Calculating Cost of Living in Seattle

[packet]

I have noticed that the prices vary dramatically between insurance companies around here though. Allstate wanted something like $260/mo to insure my car, others wanted $110-130.

[Capo]

Can anyone share their experience with HOI and Property Taxes? Let's say, just to make something up, you own a 300k single family home in Bothel, what can you expect to pay a year?

What about property taxes, do these vary by city/county? What is a good ball-bark figure for estimating? Can you claim a homestead exemption in WA?

[huruta]

We just moved back home to SEA after 2 years in Dallas and do have a bit of sticker shock. Like WA, TX does not have state income tax nor sales tax on food from the grocery store.

However, gas, whole bean coffee and rent for a comparable place in an in-city neighborhood are all ~30% higher here than what we paid in Dallas (ouch!). Garbage/waste is nearly double -- not sure about water or electricity or gas yet. Our gas mileage sucks here too since we live in a very hilly part of SEA and drive a Honda Element.

Wine is more (>20%) for comparable bottles. We don't eat out much but it seems your average teriyaki place isn't as cheap as it was before we left and there are now extra charges for extra sauce, etc. Groceries at whole foods/farmer's markets where we usually shop are about the same as Central Market, a high end grocer in Dallas we shopped at so we haven't noticed as much of an increase there. Costco prices are about the same.

All this said I think after awhile you just get used to what things cost in the place you live and (hopefully) we won't notice it as much.