Affordale Area for Family (Seattle, Spokane: apartments, rental, hotel)

[Dakota1014]

Hello!
As you may or may not know, I posted awhile ago about moving to Forks. I have a trip planned, tickets and hotel reserved, and I am very excited to see the area. My very good friend will be meeting me there (she's in Cali) and asked me to post a thread for her. All of my research has been directed towards the Olympic Peninsula, so I had no clue how to answer her questions.

She is a single younger mother to two boys, has three dogs; two are Pit Bulls (if there are any bans), she is an elementary school teacher, and she does not drive (medically unable).

She is interested in the Seattle area, largely due to the public transportation and ease of getting around car free. She is looking for an affordable and safe area, good schools, and ease of getting around. If she moves, she would rent a house, as most, if not all, apartments have a 2 pet max. If any other information is needed, please ask.

We plan to rent a car and spend a few days in Forks and a few in/around Seattle area. Where would some towns be that she should visit?

[Beautiful View]

There are no affordable areas that enable a car free life with good schools. Certainly no affordable houses for rent.

She'll need to find a way to be driven and put up with mediocre schools to get an affordable house, and even then she may have trouble finding a landlord who would accept 3 dogs.

[CrazyDonkey]

The three dogs will be a big problem. While Seattle does not ban pit bulls, finding a landlord to rent to her will be very difficult.

These cities/towns ban or restrict pit bulls:

Washington - Breed-Specific Laws - DogsBite.org

She might look at Tacoma, Olympia, Bellingham, Bremerton, and Spokane, all of which have fairly good transit for getting around.

[Hemlock140]

You didn't say what affordable is. Here in Seattle and the Eastside most cities are affordable if you make $150k or more, but under $50k requires roommates. If you have been looking in Forks, figure rent and home prices close to Seattle, within an hour will cost at least 4 imes as much as Forks.

[tobester]

Also, regarding Forks, remember you are visiting it at its nicest. Come back in January and see if you like it as much.

[flyingsaucermom]

Holy cow! That is a super challenging combination! Just being single on a teacher's salary is tough here. But to add 2 kids.. 3 dogs (2 of which are banned in several communities.. like mine).. and can't drive a car at all...

I am going to go with the extreme and say without other sources of income it's impossible for her to move to Seattle.

[Flightoficarus87]

Seattle is really the only city in WA (With the possible exception of parts of Tacoma) where it's practical to live a car-free lifestyle. But, "Affordable", and "Seattle area" go together like water and oil. Affordable will usually mean at least 60, but more like 90+ minutes away from Seattle, and it will be somewhere impractical to live car-free.

Many landlords here ban pitbulls from rental properties, and almost none will allow 3 dogs (Landlords that allow pets typically limit a tenant to 2). Regardless of housing budget, it will be next to impossible to find a landlord willing to rent to her on the pet situation alone.

Not trying to rain on anyone's parade here, but because driving isn't an option, I don't see moving here being possible for her without an extra source of income, and re-homing the pitbulls (or at least 1 dog).

[James Bond 007]

I concur with what everyone above said: That combination of needs/desires is going to be next to impossible in the Seattle area. She might be able to find a rental house in, like, Marysville or Arlington or Puyallup, or somewhere like that, that might accept the dogs and be somewhat "affordable," but living in those places sans a car would be a challenge. It is doable, since I myself have lived in Sammamish, Issaquah and even Silverdale for periods of time without a car, but you have to be willing to walk some pretty good distances just to get groceries or catch a bus (unless you get lucky enough to find a place near both). But with 2 kids to also tend to, that's going to be extremely difficult.

[Sockeye66]

Purple Squirrel!

Been awhile since we last seen him.

[blaserbrad]

Maybe Bremerton or Poulsbo? I think there's going to have to be some compromise involved