Honest Opinions on Moving to PNW (OR vs WA)

[mitchmts]

My niece in Seattle that commutes from Federal Way to her job in Kent, says due to Seattle's truly horrible traffic problem (I hear the freeways need more lanes, for one thing) it takes her more than two hours to get home to Federal Way from Kent. Look at a map!

[fluffydelusions]

Originally Posted by mitchmts

My niece in Seattle that commutes from Federal Way to her job in Kent, says due to Seattle's truly horrible traffic problem (I hear the freeways need more lanes, for one thing) it takes her more than two hours to get home to Federal Way from Kent. Look at a map!

What's funny is I'm in Olympia and even though Portland is twice as many miles away as Seattle it has taken me roughly the same amount of time to get to either place when I've driven there.

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by mitchmts

My niece in Seattle that commutes from Federal Way to her job in Kent, says due to Seattle's truly horrible traffic problem (I hear the freeways need more lanes, for one thing) it takes her more than two hours to get home to Federal Way from Kent. Look at a map!

That cannot possibly be right unless she is walking. Federal Way and Kent are next door cities and there are dozens of different surface street options to drive between them that don't involve freeways. Shouldn't take more than 15-25 minutes depending on the exact to and from locations.

[notnamed]

What sort of "IT"? My company has a small Vancouver office and we hire the occasional QA automation(Java/Selenium) role or Java developer here. Mostly senior level and above as it is remote to the main offices in the east.

I relocated out here after we acquired the business that became this office as I've always wanted to live in the pacific northwest. I'm pocketing an extra $500/month in tax savings by living and working in WA. Which more than makes up for the cost of living difference. No real traffic to deal with since not going across the bridge to Portland. Do have some folks who live in Portland though and commute up here on occasion(work from home most days) which isn't as bad since it's a reverse commute.

[bler144]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

That cannot possibly be right unless she is walking. Federal Way and Kent are next door cities and there are dozens of different surface street options to drive between them that don't involve freeways. Shouldn't take more than 15-25 minutes depending on the exact to and from locations.

My commute can occasionally spike to 45-60 minutes in Portland even though I'm going a far shorter distance than that. There are just a few places that bottleneck, and if I haven't thought to check traffic before I'm already in it, there's not really any way out either.

[StealthRabbit]

Portland traffic is not nearly as bad as Seattle (parking lot freeways).

I prefer to work / travel off shift and seldom have delays. You can also use mass transit, including express city huses from WA side.

There are many reasons I prefer to live and work in WA, (jkk covered it) but love to have very quick access to PDX and make many trips per week to Portland parts stores and the like. (Unique stuff not found at big box). I don't purposely shop in Oregon to avoid sales tax, as my commercial tenants in WA need the sales activity to pay their WA B&O! WADOR makes it very ez to drop by and pay 'use tax' on OREGON purchases. You must declare that on all business expenses, like paper clips, waste baskets, pencils...(which you must also pay 'Personal property tax' to WA)

Fuel tax does not bother me much.... 3 million fleet miles, 50 mpg since 1976, no dinosaurs, batteries, or 'gas' (ick) stations required. I file fuel tax qtly with IFTA. Based on commercial miles driven in each state + CDN.