How much is your life worth, well your time anyway.

[Blondebaerde]

Originally Posted by Tony1790

Hello,

Well I find myself back in WA state after a 10 year absence, and from I can tell, the traffic is MUCH, MUCH, worse than it was way back in 2007 when I left. I find myself in this weird situation, where I moved back from TN for a job with the VA in Lakewood, during my absence I was able to complete 4 degrees, an Associates, 2 Bachelors and a Masters degree while in TN, while I was working with the VA Healthcare system in TN. The only place that I received an offer of employment was in Seattle :-( So here I am making less than $10,000 more, than I was in TN as a Nurse Practitioner, while dealing with this traffic and high cost of living :-)

Anyway, I'm tempted to delete all of this typing, but the Blue Moon in my hand just whispers, go ahead and post it :-) OK......and yes, when everyone says then just take your butt back to TN, I agree, I will eventually, but a fella still has to work and put food on the table, plus my son lives in Bremerton and I enjoy seeing him on the weekends, so I am planning on staying (hopefully) for another 6-12 months and then finding a job in a lower traffic/population area!

Ten year old thread, revived by OP. Now THAT is trippy.

Back to the original I'd say: you make a great point. I suspect your reality is the norm, or will be the norm, for tens of thousands priced out of the core more so today than even back then. Maybe, at some point, hundreds of thousands. You may have noticed Seattle is more car-hostile today vs. 2007. Either Seattle goes car-less and high density downtown, adding tens of thousands of condos (by going up), or the outlying areas will need to absorb it. And people will try and go from Port Orchard to Seattle downtown daily. 2hr20min out and 2hr50min back is so totally unacceptable, don't know what to say.

Worst commute I had was a client in Enumclaw when I lived in Mill Creek, in 2009. That was just lots of miles on my Toyota, which didn't bother me (love that truck, then and now) and about 62 miles each way. I had it timed such that was about hour and and half each way, which was fine "enough" (but did suck, to be sure). It started, and ended, on a high note because the work was interesting.

That much commuting is not worth it to you. I'd tolerate it a couple years, max. Then I'd make a hard decision, too. I know I would; living in Mill Creek 11 years was bad enough and that was only 45 min (minimum) to 1.5 hr (max) to Eastside.

I moved to Eastside when property bottomed out post- Recession, using resources I'd gathered up in the 'naughts from various purchases and investments. It might have served you well to have done the same, then bought Eastside or in Seattle proper, thus eliminating the problem? While you were heading out, I was squirreling away.

If you're not "juiced in" with properly at this point, I think you're out of luck. It takes damn near a million bucks to buy a cool place in Kirkland, Bellevue, or Redmond late 2017. I do mean a moderate-sized home, with yard and room to run for kids and pets. If you can live with less, maybe half that or even less but it's still big bucks.

Good luck, now as then. Lot of people like you will decide, now or eventually, if they can suck it up or move to a lower cost of living area...with substantially less economic opportunity. Was one round of out-and-back sufficient?

PS: Current commute is the length of my living room, turn right into the home office. That will not last, probably, as it has never happened before. I'm going to milk it for every ounce until it's dead, and I've never made more money before or since. Sometimes the universe smiles on us, others we have 2 hr 20 min commutes each way I guess.

[Neerwhal]

I got a job closer to home. Now I can walk or bike to work in less tie than it takes OP to drive. Weekends we hike. Problem solved.

[tommy64]

Originally Posted by DutchessCottonPuff

OP - We did not start out 66 miles across Seattle for my husbands job , it used to be 2 miles away - it BECAME that way over the years though. My husband now has to commute from Tacoma to Everett every day so he gets up the same time as you and on Thurs , Fri or whenever it rains the commute can be 3-4 hours one way . We had a bad fire this summer which derailed our plans to leave so we will try again next summer . We thought about Olympia but it's just too far as the prices are just really going up here too . He has been stuck on weekends now nearly 10 years and we have started to struggle so in the last 5 years that we cannot do much anymore anyway . Which I hate but I alone cannot stop it .

He has a very fancy interview with Boeing for a position he has never held formally ( but has 30 yrs exp in ) in a leadership/engineering role & was hand picked for it- so he is going to go, but is not holding out much hope to be able to stay here even if he DOES get it . ( That sounds so strange )

It would be less time to commute south to work in Portland. No joke.

[misscross]

OP your commute is insane and I would not think it worthwhile. However not everyone in the area chooses a similarly insane commute, we all have choices.