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Old 07-28-2014, 08:16 AM
 
Location: a warmer place
1,748 posts, read 5,515,545 times
Reputation: 769

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Quote:
Originally Posted by musman View Post
Wow. double is quite alot. 20K increment wouldnt go long way. I guess.
I'm not trying to discourage you from moving here because I am really glad that I did. So I will say here the variety and quality of food is so much better. As a family we eat so much healthier, (organics, fresh fish etc). So hard to be mad about that! In general for me any difference in the cost of living is offset by how much I like it here.

If you can negotiate for more cost of living increase go for it. Otherwise you will be totally fine on that income.
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Old 07-28-2014, 10:59 AM
 
731 posts, read 932,875 times
Reputation: 1128
Are you supporting a family on $90K or just yourself? If it's just you, you will be just fine. You won't have loads of money left over for fancy vacations, like you might living in Atlanta, but if you've been looking forward to living here, you can make it work.
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Old 07-28-2014, 11:35 AM
 
Location: Seattle
338 posts, read 846,577 times
Reputation: 331
I disagree with sales tax being much higher. Guess it depends on where you lived before. I lived in Dallas before, and the sales tax here is only .5% higher.
Groceries are about 15-20% higher. Gas is about $1 more/gal., but with more public transit, that doesn't even touch us now.
Utilities went WAY down for us, as did insurance. Eating out at restaurants increased 40-50% more. Housing was about double for us. as well.
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Old 07-28-2014, 11:48 AM
 
2,609 posts, read 2,495,234 times
Reputation: 3705
Quote:
I'll be relocating in a couple weeks, and my husband works in Bellevue. You can expect to pay between $1800-$2200 for the average 2/3 condo or townhouse in the areas surrounding Bellevue.
I rent in Bellevue and I agree with this, extending it to house rentals as well. Some were less expensive, and some were significantly more expensive, but this is the price range we were looking in, and found lots to choose from in that range.

Coming from Hawai'i, I also noticed that gas was cheaper, groceries cheaper (although restaurants are much the same, but with higher tax), sales tax more than twice as much (although no tax on groceries, which was nice!), and electricity much, much, much cheaper! We were paying $500/month just to run appliances there, and here we pay about $50/month to do the same. Water/sewer is definitely more expensive here, however, and we didn't have trash bills in Hawai'i (take it straight to the dump). Not helpful to you, I'm sure, since Atlanta is surely cheaper than Hawai'i on all those counts

I will say that we are a family of 5 making significantly less than 90K at the moment, and are doing ok, but there isn't a lot of money for "extras" right now. The kids qualify for state insurance and reduced lunch prices, which helps us tremendously. We don't take any other benefits (haven't even looked to see if we qualify) and do ok.
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Old 07-28-2014, 12:35 PM
 
280 posts, read 349,840 times
Reputation: 85
Quote:
Originally Posted by gkrispy View Post
I rent in Bellevue and I agree with this, extending it to house rentals as well. Some were less expensive, and some were significantly more expensive, but this is the price range we were looking in, and found lots to choose from in that range.

Coming from Hawai'i, I also noticed that gas was cheaper, groceries cheaper (although restaurants are much the same, but with higher tax), sales tax more than twice as much (although no tax on groceries, which was nice!), and electricity much, much, much cheaper! We were paying $500/month just to run appliances there, and here we pay about $50/month to do the same. Water/sewer is definitely more expensive here, however, and we didn't have trash bills in Hawai'i (take it straight to the dump). Not helpful to you, I'm sure, since Atlanta is surely cheaper than Hawai'i on all those counts

I will say that we are a family of 5 making significantly less than 90K at the moment, and are doing ok, but there isn't a lot of money for "extras" right now. The kids qualify for state insurance and reduced lunch prices, which helps us tremendously. We don't take any other benefits (haven't even looked to see if we qualify) and do ok.
I got you.
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Old 07-28-2014, 12:36 PM
 
280 posts, read 349,840 times
Reputation: 85
Quote:
Originally Posted by RustinginSeattle View Post
Are you supporting a family on $90K or just yourself? If it's just you, you will be just fine. You won't have loads of money left over for fancy vacations, like you might living in Atlanta, but if you've been looking forward to living here, you can make it work.
Family of 4.
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Old 07-28-2014, 12:40 PM
 
280 posts, read 349,840 times
Reputation: 85
Quote:
Originally Posted by kaonevar View Post
I disagree with sales tax being much higher. Guess it depends on where you lived before. I lived in Dallas before, and the sales tax here is only .5% higher.
Groceries are about 15-20% higher. Gas is about $1 more/gal., but with more public transit, that doesn't even touch us now.
Utilities went WAY down for us, as did insurance. Eating out at restaurants increased 40-50% more. Housing was about double for us. as well.
We are family of 4 with kids. How tough is it to live without car? Does public transport do well for you?
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Old 07-28-2014, 01:09 PM
 
Location: a warmer place
1,748 posts, read 5,515,545 times
Reputation: 769
[quote=musman;35846344]We are family of 4 with kids. How tough is it to live without car? Does public transport do well for you?[/QUOTE

I think with a family you would want to have a car. It is doable without one but in my opinion would be difficult. My family lives in the city and in a walkable neighborhood as well and we seem to need a car far more often than I would have thought. One of my kids has some health issues and we need to flexibility to get to different specialists all over the city and sometimes in the suburbs. Even if this wasn't an issue for your family with kids activities, school functions, regular Dr. appt's etc it would take a heck of a lot of planning using public transportation. You would definitely be driving less than Atlanta so you'd have gas savings simply because you'd fill the tank a lot less. Things are much less spread out than in the Atlanta area and the public transport is much better.
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Old 07-28-2014, 04:24 PM
 
Location: Seattle
458 posts, read 955,727 times
Reputation: 287
Car for sure...family of four 135k a year to not feel pinched! If you can get the cost of living increase and no harm no foul for asking then definitely ask!
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Old 07-28-2014, 04:56 PM
 
Location: Seattle
338 posts, read 846,577 times
Reputation: 331
Quote:
Originally Posted by musman View Post
We are family of 4 with kids. How tough is it to live without car? Does public transport do well for you?
Well, I'm self employed and my husband works for Amazon. Because we live in Magnolia, near South Lake Union (where Amazon is), public transit works well for us. YMMV.
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