Thinking about moving to Washington State (Seattle, Spokane: for sale, to rent, assessor)

[CAmove]

My family and I are considering moving from California to Washington. I'm a pastor while my wife assists the youth in developing their career goals and prepare them with life skills. We have three teenage children. I say children however our oldest is and adult and our middle one is right behind.

I've only seen Washington through pictures and internet searches. As beautiful as it is, does anybody have any recomendations for my family and I? I'm not looking to break the bank, we are leaving CA. We're just a little tired of all the stuff here and want a change and a more peaceful setting.

Thanks everyone, God bless you always

[GameHog9]

What are you looking for? Eastern and Western WA are polar opposites in every sense of the phrase

[CAmove]

Nice neighborhood, low crime. Somewhere that has places close enough so that my wife and I can still go out together for a date night. Our eldest kids have just finished their first semester in College so we'll need to find a good school nearby. We have a lab she'll need some running room.

[StealthRabbit]

Camas, WA is close to many schools and activities in Portland, Property Taxes are high, but vary by taxing district (Check with assessor for any county in WA BEFORE buying).

For the east side, I would look to Wenatchee, Ellensburg, Walla Walla for bigger cities (Spokane is a bit too big). Smaller towns can be good too, and possibly you could do the 'multiple-church-pastor' thing I found over by Tekoa and Fairfield (South of Spokane). It really worked pretty good since the towns are too small to support too many churches. People tended to get along better too,

Be warned... WA is among the least churched states, and is often a subject of study in relationships as a result of that. I would consider having another source of income. WA could definately use a few good pastors... this CA style 'seeker thing' is pathetic for solid growth, but that is the steady diet for the most part. (WA is a 'Me-too' state, our Gov is dying to be just like CA )

You have an "ideal" of WA. Do you want TALL green and soggy (West), or dryland / irrigated and flat (farming)Middle WA or pine forests (NE and far SE)?

[RobE]

If you want to move to a conservative area, east of the Cascades would perhaps be more comfortable for you. Western Washington is very liberal, especially the Olympia and Seattle areas. The only thing is that some of those areas might get a fair amount of snow (though I don't know the particulars, so check on that) while in Western Washington we generally get only 1-2 days of snow and it's usually only enough to dust the roads.

[CAmove]

Pine forests (NE and far SE) sunds about right. The taxes in CA are running awy with every disposable earnings anyone can have, so we might want to look at where the taxes might be lower than other areas.

No big cities anymore; I'm a fool for the city but I'm tired of being thier fool.

Is there much snow in NE or far SE?

As far as reahing into one of the "least churched states", We are in one of the most churched areas however, no one seems to care. It has become almost therapy for self and not life changing for others. I have found that the least churched are just hungry people waiting to be fed. It's not that they don't want what you're saying, hteir just tired of sampling the same plate.

We may want to rent before commiting to buying, how is the rent in the NE or far SE?

Thanks for everything

[GameHog9]

Originally Posted by CAmove

Nice neighborhood, low crime. Somewhere that has places close enough so that my wife and I can still go out together for a date night. Our eldest kids have just finished their first semester in College so we'll need to find a good school nearby. We have a lab she'll need some running room.

I assume youre coming from LA, right? In any event, you might find Spokane comfortable. Theres a university nearby (Eastern), it has a private university (Gonzaga) and a community college. Not sure about the lab part, but its calm, especially compared to a big city like LA. The only thing you may not like about Spokane is that there is no big city nearby (Spokane has a population of like 200k), its a 3-4 hour drive to Seattle and even farther to Portland. If you are okay with that then you may want to investigate more.

Also, Spokane has nice weather compared to rainy Seattle/Portland, its always overcast in those cities, but Spokane is located in Eastern WA.

[j_k_k]

I enjoy the great irony of a Germanic heathen assisting a Christian minister in finding his family a Washington home. Well met, Reverend.

While Washington is indeed a fairly un-churched state, what that will mainly mean for you is that most religion here is fairly low-key. In Alabama, when you move to town, a standard hello question is 'What church do you go to?' There are very few parts of Washington where many people would be so forward. However, every region of the state has its percentage of the population that attend church; it's just more so outside Seattle/Tacoma/Everett. It's safe to say that there is greater tolerance here for non-mainstream religion than in some parts of the nation. For example, east of the mountains we have Hutterite and Old German Baptist communities; my own area is about 25% LDS, has a little synagogue and a mosque. No one bothers anyone to speak of.

A lot comes down to climate. Washington has a lot of them. None are paradises, but some are milder in this or that respect. The west side is wet but not very snowy, except of course for the mountains. The north central/east is snowy. The southeast is fairly to very arid, gets pretty cold and pretty hot, with islands of exception.

With a few noteworthy exceptions, such as some towns in the Yakima Valley with serious gang trouble, most of the state is fairly tranquil and light on crime. State universities/colleges are found, in some form, all around the state--but your largest options are Bellingham, Seattle, Ellensburg, Spokane (Cheney, really) and Pullman.

You might really like Walla Walla. Pretty good schools, moderately religious area but not obtrusively so, quaint small town. Only drag is distance from a state university. Might like Ellensburg even better: mix of old cowtown and modern college town, lovely setting. Spokane or nearby is another possibility. All of these places have reasonably affordable housing.

Good luck.

[yukiko11]

I am originally from California and currently live about 30 miles north of Seattle in Snohomish County.
A lot of the people who have lived here are descended from the original pioneers who settled in this area many years ago. Some are descended from the Vikings that came before them. You can still see the old houses and old barns in the area. I have found this area to be filled with church going families. I agree that western Washington is very liberal, however that is mainly because of all of the people who have come from other areas of the country and the world to populate it. The basic population is very similar to the midwest.
You should really plan to have a 2-3 wk vacation here to see if this is the atmosphere that would work for your family.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by CAmove

Pine forests (NE and far SE) sunds about right. The taxes in CA are running awy with every disposable earnings anyone can have, so we might want to look at where the taxes might be lower than other areas...
Is there much snow in NE or far SE?
...
We may want to rent before commiting to buying, how is the rent in the NE or far SE?..

Check out (NE) Colville (drier) and Newport (strong Mennonite population, and wetter area). My friend in Ione says going west (Colville) for groceries is like entering the banana belt, while they have 2-3' of snow all winter in Ione.

for SE, there are few towns.
Dayton, (I like Waitsburg), Pomeroy, Walla walla for the big town (SDA centric)

Definitely rent first. Rents will likely be cheap but few in these remote areas. Houses stay for sale for years (maybe you can house sit ). The pastor friend that attends multiple denominations and congregations chose the Lutheran parsonage to live in and rents out the other parsonages to pay utilities and upkeep on all the other props. (Its a sweet deal). I like the fact the churches join together every week for SS and monthly for potlucks. They rotate service times every 5 months to avail differing time options to all congregations.

Socially I have found agrarian cultures (SE) to be more friendly and outgoing than timber, but I'm a prairie kid!

Visit Onecho for a service (Very mission focused / rural / farm church).

I would also consider Moscow, ID (pine forests + university)

Taxes in WA are not great, just different. I pay $33/day or $12k/yr in property taxes on a joint I built for under $100k (14 yrs ago). The assessor really seems to like it... Bring me prop 13 ID might be better for overall taxes.

Do you have any kids HS jrs or younger?. Can't beat WA Running Start program (Free college instead of HS for grades 11 & 12). It saved my kids a couple yrs tuition each. They entered U as full freshmen, and even knew how to study!