suncadia/roslyn/cle elum area (Seattle, Ellensburg: apartments, rentals, condo)

[cheerchix]

Hi there,

My husband has a job offer at the suncadia resort and we are trying to decide if this is a doable move for us. Being that we do not have a car at the moment, we would have to live within walking distance to the resort or close to public transit where the commute to work would be no more than 45 mins. When looking for apartments which towns/cities should we be looking at? Also are there any grocery stores or businesses close by where we can do day to day things without a vehicle for a few months?

Any insight would be great
~thanks!

[sean98125]

There is a bus company in Kittitas County but they don't seem to have a web site. If there is bus service it is probably pretty minimal in the Cle Elum area.

Cle Elum is the nearest town of any size to Suncadia, and you could certainly live in town and have all the businesses and services you need within walking distance. You'd have to walk a few miles to get from there to work, though.

[cheerchix]

do you know if there are many apartment rentals in Suncadia itself? Or would we have to look to Cle Elum for that sort of thing.

[M3 Mitch]

I guess you could try to find a house to rent or maybe downtown apartment in Roslyn proper, certainly you could ride a bicycle from there to Suncadia. I would expect any rental in Suncadia itself to be pretty pricy, but that's speculation, I have no first-hand information.

If you are even semi-handy, you definitely don't have to buy a new or late model (expensive) car to have a car, and, in rural WA, you pretty much need a personal vehicle. This is a dry, salt-free climate, so you can find some *very* old rigs in good condition, body-wise anyway. Various VW and Toyota cars from the 1980's can be found, any problems easily corrected (well, if you know what you are doing it's easy!) and there you have a car. The old air-cooled VW beetles are around, and are not much harder to tune than a lawn-mower - and you can find specialty shops that cater to them if you don't want to DIY. A bicycle or scooter (or pair of them) will fix you up for the summer, but, come fall, you will be wanting a car or truck of some sort IMHO.

I can tell you for certain that Greyhound does not stop in Roslyn, closest stop is Ellensburg. There are other bus lines like A&A but I'm not certain where they stop and their routes.

Good luck, eh!

[cheerchix]

yeah a scooter would be a great idea in the non winter months...just to get around town and maybe to work and back. I've had a hard time finding any apartment/condo or suite rentals online. How much can we expect to pay for a 2 bedroom in Cle Elum/Roslyn? I don't care if it's an apartment or suite, it doesn't really matter.

[M3 Mitch]

Both Cle Elum and Roslyn are really small towns, not sure they have apartment buildings as such, I don't recall seeing any but was not looking for them either. I do know that Cle Elum has several motels, you might work out a weekly rate with one of them as a start.

I honestly don't know what an apartment would go for in either town, and you may need to go there or at least call to find out.

Roslyn has a rustic, picturesque old downtown and I would expect there are some apartments above the businesses, but I doubt they are advertised. You probably have to "know somebody" to get in. Would it be practical for you to rent a car and visit the area? (I don't know if you would be better renting in Canada and then driving down, or take train/bus to say Seattle, then rent the car)

You could try Google...or maybe someone on the forum who actually lives in Roslyn will post...

[cheerchix]

Thanks so much for your suggestions. He will be going there for the interview next week so he will have some time to explore the town. Also they apparently will be putting him up somewhere for a month or 2 until he finds a place, which should help some.

[cheerchix]

So my husband's interview in tomorrow and we found out that if he gets the position his salary would be $55K (before taxes). After we get settled i plan on working PT so we have some extra money. But in the meantime can we afford to live off his salary for a few months? A little bit about us:

-We are in our late 20's with a 20 month old toddler.
-We do not have a car to start so we won't have any car related expenses.
-He will most likely bike/scooter it to work at Suncadia until early fall.
-We are renters, and not looking to purchase a home anytime soon.

Secondly when i do find work, does anyone know if there are public daycare centers in Cle Elum? And if so how much should i expect to pay a month? I budgeted like $800, is that too low?

[M3 Mitch]

If you budget well, you should be able to live OK on 55K, depends on how well you adapt to the area.

You may want to figure out how effective your (2nd) salary is once you allow for the $800 for day care, and the fact that your salary will all be effectively taxed at the highest rate that your combined salary gets into (so-called marriage tax)

Full Disclosure - I have no idea what day care costs in Cle Elum or anywhere else for that matter.

Are there any forum members who actually live in this area? I'm dispensing sparse and barely useful advice based on a few brief visits to Roslyn and/or Cle Elum on trips to Seattle...

[washingtons]

Hi, in roslyn they have busy buddies for daycare,thats what most people use but there are smaller ones. The only grocery store is a Safeway in Cle Elum, so they charge high prices. Most locals drive to Ellensburg when they get the chance to save on groceries. In south Cle Elum they recently built townhomes and some are being rented out but they are about 1200. a month-not cheap. There is one apartment building on state rout 903 but I cant think what its called. Roslyn and Cle Elum are beautiful areas but its always windy and cold in winter,spring and fall and sometimes summer. Lots of outdoor activities like hiking ,and rivers and lakes to play in.