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Me, my wife and our 4-year old live in a DC suburb (Rockville) and we've been planning on moving to Seattle for years. I currently make $100k as a software developer. I've been looking at all the cost-of-living calculators trying to find a good comparable salary. From what I've been able to gather so far, Seattle requires about 85% the cost you would need to sustain the same quality of living you have in DC. That leads me to assume that $85k should suffice. For those of you who have lived in both cities, is that a reasonable expectation? Also, is $85k a good figure to take care of a family of 3 (wife is a stay-at-home)?
Me, my wife and our 4-year old live in a DC suburb (Rockville) and we've been planning on moving to Seattle for years. I currently make $100k as a software developer. I've been looking at all the cost-of-living calculators trying to find a good comparable salary. From what I've been able to gather so far, Seattle requires about 85% the cost you would need to sustain the same quality of living you have in DC. That leads me to assume that $85k should suffice. For those of you who have lived in both cities, is that a reasonable expectation? Also, is $85k a good figure to take care of a family of 3 (wife is a stay-at-home)?
Live in a outlying suburb and that should be fine. But as a software engineer I think you could easily make the same as if you were in DC. I think main questions you need to ask is Where do you want to live, How far do you want to commute, and where do you want to work longterm? (large corp. like Amazon or Microsoft, Small company, or start up)
Seattle has better weather (cooler summers and milder winters), it's in a much more beautiful setting, world class outdoors at your doorstep (Olympic Nat. Park, Cascades, Mt. Rainier, Puget Sound), Vancouver B.C.and Portland OR for road trips, etc. I would take Seattle in a heartbeat. DC has oppressively hot summers and it not nearly as pretty. I think Seattle has a cooler vibe too, more hipster/organic vs. government DC.
I felt like visiting Seattle and from reading posts from locals that people in Seattle aren't typical city people like you would find in DC or places like Chicago or NYC ...just too much interest in outdoor stuff as opposed to other interests.. Culture there seems to revolve around eating healthy, discussing the environment, outdoor pursuits, music scene, technology, etc. The type that would rather go hiking, or dress up for cosplay, or to a linux meetup instead of going to a museum. Not enough high level cultural amenities there for me... That coupled with the public transit and walkability of DC would easily put it over the top for me.
I felt like visiting Seattle and from reading posts from locals that people in Seattle aren't typical city people like you would find in DC or places like Chicago or NYC ...just too much interest in outdoor stuff as opposed to other interests.. Culture there seems to revolve around eating healthy, discussing the environment, outdoor pursuits, music scene, technology, etc. The type that would rather go hiking, or dress up for cosplay, or to a linux meetup instead of going to a museum. Not enough high level cultural amenities there for me... That coupled with the public transit and walkability of DC would easily put it over the top for me.
After living in both, I never found DC people to be anymore cultured or sophisticated than Seattleites. Seattle people do eat healthy, love the outdoors and talk about the environment, but they also go to the opera, the ballet, museums and plays. Some like the Folklife Festival, Hempfest and the Fremont Festival. Plus the population of Seattle is highly educated. What I really like about Seattle is the people are not pretentious and are genuinely nice and down to earth.
I do like that most people are educated in Seattle. That might not be true about DC vs Seattle, I'm sure some of it is my own perception. DC does have the institutions though, but maybe the people aren't into it? In my experience they were, but might just be the people I know there.
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. Seattle people do eat healthy, love the outdoors and talk about the environment, but they also go to the opera, the ballet, museums and plays. Some like the Folklife Festival, Hempfest and the Fremont Festival. Plus the population of Seattle is highly educated. What I really like about Seattle is the people are not pretentious and are genuinely nice and down to earth.
