Northern Virginia vs Washington State / Pacific Northwest

[graceC]

OP, have you been there before? If not, I highly suggest you go visit. Go during their worst season, which is winter (Nov - Feb) so you can see if you can handle the prolonged period with no sunshine. Winter is also their dungeness crab season so if you love crabs, that's your reward after mucking around in miserable weather.

I've only been to Seattle a few times and the homeless situation there is no joke. They're loitering around in every street corner and inside fast food chains (McDs, etc).

Seriously, go check the place out for at least a couple of weeks before you make this big decision.

[Kieran Keating]

Despite NOVA and the Seattle metro's scenery, climate, and geographic locality being absolutely nothing alike, they are very alike socioeconomically. Both have a very fast-growing and diversified economy, nationally acclaimed school systems, and a large Asian American population, but also a very high COL and affordable housing shortage, as well as many brutal commutes. I've honestly not seen many homeless in NOVA (I live in Reston and stay in that area mostly) but there are certainly a great many in DC.

[newintown89]

I have lived in both areas and I can honestly say although I thought I would love Washington state, I did not feel at home there at all and ended up leaving the area within a year. I am in Austin now but I am actually trying to move back to northern Virginia this summer.

If you want amazing hiking, mountains and scenery, I will say that it is absolutely stunning for that. If you are used to NOVA weather, I think you will find Washington weather quite depressing, unless you like grey and rain. I thought it was hyped up, but I can honestly say 9 months of the year it was grey with that spitting cold rain which I find unbearable. If you like summers in the high 70's and 80's with little humidity, you may like the summers, although they don't last too long. For some reason, Washington felt really far away from the rest of the states to me. It was something I couldn't quite explain, but the vibe there is extremely different to the east coast.

I will also second what someone above said about the people. I never felt like I fitted in and I do not consider people there friendly at all. Very passive aggressive. I felt like people in NOVA were quite fast paced and career driven but most shoot from the hip. In WA I would take people at face value but they would say one thing, but actually feel the exact opposite. It was very weird culturally. I remember being in the line for a drive thru Starbucks which was a weird setup (it was in a lot with other shops but not very big, and you had to turn left into the drive thru from the lot. Some random guy knocked on my window and said " you know you are in the middle of the road right?" I was like, ummm yes I am turning to go into the drive thru! Very odd people indeed. To me, the beauty just wasn't enough to make me stay.