Young married couple - contemplating Spokane (Bellevue, Riverside: fit in, apartments, rent)

[mikester23]

Hey Everyone,

I have read many many posts regarding Spokane. Pictures I've seen look beautiful and soo many parks

My wife and I both have grown up in the Southern Cali area, and are tired of the heat, traffic, and ghetto-ness along with high house prices. I'm fortunate to be working form home as a Technical Support Engineer for a software company...EMC, anyone ever heard of them?

We've seen house prices go from 100,000 up to the millions in Spokane. We love the old victorian and craftsmen houses, but the ones that are 250,000 and below are they in the "ghetto"?

The only thing I'm worried about is if I was to lose my job, would I have a chance of anything IT related in Spokane?

We can't stand the "city" life, like in LA, but is it easy to meet and befriend other married couples?

I did live in MD for about a year and did experience the Winter, it was cold, but manageable, how does Spokane weather compare to So Cali and MD?

Also, is this a place one can stay active year round? Being healthy is very important to us.

Thanks,

Michael

[WendyK]

You'll be able to find an older home in a good area for $175-250,000 - lots of possibilities there....You'll also have lots of ways to meet other people by taking a non-credit class through the community college, joining a church, joining a recreational type club, etc. You can pick up a local Inlander Newspaper and see all the possible activities including music, arts, sports, nightlife, classes and more.
Winters here will be totally different than southern CA, and more severe than MD too. We have 4 distinct seasons and each of those will have variations. Lots of active people here and plenty of sporting activities to do year round inside and out. I've seen more bike riders this year than ever before...maybe due to gas prices??
I'm not sure about job opportunities - there are a lot of techie type companies here. You might want to do some research ahead of time and see where you might fit in if your job doesn't work out. Check the Spokane craigslist postings to see what types of jobs are available.
You will not be the first people to come here from CA, that's for sure!! You'll find plenty of others who moved away for the very same reasons you're thinking of leaving.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by mikester23

My wife and I both have grown up in the Southern Cali area, and are tired of the heat, traffic, and ghetto-ness along with high house prices. I'm fortunate to be working form home as a Technical Support Engineer for a software company...EMC, anyone ever heard of them?

We've seen house prices go from 100,000 up to the millions in Spokane. We love the old victorian and craftsmen houses, but the ones that are 250,000 and below are they in the "ghetto"?

The only thing I'm worried about is if I was to lose my job, would I have a chance of anything IT related in Spokane?

We can't stand the "city" life, like in LA, but is it easy to meet and befriend other married couples?

I did live in MD for about a year and did experience the Winter, it was cold, but manageable, how does Spokane weather compare to So Cali and MD?

Also, is this a place one can stay active year round? Being healthy is very important to us.

Thanks,

Michael

I myself grew up in Southern California (Corona/Riverside), and I originally fled CA for the same reasons as you, except for the "ghettoness", that was not one of my reasons for leaving.

If I'm still around by the time you get here, I may be bringing you EMC parts, as that is part of my job here in Spokane.

There is no real ghetto here in Spokane. There are more run-down areas, but no ghettos like you find in CA. If you have $250K to spend on a house, you'll be doing very well for yourself in Spokane.

Methinks the winters would be a bit tougher here than in MD. I moved here from CO and am curious/anxious to experience winter here, I hope they are at least half as snowy as CO (I'm one of those weirdos that loves winter).

I really can't say enough about this place, it has really grown on me over the past few months.

[mikester23]

Hey David,

I live in Moreno Valley, right by riverside. Pretty much, everyone from South Central LA has moved into Moreno Valley and now it's really ghetto. What do you for your job, are you employed by EMC, or another company that works with EMC hardware? I'm actually on the software side of things. Do you know of any good apartments say 900 a month? We might actually take an apartment for a while, while saving up money for a house. Do you own a newer home or an older one?

[Count David]

Originally Posted by mikester23

Hey David,

I live in Moreno Valley, right by riverside. Pretty much, everyone from South Central LA has moved into Moreno Valley and now it's really ghetto. What do you for your job, are you employed by EMC, or another company that works with EMC hardware? I'm actually on the software side of things. Do you know of any good apartments say 900 a month? We might actually take an apartment for a while, while saving up money for a house. Do you own a newer home or an older one?

Hmmm, Moval, I've never really been a fan of the place, it seems rather far from everything.

I manage a small courier company. We have a contract with a large package delivery company's supply chain, and we deliver a large amount of parts to EMC, their techs and other IT companies/techs. For instance, I took a part to EMC in Bellevue yesterday, it would be safe to say that most (if not all) parts we deliver are hardware.

I don't know of any apartments off-hand that rent for under $900/mo, but I think it would be safe to say that most apartments here rent for less than that. We rent a nice, small, century-old house (with a view ) for $775, and are very happy with it. I wouldn't put down roots (buying a house) unless you were sure you liked it here and/or were sure you were going to stay put for awhile.