AZ to WA move...thinking about it. (Seattle, Spokane: low crime, safe area)

[PinkSnowflake]

First a little background. My husband and I are moving from Phoenix (Tempe) Arizona. He is originally from Germany and I am from Southern California. In the last 5 years we have lived mainly the San Bernardino Mountains of CA and have suffered but survived 1 year in AZ. We have decided that not only the weather but the way of life in Arizona is just not for us. We haven't committed to a location to move to next but have thought about Spokane as a strong option. We understand that the "dry heat" of the desert and the "cold Pacific NW" of WA are two completely different worlds and have to be experienced to know if a person can deal - especially grey sky for so long. What we are mostly concerned with is safety, jobs (entry level), and cost of living. How easy is it to get settled in or is it going to be a major uphill battle?

[AK76]

I sent you a direct message that you should find helpful.

[ShadoAngel]

Why Spokane? What do you not like about the "way of life" in Arizona? It'd be hard to tell you whether or not you'd be happy in Spokane if we don't know why you're not happy in Phoenix.

Spokane is a safe area. It's a fairly large city (200k in the city, about 500k in the metro area) so there are definitely entry level jobs. How many depends on the industry you/your husband are in. Cost of living is fairly low, compared to other western states.

[Tall Traveler]

Almost all of Washington is pretty safe, Spokane has a higher crime rate than most of the state but you can avoid the bad areas and be fine. By far the best job opportunities will be in Seattle Metro including the east side (Bellevue area) but that's also the most expensive area. Weather wise, the west side of the Cascades will be more similar to Germany and the east side is considerably drier and gets hotter in summer and cooler in winter.


Economically, you're probably better off in Phoenix unless you're in the tech industry and can get above $100K job in Seattle area. Spokane's pay scale is on the low end but cost of living is also on the low end. Tri Cities (Richland area) has a stronger and faster growing economy that Spokane, low crime, and is still low cost but it is desert.

[PinkSnowflake]

My husband and I moved from a small mountain community (seasons, nature, community) to the Phoenix Metro area for an opportunity to finish our educations and have jobs close by. We quickly realized that big city living (5million+ pop. and 517 square miles) is way too big!! SoCal is big and busy too but very expensive which is why we thought to move while finishing our educations in computer programming.

The heat is more than we can bear. Seriously from the end of April to the end of October if you don't run your A/C you will die. We had the A/C running non-stop at 80 degrees and it felt nice after walking around in 115-120 outside temps. Where we came from we only heated to 75 because 80 made us sweat. Lol! And because of the heat, most people I have run in to here (outside of my co-workers) are insanely aggressive and impatient. Drivers do not signal and have road rage worse than anyone I've seen in L.A. For about 3 months during summer we had to have police come by my place of work to flush out the heroin junkies passed out on out outside patio. And I dont even live or work in a bad area. Actually I live in one of the "safer" parts of Phoenix.

Basically, I just want to be in a nice, safe, naturally beautiful location where I can live quietly, finish my studies and set down some roots. My grandparents have lived up in Spokane for 20 years and love it. I would like to be close to them but I dont want to make a move that would set me back. We aren't concerned with what kind of jobs as long as there are some... we want quality of life.

[mistyriver]

I lived in the Phoenix area for 10 years before moving to (essentially) the greater Spokane area almost 15 years ago. While to a southern Californian, Spokane might seem cloudy, it's nothing like the actual Pacific Northwest. And the climate here tends to be pretty dry, humidity-wise. You get rain and snow but no real humidity and definitely not the dampness like the west side of Washington gets.

We lived in northern Idaho for the bulk of our time here and we were in and out of Spokane frequently. We just recently relocated here on the South Hill. I had no problems adjusting to this region from the Arizona deserts.

[ShadoAngel]

Basically, I just want to be in a nice, safe, naturally beautiful location where I can live quietly, finish my studies and set down some roots. My grandparents have lived up in Spokane for 20 years and love it. I would like to be close to them but I dont want to make a move that would set me back. We aren't concerned with what kind of jobs as long as there are some... we want quality of life.

I think if you avoid the worse off parts of the city, you'd find exactly that in Spokane. It's not a place to get rich but the quality of life is good, IMO.

[mistyriver]

Meant to go back and add to my post. This is actually a very easy place to settle into. People are mostly pretty friendly and open and there is a real lack of pretense or standing on ceremony. Very casual place. It has a nice hometown kind of feeling.

[Walkaboutcda]

Living here in Coeur d'Alene just over the border from Spokane I meet a lot of people from all over the country. Many people from the Southwest and Southeast are so jealous of our weather. We are able to enjoy the outdoors all 365 days of the year. Definitely a quality of life issue, you may not get rich but being able to enjoy your surroundings is a huge plus.

[PS90]

Originally Posted by Walkaboutcda

Living here in Coeur d'Alene just over the border from Spokane I meet a lot of people from all over the country. Many people from the Southwest and Southeast are so jealous of our weather. We are able to enjoy the outdoors all 365 days of the year. Definitely a quality of life issue, you may not get rich but being able to enjoy your surroundings is a huge plus.

Totally agree. For the short time that I lived in Western Washington, I can't count the number of people from over there that commented that they were willing to give-up a well-paying job in order to move to Eastern Washington. It was worth it to them to make less money so they could be in a beautiful area with limitless outdoor recreation and good weather (relatively good, at least, compared to Western WA).