Seattle cost of living - is a 50k salary enough? (Tacoma: sales, apartment complex)

[pray4mojo1]

A position opened up in Seattle area through my company. I have a couple questions maybe ya'll can help me with. The potential territory would be from Seattle (Western most store) Issaquah (Eastern most store) Everett (Northern most store) and Kent (Southern most store).

1. What city/town/neighborhood would you all recommend? I'd like to get a 2 bed 2 bath for less than $1400, and go against rush hour traffic. We also need a place that's reasonably close to downtown, for my girlfriend may need to commute daily.

2. Ferries. Are there any communities that have a fairly quick ferry ride to the Seattle side, that would be cheap enough to justify the extra wait time? My company would write off the cost, and I really would prefer to live outside the city.

3. Car registration. Is it still expensive?

4. Fly fishing and crabbing. Places close to Seattle to go camping, fishing, crabbing, ect?

5. Pay. Realizing everyone gets paid in Seattle, can I live a reasonable life on 50k a year?

6. What places have the worst traffic? What places have the worst crime? What places just suck?

7. Any toll roads/toll bridges that can save me significant amounts of time?

Going to make a weekend trip IF I accept the offer. Until then, I'm trying to consider everything. We've lived in LA, Eugene, Denver, Vail, and Portland previously.

Thank you

[mkarch]

If you have to cover all that territory, there are no places that will allow a reverse commute to each point during rush hour so you can take that out of consideration now. You can find a location that will have 1 or two of those points with a reverse commute, but once you cross the lake or downtown Seattle or Bellevue, you'll be in the traffic again.

[pray4mojo1]

Thank you. On a map, it looks like North/East/South of Bellevue would work. Any good cities around there that are reasonably safe and affordable? Sammamish maybe?

[mkarch]

Sammamish is really suburban and high income. Finding a $1400/mo rental there is less likely. East Bellevue or Factoria might have some apartments in the price range you're looking for and be close to I-90.

[Blondebaerde]

1. You've covered the four corners of Seattle metro, not including Tacoma, thus dunno where you "should" live to avoid traffic. But the girlfriend/downtown thing settles it, now doesn't it?

If you are adventurous, try Georgetown or Columbia City. They are cheap(er) and cool(er), AFAIK, though I've only visited both occasionally for the food. Smarty Pants and Stellar in Georgetown, various cafes in Columbia City.

2. Ferries are quick(er) if you walk on. I'd ride a motorcycle, but that takes a sense of adventure to do more than 9 months/year in this area. Driving on/off is time consuming, for any of them.

3. The "expensive" question again. Some on this forum find $3K/month mortgage "affordable," others freak because they may need to pay $1,400 for a one bedroom rental. Not that you're freaking, but just saying. Who the hell knows, the topic deserves a sticky and if I'm bored maybe will try a draft. Things are changing rapidly in the rental market, it's all over the news. Trulia has an awesome heat map showing current prices, and other resources, as does Zillow. And probably other, even better, sites.

4. Yes, the crabbing part. A late friend of mine used to go, not far up north. Dunno where, but he was always dead broke so it must have been cheap. Cost of entry is very low, made sense to me. Would that I had cheaper hobbies.

5. Single, sure. Not awful, anyway. I lived frugally, on that kind of money (1991 dollars), out of college in California. If the GF has income coming in, that will positively affect the answer, obviously.

6. Worst traffic? Anywhere N or S on I-5 during rush hour around the city center. Crime? S. Rainier, "I think." Just plain "sucks?" Depends what you want out of life, your tolerance level. Out of college I lived in an apartment complex with the cops turning up at least every other weekend: I didn't care, and was out partying myself half the time. Today, I have zero tolerance for ghetto behavior where I live, thus reside in a suburbia kind of town (Kirkland). I'll leave it thus.

7. Both bridges (I-90 and 520) can be a bag of suck; traffic patterns have changed past few years due to tolls on 520. If they toll I-90, curious if all will return to normal. I don't drive them daily, but may later this year.

You'll surely need that weekend trip. Rentals are tough these days, see elsewhere for more: I personally suspect that will guide a lot of your decision criteria, regardless of anything else.

Wish it was easier for newcomers: in 1998, I printed a bunch of stuff from the then rather-new "Internet-thingy," caught a cheap flight up to Seatac, and had a half dozen or more rentals examined on a Saturday and money put down by Sunday morning on a place I really liked. Lived there 1.5 years w/no complaints. Probably tougher now, seems like a lot more chance involved, more-costly, etc. Seller's market.

[Inkpoe]

1. What city/town/neighborhood would you all recommend? I'd like to get a 2 bed 2 bath for less than $1400, and go against rush hour traffic. We also need a place that's reasonably close to downtown, for my girlfriend may need to commute daily.

Renton/Bellevue area, and Seattle Proper like Beacon Hill area, though the budget might prove competitive.

2. Ferries. Are there any communities that have a fairly quick ferry ride to the Seattle side, that would be cheap enough to justify the extra wait time? My company would write off the cost, and I really would prefer to live outside the city.

No. Unless the extra time you have to spare is an extra 1+ hour of commute/wait time, given how huge your territory is.

3. Car registration. Is it still expensive? Still expensive ... compared to when? If you're talking about over 20 years ago, is actually cheap now. But that just trigger another discussion (and perhaps a bash fest on Eyman).

4. Fly fishing and crabbing. Places close to Seattle to go camping, fishing, crabbing, ect?

Washington Fishing and Shellfishing | Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife

5. Pay. Realizing everyone gets paid in Seattle, can I live a reasonable life on 50k a year?

Depends on how frugal you are and what expenses you have.

6. What places have the worst traffic? What places have the worst crime? What places just suck?

Seattle Metro traffic just plainly suck overall. People will say the Southend is just baaaaaaaaaaad; it's not. Places that suck-- highly subjective.

7. Any toll roads/toll bridges that can save me significant amounts of time?
Given your territory, nope.

[pray4mojo1]

Thank you all for the info. Really helpful. This raises more questions...

1. What about Bothell, or West Seattle? There seems to be a lot of apartments in our price range in Bothell. West Seattle is close to downtown, and it seems like I would go against traffic to some degree.

2. Are Renton, Kent, West Seattle, Columbia City, or Georgetown particularly dangerous? I've looked at crime statistics. They seem OK, I'm mostly concerned about gang activity, robberies, ect.

3. Also, anyone have experience on registering they're car from out of state? Just looking for a ballpark figure. Anything under $1000 would be OK. It's a 2005 coupe if that helps.

[wutitiz]

Here is the info on registration of out-of-state cars.
WA State Licensing (DOL) Official Site: Moving? Get Washington license plates

The license tab tax used to be insane, but in 1999 a guy named Tim Eyman ran a $30 tab tax initiative (ballot measure) which was passed overwhelmingly by voters. It then was tossed by the courts, but the legislature took note of the voter anger and backed off. Since then it has crept back up, but nothing like it used to be. Expect your annual tab tax to be in the vicinity of $100. Democrats are constantly trying to bump it back up, but I don't think it will ever get back to the point where it was.

Median household income in King County is $67,000, so you will not be living the high life, but IMO can do just fine on 50K.
Per capita personal income and median household income in King County

[pray4mojo1]

I read something about registration getting reduced in Washington, thank you for the clarification. When I bought my car in Colorado, I ended up paying $1300 in sales tax and registration fees. That's why I'm preoccupied with registration costs.

[Inkpoe]

Originally Posted by pray4mojo1

Thank you all for the info. Really helpful. This raises more questions...

1. What about Bothell, or West Seattle? There seems to be a lot of apartments in our price range in Bothell. West Seattle is close to downtown, and it seems like I would go against traffic to some degree.

2. Are Renton, Kent, West Seattle, Columbia City, or Georgetown particularly dangerous? I've looked at crime statistics. They seem OK, I'm mostly concerned about gang activity, robberies, ect.

3. Also, anyone have experience on registering they're car from out of state? Just looking for a ballpark figure. Anything under $1000 would be OK. It's a 2005 coupe if that helps.

1.) Going against traffic to some degree with West Seattle option would be the Kent location, as long as you avoid the West Seattle bridge. At this point, you need to realize, there is really no such thing as "going against traffic" in the Seattle Metro... our main work centers are widely spread out and not limited to Seattle only.

2.) No areas here are "particularly dangerous". Renton, Kent and Columbia City have areas are that a bit run down and have some crime... but still the rest are good areas to live in. West Seattle is a perennially popular place-- Just about everyone loves that city. Georgetown is underrated and understated, there's a lot going on under the surface with the quirks and awesome things that give it character.

3.) Ya, you'll be ok.