3 people living in Portland or Seattle areas making 70k doable? (Pacific: best neighborhood, apartments)

[Naturelovr]

My husband and I are very fond of the pacific north west and are hoping to move to either Seattle or Portland surrounding areas. Our combined income is at 70k but have possible upward mobility.
Would this be doable in either places?
We also plan on having a child so this would have to be enough for 3 people to live comfortably.

[JBVirtuoso]

The short answer is yes.

But that glosses over a lot of important issues. Most importantly, where do you live now, and what kind of living standards do you expect? In which industries do you work? Are they prevalent in the Pacific Northwest? Do you have student loan or credit card debt? How much upward mobility do you really have?

Without knowing more about your needs, I'd say it should be possible if you're okay with renting a small-ish apartment off the beaten path and are really dedicated to working hard to build up your income stream by the time the baby comes. You probably won't be able to buy a home right away unless you've been working toward a big down payment.

If you're coming from the Northeast, California, or Chicago, you won't be shocked by the cost of living here, but for others, it can be an eye-opener. In general, things get cheaper the further you are from downtown Seattle. Portland is cheaper overall, though has a worse job market and higher income tax, and still isn't cheap by national standards.

[GoBlueInSeattle]

Originally Posted by Naturelovr

My husband and I are very fond of the pacific north west and are hoping to move to either Seattle or Portland surrounding areas. Our combined income is at 70k but have possible upward mobility.
Would this be doable in either places?
We also plan on having a child so this would have to be enough for 3 people to live comfortably.

It will be a challenge in Seattle, unless you look in some of the far less desireable areas, at which point, what's the point.

Portland, on the other hand, has much more affordable housing market than Seattle given that its job market is structurally weaker than Seattle (it lack the kind of Boeing/Microsoft/Amazon job base we have in Seattle)

[BATCAT]

To echo others above, I would say, as a really general statement, that two could get by here on 70k, but it would mean some frugality and sacrifice. "Relative comfort"? Well... that's indeed relative.

Raising a child on around that much here? I'm sure it's been done, but I wouldn't want to try it.

[noah]

Given that the medium household income in Seattle is $52k lots of people do it on less than $70k. Of course you can ask 100 people and get 90 different answers on what income you need to live somewhere.

Economic Indicators - Income Distribution - Seattle Office of Economic Development

Originally Posted by BATCAT

To echo others above, I would say, as a really general statement, that two could get by here on 70k, but it would mean some frugality and sacrifice. "Relative comfort"? Well... that's indeed relative.

Raising a child on around that much here? I'm sure it's been done, but I wouldn't want to try it.

[BATCAT]

Originally Posted by noah

Given that the medium household income in Seattle is $52k lots of people do it on less than $70k. Of course you can ask 100 people and get 90 different answers on what income you need to live somewhere.

We have quite a few "households" of one in Seattle, though...

I can't argue with your second statement. It's all relative. Two people won't starve on 70k here, but their lifestyle might fall short of what some people (again, some people) call "relative comfort".

[RustinginSeattle]

I think there is a difference between growing up here and getting by on $52K (Especially if you bought a house years ago, so don't have to pay expensive rent!!) and moving here expecting a certain lifestyle for your money. What is the big draw here? I could move to Hawaii, but I would definitely have to become very very frugal to afford to put my kid in private school (given the reputation for schools in HI) and buy a house.

I have two kids. When they were preschool age, I paid the nanny (my mom) $1200 per month, plus paid $350 per month per kid for part time preschool. That's $1900 per month just in child care. As long as I worked really hard and didn't spend any time at home with my kids, I could afford it. :-) I'm sure you could do it for less, but that was a community center preschool, nothing fancy. Childcare costs are a lot around here.

[mrazyattic]

I live in the San Francisco bay and the 3 of us get by on less than 60 (we're students). We actually live in new apartments as well. It takes frugality but I am sure it can be done in the PNW where the COL is lower than here.

[RVD90277]

yes it's doable. $70k means roughly $50k take home after taxes which is roughly $4k/month. budget around $2k for rent and $1k for utilities and spending and you're left with $1k to save for emergencies, travel, etc.

$2k for rent means you won't get a nice house in the best neighborhood but you can get a decent house about 30-45 minutes away from seattle or a small apartment 15 minutes away from seattle.