Thinking of moving to Washington (Seattle, Bellevue: violent crime, affordable houses, neighborhoods)

[sunsky778]

Hi, my family and I currently live in FL and are originally from NY. Needless to say like many NY'ers we came to FL looking for good housing prices and quality of life. Yes FL does offer you quality of life as far as activities goes, but that is it. The schools stink, everything is way over priced including housing. We are now selling our home and are wondering about relocating. We have thought of several differnet places, one of those places is Seattle, WA. We have also thought of going back home to NY. The problem is will we afford a 500K plus house now?

I am a school teacher and my husband is a contractor.

Here is my biggest question; My family and I are middle class Hispanics, and have not visited many states in the US except several on the east coast and California. We have learned that there are places that are unacceptable of Latins and that is a fear for me. For example we visited NC and were told that latins are treated like immigrants in that state, this was told to us from a realtor. He told us that culture wasn't well known in North Carolina and that everyone of latin decent were considered immigrants there. He also told us that our children might face racial issues in school. As you can all imagine I was frightened, and we didn't make that choice. What is Washington like in this aspect?

Jessica

[the dufferz]

We have a heavy mix of Asian, Mexican, European, Indian, Native American, Canadian... In other words, lots of everything. You should not get a general negative feeling here, but there are jerks everywhere.

If you can't afford a $500K house in NY you need to carefully consider whether you can afford our home prices. Central to Seattle area housing prices are in that range.

If you are willing to go outside the Seattle/"eastside" area (Bellevue, Mercer Island, Kirkland, Redmond, Bothell, Woodinville) you can get homes around $400K, lower the farther out you go, but then traffic becomes an issue if you are working in Seattle/Eastside areas.

Good luck

The dufferz

[Yhwnot]

We have a diverce population and with that as in all places there are good and bad. I live about 40 mins from Seattle and I have 22 acres and a 2500 sq ft house with a 4300 sq ft shop. Two years ago we paid $600,000. It is a matter of how close you need to be to seattle. There is a great need for teachers in the smaller outlying cities. Also as long as you are on the I5 corridoor you she be fine as to contactor work. Good Luck and I hope you come to love washington as much as I have.

[wakalapi]

I reside in Yakima, where there is a 33% Hispanic population. The nearby towns of Wapato and Topp-en-ish are around 75% Hispanic. This is all right here on city-data.com's statistics pages. This area is known for having a very strong Latino population due to the agricultural industries. Not all Latino's are apple pickers, of course, there is a continually growing population of highly educated professionals within the Hispanic community, too. Many Mexican farm workers have gone to the Yakama Indian Nation's Heritage University and now own their own agricultural production and other businesses.

Yakima is very dry, with less than 7" of rainfall per year and 300 days of sunshine. They call it the "Palm Springs of Washington", ok well I call it (something else) but generally it's a decent place. The rolling hills surrounding the city are covered with sage brush and dry brown grass with some hills checkerboarded with fruit tree orchards. We have a comprehensive regional irrigation network here, in fact the canal I'm on is paid for entirely by property taxes for unmetered unlimited irrigation water (some canals charge dues or meter your irrigation water and bill you like city water). Our yard is as green as grass can get, and we don't ever run up our water bill to get it that way. Just turn on the irrigation pump and watch the underground sprinklers do their thing (U/G sprinklers are sort of a necessity here).

You can still get a very nice house for **well under $200k** here in Yakima, including brand new houses, including those in the nicer neighborhoods. The $500k you'd spend on a shoebox in New York would actually get you something that borders on extravagent in Yakima, and in our most "elite" neighborhoods (like we have those?). The more modest income neighborhoods here have super-affordable houses for $60k to 90K, too.

Do you like wine? This is one of the nation's top wine growing regions. Do you like beer? Most of America's supply of hops and 20% of the world's supply of hops is grown right here, too. I hope you like the smell of hops, because it fills the valley at harvest time. I learned to like it.

We have the Valley Mall, and we have the downtown mall coming back after some big time remodels. We have one Wal-Mart and it looks like another will be going in soon. There are restaurants to feed your every fancy (well I haven't found anywhere that has borscht so if you have your heart set on Russian cousine just drive 2-1/2 hours to Seattle).

OH YEAH there is a new Medical School about to be built just down the hill from us, too.

[sunsky778]

Thank you all for the helpful replies. How is the crime in Washington?

[sams]

property crime is through the roof (stolen cars especially) but violent crime is low.

example:
http://www.city-data.com/city/Tukwila-Washington.html

1241.9 makes it 7th in crime in the US. Mostly property related though

[Jamie D]

Man you would love it here. THere are so many people here. Everyone is very acceptable. There are all kinds of people. The weather is great and if you live near Seattle we don't get real harsh winters and really nice summers. There are a lot of things to do and see. Just expect more rain than your used to. But living around it is not as difficult. It's not so bad.




quote=sunsky778;123462]Hi, my family and I currently live in FL and are originally from NY. Needless to say like many NY'ers we came to FL looking for good housing prices and quality of life. Yes FL does offer you quality of life as far as activities goes, but that is it. The schools stink, everything is way over priced including housing. We are now selling our home and are wondering about relocating. We have thought of several differnet places, one of those places is Seattle, WA. We have also thought of going back home to NY. The problem is will we afford a 500K plus house now?

I am a school teacher and my husband is a contractor.

Here is my biggest question; My family and I are middle class Hispanics, and have not visited many states in the US except several on the east coast and California. We have learned that there are places that are unacceptable of Latins and that is a fear for me. For example we visited NC and were told that latins are treated like immigrants in that state, this was told to us from a realtor. He told us that culture wasn't well known in North Carolina and that everyone of latin decent were considered immigrants there. He also told us that our children might face racial issues in school. As you can all imagine I was frightened, and we didn't make that choice. What is Washington like in this aspect?

Jessica[/quote]

[aussiegal]

I have to put in my plug for western Washington. Here in the Skagit Valley, it is very lush and green. Mount Vernon has a 25% Hispanic population. Many job postings are asking for bilingual English/Spanish ability. There was an article in the newspaper over the weekend about an elementary school class here in Mount Vernon who were learning about the Day of the Dead so as to better understand the culture of their classmates. Great idea! I suspect there would be few racial difficulties at school.

My next door neighbors are Hispanic and the nicest people you'd ever want to meet. There is huge acceptance of Hispanic folks and Hispanic culture. Many of the local Hispanic community work in the fields in agriculture but there are also quite a number who are in responsible city jobs. There are specialized Hispanic food stores and markets, meat market etc. in town so that familiar foods are readily available.

You wouldn't have to pay $500,000 for a house in this area if you didn't want to. Great homes are selling around $225,000/$235,000. It seems a lot to someone from the mid-west but not when you're from Florida.

Anyway, hope this gives you a little bit more information and helps in your decision making. All the best.

[bellabella2]

We are a mixed (Latina/Caucasian) family. We lived in WA few years ago. We are hoping to return because we want to give our daughter a place to live where she wouldn't have to deal with a lot of racism. So far WA has been the place where I felt welcomed.
I am a Puerto Rican with a strong accent so I understand what you mean by being treated as an immigrant. I have to deal with the negative views of people on immigrants. Somehow the word "immigrant" has turn into "illegal immigrant" for many folks and thus we are all treated the same way. You will find that in Washington you won't experience as much negative expressions as you would in other places.
I love it there and I hope I can return.

[Sandy Nelson]

I find the area where I live (Olympia) to be very inclusive. We have a large population of Asians, Russians and Latinos. My immediate family in Olympia is a multi-culti mix of black and white, Panamanian, Mexican and German. I've not encountered discrimination or hostility and feel quite comfortable and at home here.

Sandy