Anything good about moving to the Seattle Area? Help me please

[MichaelinWA]

I'm a Phoenix native who has also lived in the SF Bay Area, Orange County and Denver. All of those places were great places to live, but I've enjoyed Western WA, where I've been since 2003, the best so far. Just a couple of thoughts. Be leery of those who make overgeneralizations on boards like these about the supposed undesirability of places like Renton. We live in one of the newly developed areas on the eastern highlands, and consider our new home and safe, clean neighborhood anything but "undesirable." I work in Bellevue, which leads to the other thought. Commuting is horrible around these parts. It can take me an hour to get to Bellevue from Renton, even though it isn't that far away. So as others have suggested, consider commuting times and logistics in your decision. Good luck with your move! I can totally understand wanting to get away from that relentless summer heat.

Originally Posted by AZFmly

We are scheduled to move from AZ to WA in July. I have heard ALOT of bad things about some of the areas, i.e. Renton, Kent etc. Which is obviously more affordable. I do not know which way to go anymore. I am looking to get out of the heat and call me crazy but I love rain. I don't want my kids around gangs and such and one is in high school and other is 10. Can anyone help me. Seems to be good job market there I just do not want to make a BIG HUGE mistake!!! HELP!!!!! Only other choice is Austin TX and the job market sucks there I think!

[Haakon]

Originally Posted by AZFmly

I am looking to get out of the heat and call me crazy but I love rain.

You may love rain, but do you love a light drizzle that lasts for days or weeks, then a sunny day followed by weeks of drizzle for months on end? Western Wa rain isn't like rain in some other parts of the country where it rains so hard you can hardly see for a little while then clears up into a sunny sky with a rainbow. Here it rarely rains like that, but will be overcast and drizzle for a long, long, time. If that's the kind of weather you like then you'll love it up here, if not keep in mind that "rain" isn't the same everywhere.

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by AZFmly

We are scheduled to move from AZ to WA in July. I have heard ALOT of bad things about some of the areas, i.e. Renton, Kent etc. Which is obviously more affordable. I do not know which way to go anymore. I am looking to get out of the heat and call me crazy but I love rain. I don't want my kids around gangs and such and one is in high school and other is 10. Can anyone help me. Seems to be good job market there I just do not want to make a BIG HUGE mistake!!! HELP!!!!! Only other choice is Austin TX and the job market sucks there I think!

I am a bit biased of course, but being someone who is also from a hot climate (I'm a Texas native) and now having lived in OR and WA for several years - I'd suggest you seriously consider Austin, TX.

WA does have some good things going for it. Yes there are a lot of jobs here, that is one positive. Austin and the surrounding area is growing rapidly, though, and you will be surprised - there are jobs there, too.

The Lake Washington School District here in WA is Excellent. I LOVE the elementary school my children attend in Redmond Ridge, which is a small somewhat new community in an unincorporated area just outside of Redmond, WA. Bellevue schools are also supposed to be very good. I would stay away from Seattle schools... they are bad right now but they seem to be acknowledging this so hopefully in coming years will get better? I don't know... I know the Seattle public high schools are having a lot of trouble with violence and gangs and drop-out rates as well as drugs and low test scores. Eastside schools are a much wiser choice at the moment, though no place is perfect of course.

I'm not sure what you're used to paying in AZ for your living expenses, but WA is crazy expensive. If you make less than 100k/year after taxes, it will be tricky. You will most likely have to rent unless you want to buy a place further out and commute. Or another option would be to buy a condo. You can find 2 bedroom condo's for 250k - 300k in the Seattle/Eastside areas if you look hard enough. Homes are very expensive, and then the property taxes and cost of home owners insurance and high cost of utilities is also another major expense. It is very expensive here. Do you have sales tax in AZ? You will have it here, and I was surprised at how much it adds to our expenses. Every grocery bill it seems like I'm being charged an additional 5 or 10 dollars...

WA does not have a state income tax, though. Do you have state income tax in AZ?

Austin is becoming more "upscale" and there is a lot of building out going on there currently... it definitely isn't the fun college town it once was years ago... but it is still more affordable than the Seattle/Eastside area.

You also need to consider the climate - the weather. I loved the rain, too, until I moved here. It's a different sort of rain here. There is also a shortage of daylight... the days are shorter in the winter and longer in the summer. The summer's here - they usually last about 3 months long in our experience - are perfect. Gorgeous. Amazing!!! But the winter's here are long grey, wet, cold, chilly... you love the rain for about a month maybe... but after months and months of it... year after year... it gets hard to cope. Some people take trips to sunny places. Some people use tanning salons and light therapy. Some people take Vit. D supplements. Some people take antidepressants. You learn to cope I suppose.

Personal note: I'm not sure what I'm going to do yet... how I plan to cope. I've spent three winters in Oregon and wasn't bothered at all (although I was in the Willamette Valley in Oregon, so it wasn't as bad there...) and this is my first winter in Western Washington... and it's really getting to me this year. I've never felt this way in my entire life. Like I have a brain fog, like the air is oppressive, and I want to cry all the time. I don't like leaving the house, and I just want to sleep. I remember living in Texas and California and I would get so excited every time it would rain! I LOVED storms!! Now... I hate them.

Anyway - good luck with your decision. And if you get to where ever you move to, and it doesn't turn out well for you, you can always go back. It might take a bit of planning and saving, but you have that power over your own life situation.

[seahawksweetie]

Just read this and yes there are wonderful things about WA. I woke up this morning and walked my kids to school in the snow. It was beautiful and pristine, roads weren't bad as it wasn't cold enough to really affect the streets. As I was walking home from their school, I looked up and the trees were painted white with snow and it was quiet and it was just breathtaking. It was hard for me to believe that I actually live here and am not just visiting.

[haggardhouseelf]

Originally Posted by seahawksweetie

Just read this and yes there are wonderful things about WA. I woke up this morning and walked my kids to school in the snow. It was beautiful and pristine, roads weren't bad as it wasn't cold enough to really affect the streets. As I was walking home from their school, I looked up and the trees were painted white with snow and it was quiet and it was just breathtaking. It was hard for me to believe that I actually live here and am not just visiting.

We did that too this morning! We are just outside of the Redmond area and we got a lot of it last night. The kids had a blast. This is very wet snow here... not the powdery kind at all... It melts really fast and is more like the kind of snow we called "slush" in Texas. I'm looking outside and it's mostly mud now. But this mroning it was fun to walk to school in what looked like a white winter wonderland. Very pretty while it lasts!

We have had every kind of weather here lately. For example, yesterday we had sun and blue skies for a bit (I was so happy!), rain, mist, sleet, grey skies, and snow. All the while it was very very cold. (in the 30's all day I believe, but I havent checked...) It just can't seem to make up it's mind. It's decided on cold, but it hasn't decided on what sort of cold to throw at us!