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Old 01-01-2007, 05:17 PM
 
1,454 posts, read 1,929,197 times
Reputation: 1254

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Hi Everyone,
My husband and I are in our mid 20's and looking to move to Washington within the next 6-12 months. I have a B.S in Business/Management and am studying to take the Bar Exam to practice Law. My Husband works at a construction firm doing estimating.
We think Washington sounds like a great state to live in and are looking for a more "small town" feel city, or live commutable distance (shorter the better!) from a city where we can both find good paying jobs. We want to buy a house when we move- we're just not sure where we should look at. We aren't the night-life loving kind of people, like the outdoors. We want to live somewhere that is pretty safe- and we know that comes with more expensive housing as well.
Does anyone have any good suggestions of places to look at? My Husband thinks that Olympia sounds nice- but it's just so hard to tell!

Thanks so much for your help!
J
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Old 01-01-2007, 05:57 PM
 
Location: Bothell, Washington
454 posts, read 899,483 times
Reputation: 187
I would take a map of washington and draw a circle around Seattle. That circle is an area of high priced homes, nightlife, excitement, city life, lots of professionals etc. Does not sound like your kind of place.

Draw a line to follow I-5 north to Marysville, South to south of Tacoma. This is what I consider the main I-5 Corridor. This is the main dense population and employement center of western washington. This area expands outward, the farther out you go to the east, the less employment, the more rural the areas will get. You can continue eastward to the foothills of the Cascade range where there in very rural and little employment.

Go west from I-5 you get more residential in areas, greatly increasing in value as you get to the Puget Sound waterfront/view homes.

Outside this corridor Olympia is the main center of population.

All of this to say that there are dozens if not hundreds of small town/feel areas in Western Washington, so it is hard to recommend an area. A visit to the area would be recommended to see what the area offers. You may end up needing to find employment opportunities, then finding the right feel for housing from there.
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Old 01-01-2007, 06:23 PM
 
1,454 posts, read 1,929,197 times
Reputation: 1254
Thanks you for your reply!

I work for a large Bank right now, and could most likely transfer to the area but my husband needs to find a job. We just don't want to accept jobs in an unfavorable area. There's a company in Bellevue that he's had an offer at- we just thought the area may be too expensive.
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Old 01-02-2007, 05:49 PM
 
41 posts, read 304,044 times
Reputation: 41
Bellevue is very expensive. The cost of living is about 50% over the state and national average. Also, it's more of a larger city feel. However, accepting the job there could be a good thing if you don't mind commuting. Because the cost of living is higher there, a lot of the jobs pay more. You could work there and commute from a smaller town east into the mountains. About 1 to 1 1/2 hour's drive (depending on snow conditions) will allow you to live in a small mountain town with tons of skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, atv driving, mountain biking, hiking, dirt biking, horse back riding, rafting, canoeing, fishing, swimming - you name it! The actual rural towns where you can do those things outside your front door are Easton (pop 464, low crime, one school, river runs through it, about 1 hr in good weather, houses and land are fairly cheap, up to 2ft of snow in winter), Cle Elum (pop about 1,700, most services within 30 miles, yet limited, beautiful mountain views, land and house prices go up from 170k for land and from 300k for decent homes, not as much snow as Easton but still plenty), Roslyn (where Northern Exposure was filmed, very quaint, touristy, more expensive). Those are the towns I'm actually familiar with and are within a reasonable commute to Bellevue or Seattle. Cle Elum is supposed to be the snowmobiling capital, although, I was just up near Leavenworth snowmobiling and that seemed most suitable but too many tourists. The mountain towns are going to get lots of snow in winter and plenty of rain but sunny and warm in summer.

Anywhere in the populated Seattle area is going to be expensive. In fact, the most desirable the place (ie, good schools, attractive) the more expensive the cost of living is. More and more people are moving out of Seattle and flooding the suburbs which causes the suburbian people to move even further out. All of this is causing land values to go up everywhere around Seattle. Now is a great time to jump on an investment in land just outside of Seattle. We bought a house in Maple Valley (30 miles south of Seattle) 6 years ago and our house has almost doubled in value, giving us a$165,000 increase. That rate of increase is not going on everywhere but increase is almost a sure thing.

I found this website to be a decent place to find basic information about any area, even if you don't have kids and are not looking at schools. It will tell you the cost of living in any given area, ethnicity, crime rate, median income, etc.

http://www.greatschools.net

Happy hunting! Washington is a great state, which is why the western side is so densely populated.
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Old 01-02-2007, 08:48 PM
 
534 posts, read 3,102,622 times
Reputation: 240
Olympia sounds like the place you're looking for... There are many small town communities within 30 minutes of the city, and housing is relatively affordable (anywhere outside of downtown is safe). You'd also be close to Olympic and Rainer Mt national parks for basically unlimited outdoor activities.

I wouldn't say the job market in the area is "strong" on any level, but Tacoma is a decent commute and it's job market is better. Most of the high growth areas in housing are in the south sound so for your husband, he'd probably have better luck finding a job in this area.
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Old 01-07-2007, 01:03 AM
 
1 posts, read 4,063 times
Reputation: 11
Smile We just moved to Olympia and LOVE it

My partner and I just moved here from the Los Angeles area and we are soooo happy!!! It is absolutely gorgeous and we are amazed every day that we did not move here sooner. I drive to work and see huge evergreens towering over me on each side, yet it's only a 20 minute drive to downtown. I, too, am a lawyer (public interest) and I have enjoyed my job thoroughly. I'm not sure how it would be to work in corporate law down here, but since this is the capitol, I'm sure there would be a lot of government lawyer or business type jobs.
This is a fabulous place to raise children. Kids are more "innocent" and the schools are great. I don't know if this is what you want, but Olympia is extremely liberal and we love that. My partner and I are gay and we are so welcome here. I don't think I've seen a single Bush bumper sticker in Olympia, but about a gazillion anti-Bush stickers. I hope this helps.

Oh, and I've never been to Bellevue but I've heard it as a place that is "more expensive than you can ever afford with less soul than you could ever imagine."
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Old 01-07-2007, 09:43 AM
 
291 posts, read 703,442 times
Reputation: 115
I concur with everything said above about Olympia, but some other likely candidates include Bellingham, Vancouver, and Wenatchee. All have growing economies, record low unemployment, and some nice small towns within easy commuting distance. As do many of the outer suburbs of Seattle, like Issaquah or Woodinville (although they are more expensive). I just wouldn't narrow your search too soon, that's all!
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Old 08-21-2010, 02:15 PM
 
9 posts, read 18,315 times
Reputation: 11
Hi-thinking of moving from So CA-San Diego to be exact.
Maybe Olympia-but is it a big enough city to find a job?
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