Has anyone read this? WA #3 Worst State for retirement (Seattle: apartment, assessor)

[Inkpoe]

10 Worst States for Retirement

Apparently we're worse than California to retire in.

Here's the brief explanation:

No. 3: Washington

Despite its stunning natural beauty, retirees might pass on moving to Washington state for a few reasons. Its cost of living and crime rate are both above average. And with a 30-year average annual temperature of 48.7 degrees, The Evergreen State is one of the colder states in the nation.

Even though Washington is one of nine states that don't levy a personal income tax, the Tax Foundation estimates the state and local tax burden to be 9.3 percent of income. Its calculation includes sales, property and other taxes.

(OR is #1 and Alaska is #2)

[Pretzelogik]

These retirement rated surveys are not worth the electrons used to publish them on the net. Factors vary way too much from one person to the next. What I like the next person hates...etc.

[ukiyo-e]

I saw that earlier today and I felt the entire article was best taken with a small Siberian salt mine. I've seen similar articles that put WA and OR far above CA. States are not uniform entities when it comes to cost of living, crime, property taxes, and weather (in a state like ours, as opposed to say, Maryland, where I grew up).

One of the colder states in the nation? Average temperature is an iffy metric to use. If the average temperature is 48 degrees and it's 95 and humid in the summer and 20 and snowing in the winter (simplifying here to make a point), to me that's less comfortable than an area with a narrower range around that same 48 degrees.

I've yet to see any list of "best place to live" or "best places to retire" that used criteria that were all that important to me, or even accurately comparable. My favorite example is when Port Townsend appeared on a Money Magazine list of "Best Places to Live by the Water" - along with Duluth, MN.

[RotseCherut]

Yep, don't move to Washington, move somewhere else.. Lots of dangerous crime, cold weather and you cannot even get an apartment for less than $2000/mo , even far out in the country.

[StealthRabbit]

Don't have to READ about, but I do have to LIVE it... (for last 10 yrs of 'retirement')

$33/day for healthcare
$40/day for property taxes (up from $2/day)
$ 3/day Food.

It's the price of LIFE in WA. No one is gonna buy a house with $40./ day tax burden...
(and as mentioned... different for everone)

Assessor could write me a check, and I would be OUTTA his hair. (and outta WA )

[cdelena]

Silly uninformed comments. I retired in WA on purpose... if you want a climate that has no hard winters and no hard summers, no income taxes on your retirement income, and a beautiful environment there are few paces better.

[Jalhop]

I certainly won't be retiring here, it's too cold and cloudy for me. Though I think if one hardly shops except for food the total tax burden has got be way less than 9% of income. When I look at the income tax states I see similar fees for everything else.

[Jalhop]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

$40/day for property taxes (up from $2/day)

Either some gov't employee hates you, or you could swap your place for something still nice in WA and live on the proceeds for the rest of your days.

Here in the Seattle area I don't have much sympathy for the older folk complaining about their property taxes on their lakefront properties.

[rantiquity]

Originally Posted by cdelena

Silly uninformed comments. I retired in WA on purpose... if you want a climate that has no hard winters and no hard summers, no income taxes on your retirement income, and a beautiful environment there are few paces better.

I totally agree. I worked in the Seattle area for 34 years and retired in 2000 to my piece of heaven on the Olympic Peninsula. After traveling to 80 different countries and 38 states, Washington Olympic Peninsula was my choice for the best weather (no snow this winter and only 4 inches of rain so far this year compared to Seattle's 13 1/2), all-around beauty, (it actually stay green all year around) cost of living, minutes from the mountains and salt water and general safety. You can actually see Canada on a clear day.

My wife and I are raising our grandson and this is the perfect place to do it.

PS my property tax amounts to $7.12 a day about the same as it was in 2000.

[thatguy950]

Originally Posted by Jalhop

Here in the Seattle area I don't have much sympathy for the older folk complaining about their property taxes on their lakefront properties.

How socialisticly Seattle of you. IMO that's one of the worst things that can happen to older people who moved into WA DECADES ago when it was cheap, made a good investment, and are now being taxed out of their homes and being punished for being frugal and making a good investment at a good time; likely those people are on a fixed income. Think about that. But hey, we better keep all those useless 12 extra government employees paid for doing nothing but smoking cigarettes/socializing on the side of the road "supervising" one person filling a pot hole.