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I know this may be a weird and very specific question, but I need more answers than I am able to glean from google.
I was born and raised in NYC. Recently however it has become unbearable to live here. There are way to many people here fighting for resources that do not exist. (I mean there are over 8 million people living here and it is getting more and more crowded everyday.) I have a daughter (and no I am not a single parent her father and I are still together. We are just not married.) and the quality of life that she is currently exposed to is not what I really want for her.
So I have decided to move to Seattle. A city that has been calling my name for a very long time. With that decision I have applied to several of the hospitals in the Seattle area and was offered a position at Virginia Mason.
However, it comes right when my current job is offering me a promotion. Nothing big, but still something. So now I am hesitant and I need help.
Is there anyone on this forum who is from New York and worked at MSK or NYP and currently work at Virginia Mason? What are some similarities of cultures? What are some things that are better or worse? how hard is it to find a place in Seattle (compared to NYC) and how much would I actually have to have in the bank to sign a lease for say $2000?
I'm sure there are some other things that I am not thinking of so feel free to add things that you learned once you had made the switch!
Before I turn down either of these opportunities I want to make sure that I am looking at all of the angles and see if anyone could help with more information.
And by no means am I saying not to answer if you are a native of seattle! Your opinion in the matter would be invaluable as long as it comes from a place of true information sharing! ^_^
Hey thamm, hope your dream of moving out here works out. I moved here 26 years ago from the East Coast and still love it. Even though Seattle is an expensive place to live these days, I can tell you that my NYC relatives (Great Neck, Rye and Upper West) think house prices and rents are downright affordable when they come out.
$2k rent isn't going to get you far, if you want to live fairly central you'll be looking at a studio or maybe small one bedroom. You can push out a little bit, say to Northgate, and get a larger place. Pretty common is one year lease, 1st, last and a month's rent as deposit. As many on this forum have experienced, it is almost impossible to find a rental from out of town, it is very competitive. You have to be on the ground, have money, know what you are doing and be decisive.
Good luck with the transition, hope you love it. By the way, with a few exceptions, our pizza is rather mediocre
I don't have any directly comparable experience, although my son worked at NYP for a time and my late wife was associated with VMMC and the Benaroya Research Institute (as well as the Fred Hutch cancer center) for years. So for what it's worth, here are some second-hand observations.
The corporate culture at VM is undoubtedly in flux. Over the past decade VM has been very high flying, with high-profile and fairly charismatic leadership. "Best hospitals" awards etc. coming from right and left.
The impacts are probably department-by-department things at VM, and maybe everybody is rallying to the flag - it usually works that way. But I'd imagine that people there are really focused and determined to correct any defects or shortcomings in the operations; Seattle's medical establishment is enormous and very competitive (more like Boston or Philly than NYC) and I'm sure VM isn't enjoying its black eye.
It might well be a good place for advancement - the brooms might be out - but it would depend on your specific job or department.
On other fronts, I'll just mention a couple of things.
First, you may have to pay a lot for accommodation, but your take-home pay won't be diminished by state or city income taxes. Don't have 'em.
Second, VM's main campus is easily reached by a variety of transportation systems that serve lower-cost parts of town, but depending on your space requirements, you might find something very close to "Pill Hill" that's in your budget.
Third, even though Seattle is an expensive place to rent, it's not NYC just yet. Your 2 grand is going to get a lot more space than it would in NYC. No additional costs for air conditioning either; utilities are generally cheaper than NYC.
Homesinseattle Thank you! I've been working on it for sometime now and I really do hope that it will pull through. Ah, it's the same in new york with being on the ground. I have a problem with the way the city does things but I do wonder if you need a broker like here? In nyc to move you need 1st, last, deposit(Which is the same as the month of rent is that the same in seattle?) and then the broker's fee which is usually 10% of the yearly rent. So I have the cash it's just figuring out how much of it I will need. To give you an idea of where I am at now, I currently live on the upper east side in a one bedroom that we pay over 2000 a month for. The space is pretty small, but bigger than anything else in the city for our price range (I could def find more space in the outer boroughs, but I grew up in manhattan and made the choice to stay in it at the moment) the idea would be if I accepted the position I would fly out in a couple of weeks stay until I find a place and then head back to New York to pack. Would you say a week is a good amount of time to find something?
I wouldn't mind being in less of a central area as long as the school districts are good. I guess I am thinking of this the wrong way. In New York some of the best districts are in the center of the city, is it less so in seattle?
Gardyloo thank you for the article! I had read some things that I had talked about some transitions happening at the hospital I didn't realize it was due to loss of accreditation! It's making me second guess the offer now. I am already moving to a new place I wouldn't want to be placed in a position that put me on even shakier ground. Although it does sound like they are back on the right track to getting it back.
whoo hoo on the take home pay being higher! The taxes over here are INTENSE. Not for the fainthearted. (I nearly crapped myself when I saw how much was taken out of my check once. O_O lol)
Ok that makes me more optimistic. I know 2gs isn't "alot" in certain areas, but I would like it to be decent in others. I want it to be a better situation in Seattle than where I am now. I know Seattle is still expensive, but I have to agree with you it is not nearly as bad there as it is here.
Well I can't answer specifics to your questions, but being that we're about to go through this ourselves, I offer some insight.
We were able to get an apartment in Columbia City, Seattle for $2400 per month and it's about 975 sq ft. It's a 2/2 and has an amazing view. We looked at tons and tons of places, but everything near downtown had either only 1 bathroom (we desperately needed two) or was wayyyy overpriced. We settled on Columbia City because of how close the Link Rail was to our place and the fact that Downtown Columbia City was walkable and I loved how it was only 10 minutes to Downtown Seattle.
We are relocating from Florida to Seattle on our own and we only had to pay 1st month and $500 deposit, plus an admin fee of $250 (the community fee) and our pet fees. Grand total was about $3k.
We leave Florida second week of August and are driving over.
I will say there seems to be tons of jobs in Seattle, so in the end it might be a great move for you. I absolutely loved it when I first visited a year ago, and this year it's happening!
I grew up in Brooklyn when I was young, then lived in Detroit 15 years, then Florida 15 years and now headed to Seattle.
OP, I urge you to peruse the rental listings on Craigslist yourself, to get an idea of the market. There are 1-br. apts. all over town in good neighborhoods at well under your budget. The general range is $1500-$2000, and some are on Capital Hill, in the same general part of town as Virginia Mason. It all depends on whether you're ok with driving to work (in which case your options are wide open, and you can get a nice place for $1500 farther away from work) or whether you want to be on a transit line that will take you to work (you would still have some good, affordable options).
In my experience, fwiw, Virginia Mason has some outstanding departments and some really top-notch specialists and surgeons, along with some really lousy departments, but I think they've been working on improving their weak spots. Once you're in Seattle and have a job with them, you can keep your eyes open for something similar at one of the many other hospitals, if your job security is in question.
This is just a story for your entertainment, about a friend of mine who considered doing the opposite of you: moving from Seattle to NYC in search of a higher salary. She'd reached the top of her pay scale, and was looking around the country so she could continue advancing in her field. She got an offer from Columbia U., and went out there to interview. While there, she checked out the range of housing her seemingly new-and-improved salary would get her. Frankly, she was traumatized by what she found!!! (And it never occurred to her that there would be higher taxes cutting into her paycheck, either: that would have been an additional shock.) In Seattle, she had a 3-br. house in a nice neighborhood with a beautiful yard. In NYC? A 1-br. apt. at best! She called me in tears, really freaked out! It blew her mind. Needless to say, she's back home, being grateful for what she has.
This is just a story for your entertainment, about a friend of mine who considered doing the opposite of you: moving from Seattle to NYC in search of a higher salary. She'd reached the top of her pay scale, and was looking around the country so she could continue advancing in her field. She got an offer from Columbia U., and went out there to interview. While there, she checked out the range of housing her seemingly new-and-improved salary would get her. Frankly, she was traumatized by what she found!!! (And it never occurred to her that there would be higher taxes cutting into her paycheck, either: that would have been an additional shock.) In Seattle, she had a 3-br. house in a nice neighborhood with a beautiful yard. In NYC? A 1-br. apt. at best! She called me in tears, really freaked out! It blew her mind. Needless to say, she's back home, being grateful for what she has.
I guess it's all relative. A lot of people who move to Seattle are shocked by how expensive it is. And it is, compared to most places. What's higher, in the US? San Francisco, New York City, LA? I can't think of any others. People who move here from New York or California don't find Seattle to be expensive. But 200,000 dollars buys you a beautiful house in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
I guess it's all relative. A lot of people who move to Seattle are shocked by how expensive it is. And it is, compared to most places. What's higher, in the US? San Francisco, New York City, LA? I can't think of any others. People who move here from New York or California don't find Seattle to be expensive. But 200,000 dollars buys you a beautiful house in Hot Springs, Arkansas.
She bought her house before massive tech development and the subsequent rise in RE prices. I remember the first big sudden jump in prices happened around 2002. Not only did RE sales prices seemingly inexplicably jump, everyone's rent suddenly took a big leap, and a lot of people had to leave rentals they'd been in for years, some having to move out of the city altogether. Of course real estate had always gradually appreciated before that, but there was a sudden jump in prices around the early 2000's. My friend bought long before that.
I also recall UW faculty interviewing at Berkeley for jobs, and turning down the offers they got, shocked by the impossible RE prices (this, in the 80's and 90's). They returned to Seattle with a new appreciation for the homes they owned there.
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