MOVING TO SEATTLE AREA - Advice pls :) (Spokane, Tacoma: for sale, apartments)

[mudbloodmexie]

My boyfriend and I are going to be moving to the Seattle area from Sacramento, CA here within the next few months, or at least attempting to. We are both Sterile Processing Technicians, him with a year of experience and I with none. If there are any Sterile Techs out there, is there any advice that you can give as far as which hospitals you prefer to work at? Any tips for applying to make the process easier? Average salary, etc.

And as far as the move to WA, does anybody know of any assistance we would qualify for that maybe isn’t well known? Or do you have any tips on making the initial move easier? Or any areas that we should be looking at moving? We are looking for an apartment, rent about $1150 for our max rental amount. We both have about $1360 in reoccurring monthly expenses (car ins., cell phone bill, credit cards, etc.) between the two of us. We have found apartments that meet this range, I am just not too familiar with the surrounding cities of Seattle.

If anyone has any advice for someone wanting to make the move up north, please let us know. Anything helps!

Thank you for your time

[Prince Mongo]

Don't.

[thatguy950]

$1150 will get your a room in King County but not a livable apartment, especially for two people. You’d need to double your budget to be within an hour of Seattle in a somewhat livable place. Seattle prices are AT LEAST as expensive as LA, and many day to day things you’ll use (like food) is significantly higher in Seattle than even SoCal.

Just an FYI too, there are tons of apartment scams in Seattle and the surrounding areas

[Unicorn hunter]

Scams...so true! My house was for sale, and I had a fellow come by asking about the Craig's list rental ad! Apparently, they get info on homes for sale, list them as rentals, probably at insanely low rates, then ask victims to wire deposit money. Be careful!

[CrazyDonkey]

With him having only a year experience and you none, don't move here without a job in hand, a wad of cash ($10k?), or a blank check from your parents.

For lower rents, look for jobs outside of Seattle: Tacoma, Lakewood, Everett, Olympia, Vancouver, Bellingham, Richland, Spokane, etc.

[Flightoficarus87]

Honestly, I would not recommend trying to move to Seattle proper, or the immediate suburbs w/a housing budget of $1150/month for two people. You're going to need at least several hundred more per month for most decent older 1 bedrooms, and closer to $2k/mo for a 2 bedroom (these figures can go higher depending on how nice of a place you want/how close in it is). It's basically Los Angeles/San Diego north here with cost of living these days, or at least not far off.

I used to recommend Tacoma as the cheaper alternative, but COL has ballooned there as well, from the middle class fleeing Seattle prices. Olympia might be a good option for you if you are set on western WA.

Bottom line, it isn't cheap to live here anymore.

[Algiz]

Originally Posted by mudbloodmexie

My boyfriend and I are going to be moving to the Seattle area from Sacramento, CA here within the next few months, or at least attempting to. We are both Sterile Processing Technicians, him with a year of experience and I with none. If there are any Sterile Techs out there, is there any advice that you can give as far as which hospitals you prefer to work at? Any tips for applying to make the process easier? Average salary, etc.

And as far as the move to WA, does anybody know of any assistance we would qualify for that maybe isn’t well known? Or do you have any tips on making the initial move easier? Or any areas that we should be looking at moving? We are looking for an apartment, rent about $1150 for our max rental amount. We both have about $1360 in reoccurring monthly expenses (car ins., cell phone bill, credit cards, etc.) between the two of us. We have found apartments that meet this range, I am just not too familiar with the surrounding cities of Seattle.

If anyone has any advice for someone wanting to make the move up north, please let us know. Anything helps!

Thank you for your time

Yes, there is assistance for people like you - it's called soup kitchens and tent cities for the homeless - which you'll be in a matter of weeks to a month if you come up here as you are.

I'm from San Diego and have lived here for 15 years, and have continued to drive down to see family in SD a few times a year and other family 4-5 times a year in NorCal, primarily Sacto, so I've remained current on prices and such. The prices here are more expensive than San Diego, pretty much on everything. I hadn't expected that when I moved here in 2003, and now it's astonishing that home prices are higher in Seattle than they are in San Diego. Who would have thought?!

And that's San Diego, not Sacramento, where the home one family member lives in is priced at 400K but in San Diego, the same house in a similar location, would be in the 700K range.

Why are you moving with the idea of needing public assistance?! Why are you bringing your problems to a place hoping for that place to fund you? Are you a troll hoping to get people all riled up about the droves of lame Californians moving up here? Surely, I've been taken, yea? Because I can't imagine anyone seriously contemplating such a move with your supposed resources and hoping a Seattlite can tell you where to get some free money at the WA taxpayers' expense. Yes, I'm sure you're a troll. But I"ll keep my post JUST IN CASE you're not.

[DutchessCottonPuff]

No, if you are serious I have said this before I had to be on FS and medicaid after my husband got laid off then seriously ill . I had to do some very unsavory things to make it.
Housing assistance is non existent with wait lists of 3 years plus or just flat out closed - and that is in King ,Pierce( Tacoma ) and Snohomish ( Everett ) counties, I have lived in all three trying to keep up with my rent . It's packed and has experienced a cultural shift during the past decade or so. like the others said don't do it without at least 10K in your pocket or more - and that will go fast . You really are seeing LA north .
Add the wet and cold and you have a mess living in a tent .

[Blondebaerde]

Originally Posted by Algiz

Why are you moving with the idea of needing public assistance?! Why are you bringing your problems to a place hoping for that place to fund you? Are you a troll hoping to get people all riled up about the droves of lame Californians moving up here? Surely, I've been taken, yea? Because I can't imagine anyone seriously contemplating such a move with your supposed resources and hoping a Seattlite can tell you where to get some free money at the WA taxpayers' expense. Yes, I'm sure you're a troll. But I"ll keep my post JUST IN CASE you're not.

"Never underestimate the degree of banality possible by One Post Wonders® who arrive w/o preamble, fail to read any of the near-identical threads on the same subject with lunatic constraints or conditions (over...and over...and over), then disappear like dust in the wind when the cognitive dissonance is exposed and challenged!"

-=Blondebaerde, Dec 2018

[myname_isborat]

You want someone to pay for you to move? Lol.