D.C.

4. Atlanta

5. Houston

6. Dallas, Fort Worth, Arlington, Tex.

7. Chicago.

8. Detroit

9. Riverside, San Bernardino, Calif.

9. Orlando, Fla.

11. San Jose, Calif.

12. San Diego

[LMB]

Not surprised to see Orlando on the list. Traffic here is getting really bad, especially in the last 5-6 years. Violent crime is way up too. It seems like everyone is being squeezed out of south FL and moving up north to central FL. We enjoyed living here in the mid-late 90s, but my husband and I are looking forward to getting away from packed Orlando this June and moving into our cute little 1956 house near Liberty Bay in Old Town Poulsbo.

Weather is quite low on our list of priorities (obviously), although I can certainly understand its importance to others. Nearing our 60s, at this stage being close to our Puget Sound area family is our motivating factor--and it's especially important after living 3000 miles away for so many years. We've lived in several areas of the country, and have acclimated pretty easily wherever we are. Besides, our kids gave us "Seattle Sombreros" for Christmas, so we're all set. :-)

Lynn

[marksind]

It is fun to read the bulletin boards and see how everyone thinks somewhere else is the answer to their dreams. We've lived a few places and pretty much been happy anywhere once we settled in. I must admit though that things in the Puget Sound area have gotten too expensive and too crowded for my taste. People elsewhere think of this as an environmentally-sensitive place, but like everywhere else, the developers always prevail. On the east side, they are building homes on 8th acre lots and selling them for up to $1 million! And that's in areas that 10 years ago wouldn't even be called "close-in." It now can take me 45 minutes to an hour to make my 12 mile commute home at night from Bellevue to Woodinville. I grit my teeth every day as I get in the car.
My wife and I took a drive last April around the state to check out other areas. The amazing thing is that there really isn't anything inexpensive in Washington towns of any size. You can spend $500k on a middle-class house in Walla Walla, Spokane, or Wenatchee. Wenatchee was (probably still is) one of the ten fastest growing towns in the U.S. Hundreds of homes were under construction in East Wenatchee on the hill, most selling for $400k to $700k. Now they are putting massive server facilities for companies in eastern Washington due to cheap power from the BPA, and farm towns like Quincy are becoming instant suburbs (of what I don't know). An article in the Sunday paper a week ago talked about under and over-valued places in the country (house prices relative to income) and said what my wife and I found - there are no undervalued markets in Washington. The closest was the tri-cities, at 109% (9% overvalued).
I know that every area has its pluses and minuses, but we will be looking for somewhere with a bit more elbow room and housing affordability in a couple of years.

[jwb123]

Seattle may not have made the list this last year - but they have made it several times prior.

I see that Austin is also not on that list - and everyone complains about Austin traffic - so I am not sure how "scientific" the actual study that is being thrown around as proof, really is. Nor do we know the variables of how it was rated.

Listen to the locals. Very few people think the Seattle area traffic is managable or not a problem.

[magrack]

Originally Posted by marksind

.....Now they are putting massive server facilities for companies in eastern Washington due to cheap power from the BPA....

That, and for risk management. I attended a couple of seminars a few years ago and one of the selling points for placing the servers farms on the east side was getting away from the fault lines.

[cdelena]

Originally Posted by Jenbar

...
so I am not sure how "scientific" the actual study that is being thrown around as proof, really is. Nor do we know the variables of how it was rated.

...

Every area of any size has congestion and there are some routes that are as bad as anywhere in the country. The credible studies like this one are from highway departments that calculate commute times or vehicle miles driven against roadway available. There are other studies that are somewhat different that show rate of growth in traffic against rate of roadway growth and as I recall the two worst in the country are the Atlanta metro area and the Dallas metro area.

[Deep_Vee]

Thank you all for your good advice. I'm glad to see that we aren't alone in our frustration with this area. Here are a few more specifics why we would like to leave.

#1 Traffic. We live 16 miles from downtown Seattle, only 1.5 miles (8 lights)from I-5, and carpool at slightly earlier than rush-hour times. (6:30AM in, 4:30PM home). We spend at least 45 minutes each way commuting every day. Bad days it's an hour or more. We live within walking distance to a park&ride. It would cost us $230 monthly to take the bus, but the bus takes at least 20 minutes longer each way. We are fortunate to have inexpensive parking in downtown through my wife's work. If we didn't, we'd have to pay at least $200 a month for just that. And these days living in Edmonds is considered close in compared to a lot of people.

#2 Cost of Housing. We make a very good living, have owned a condo here for 9 years (great appreciation), and therefore have a decent amount of cash to put down on a home. Our budget is around 500k. Our only criteria is that we don't want to increase our commute time significantly. We are not looking for a mansion, or brand new construction. We just want a 2 story house that isn't a split-level (BTW, every 2 story house built in this area between 1960 and 1980 seems to be a split), and a house that seems worth it to quadruple our current mortgage. We have been searching for months, there just isn't anything worth it to us in that price range.

We almost had a home a few months ago. Approximately 20 minutes farther north than our current place. 1700sq ft Tri Level, built in 1997 but totally remodeled. The lot was 6000 sq ft. It was truly a beautiful home for 450k. We had a deal, but the inspection found what turns out to be a very common problem around here. It had Weyerhouser Siding that was failing badly. It seems a huge percentage of homes in this area built in the 90's were built with LP or similar siding...and our wet climate just doesn't suit that type of material well. Watch out for it. We decided to walk away...as we were sure there would be other homes that we liked that didn't suffer from the siding issue. The sellers RAISED the price 10k and said they are going to replace the siding for the buyers. It has since sold... We have found NOTHING else even remotely interesting...and have quit looking. I don't know who is buying the homes here...but it isn't going to be us.

Keep in mind, we don't have kids yet...and haven't even taken schools into consideration...as we gave up affording a house in a good school district long ago.

#3 The weather. It has been talked about to death...sure, it is REALLY hot in other parts of the country, or REALLY cold in others. But anywhere else I have been it tends to be clear at least 50% of the time. Here, it is not. I think a lot of the country takes the sky for granted....here we really enjoy the clear days we have...because over the entire year...we don't have that many of them. A friend of mine who moved to Atlanta put it best. He said: "It took me 6 months before I stopped looking outside every morning as soon as I woke up to see what the weather was doing...I know it's going to be sunny here".

This is a great place. I've lived within 2 miles of I-5 my entire life in various parts of Western Washington...but it just seems like there's got to be something better than sitting in traffic, in the rain, on my way home to my crappy old condo...

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by Jenbar

I dont think it's any ONE thing. It's obviously different from person to person - ...
(in no particular order)

1. The rain.
2. Housing costs.
3. Traffic.
4. Job transfer.
... and all of the little details that rise from each of those.

just for kicks, I'll add "relationships" (i.e. Finding friends in W WA thread) - in no particular order... as mentioned, these things add up!

I'll be looking for a friendly 'hometown' feel (it's not for everyone), but I think the comments about people 'cocooning' in W WA have some merit.

Maybe I'm dream'n, but... I really miss the 'Barn raisings', Pie Socials, School/ community fundraising Chili / Spagetti / Crab / Pancake feeds. And helping your neighbors cut wood or paint or roof their houses...and fixing a bike for the kid down the street. Pushing the elderly around the park in their wheel chairs...sitting on the bench in front of the store talking to some ole geezer.

I enjoyed times living Europe and Asia where Sunday afternoons find a whole different culture in the town square than the PNW image of jetting around the lake on your PWC. (people actually talk to each other and play games and LAUGH ) The honking horns and hustle and bustle begin soon enough on Monday morning, but Sundays are nice

[mayfair]

Marksind, we drove all over western wa, too (and some of the east) looking at towns. I was amazed how expensive it is even far from decent employment. Prices have gone through the roof in Skagit and Whatcom counties. Bellingham has sprawl that surprised me- Mt. Vernon appears to have doubled in size over past 15 years. Port Townsend used to be cheap- now you'd better have at least 400K to live in town.

There are no "undiscovered gems."

My last family members left this area last year after their short commute on the eastside became a nightmare.

I would like to get out. It's a lovely place in many ways- but weather, traffic, crowding and the fact that we could never afford to move within the area are real issues. Also- where would we move here? Any place out of town would involve a horrible commute.

I liked it here years ago. There were vacant lots in town with blackberries and birds singing in them. We had quail in the park and little horse acreages in town. Now the vacant lots are built up, the horse acres have become luxury townhomes and condo buildings. It has changed so much.

[mayfair]

Double post- sorry