rural and affordable living Washington state? (Seattle, Spokane: renting, how much, home)

[Nerda]

It's very serendipitous that this thread took a turn for the technological since that was next on my list of questions to ask. However I see a ton of counties that are being mentioned, and it's actually just a bit difficult for me to associate counties with the cities that could of them... Is there some way that can be narrowed down for me to some degree- or is there a website I'm missing that might tell me? I'm having trouble deciphering where is what through my own efforts.

Thanks again, yall- this has been great.

[MamaRed]

My husband and I moved from Palm Srings, CA to Washington, 2 years ago. Everybody told us we would hate the rain, but we wanted cool and rural. We haven't been sorry a single day. We live in Monroe, which is a small rural town. "In town" is pretty suburban, but the outskirts are agricultural. To give you an idea of the layout, we are in Snohomish county, right on the border of King County. Seattle is in King county. The small towns around us are Snohomish, Duvall, and Carnation. There is also Sultan and Gold Bar, nearby.

Before moving here, lots of Seattle-type people had quite a bit of criticism of this area. I have found it to be warm, friendly and wonderful. I think city-folk see farm fences and tractors in the yard and view it as "trashy." Like any town, all of these have less-desirable neighborhoods, but they're pretty easy to identify when you drive through.

My husband has several offices throughout western Washington, so does a lot of driving. From where we are, he can get to Bothell in about 20 minutes, Redmond/Bellevue in 30-45 depending on traffic, and Mountlake Terrace in 45. These are cities around Seattle, where EMT work is probably available. He works regular daytime hours, so he is out there in the thick of traffic. He says living in the country makes the drive totally worth it. We can also get to Sea-Tac airport in 45 minutes.

We've learned that housing here is more expensive than you would expect, but gas is cheaper, and there is no state income tax, so it seems to balance out. With some hunting, you could probably find something in your price range. We found our place on hotpads.com.

We have satellite internet, and it goes out all the time. We don't mind. Gives us more time outside.

If you're interested in this area, you can check out the websites for the individual towns. You can also take a look at the Monroe Monitor and Sky Valley News, which is the weekly newspaper. www.monroemonitor.com.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

[PS90]

Originally Posted by MamaRed

My husband and I moved from Palm Srings, CA to Washington, 2 years ago. Everybody told us we would hate the rain, but we wanted cool and rural. We haven't been sorry a single day. We live in Monroe, which is a small rural town. "In town" is pretty suburban, but the outskirts are agricultural. To give you an idea of the layout, we are in Snohomish county, right on the border of King County. Seattle is in King county. The small towns around us are Snohomish, Duvall, and Carnation. There is also Sultan and Gold Bar, nearby.

Before moving here, lots of Seattle-type people had quite a bit of criticism of this area. I have found it to be warm, friendly and wonderful. I think city-folk see farm fences and tractors in the yard and view it as "trashy." Like any town, all of these have less-desirable neighborhoods, but they're pretty easy to identify when you drive through.

My husband has several offices throughout western Washington, so does a lot of driving. From where we are, he can get to Bothell in about 20 minutes, Redmond/Bellevue in 30-45 depending on traffic, and Mountlake Terrace in 45. These are cities around Seattle, where EMT work is probably available. He works regular daytime hours, so he is out there in the thick of traffic. He says living in the country makes the drive totally worth it. We can also get to Sea-Tac airport in 45 minutes.

We've learned that housing here is more expensive than you would expect, but gas is cheaper, and there is no state income tax, so it seems to balance out. With some hunting, you could probably find something in your price range. We found our place on hotpads.com.

We have satellite internet, and it goes out all the time. We don't mind. Gives us more time outside.

If you're interested in this area, you can check out the websites for the individual towns. You can also take a look at the Monroe Monitor and Sky Valley News, which is the weekly newspaper. www.monroemonitor.com.

Hope this helps, and good luck!

As I mentioned earlier, definitions of "rural" vary. But official definitions would certainly NOT define anywhere around Monroe as rural. Monroe itself qualifies as "micropolitan" (not rural) and Monroe is not even the largest city in Snohomish County.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/def...013/b13-01.pdf

Having a couple of fields squeezed between two big cities does not make that area rural.

Just don't want the OP to be expecting "real" rural, and be disappointed by the lack of rural when she gets here, is all...

I do agree with your comment about the internet - there's nothing I like less than sitting in front of a computer for hours.

[CrazyDonkey]

http://www.coilgun.info/rover_wa/ima...-map-large.png

King = Seattle
Pierce = Tacoma
Spokane = Spokane
Clark = Vancouver
Kitsap = Bremerton/Port Orchard
Snohomish = Everett
Whatcom = Bellingham
Thurston = Olympia
Yakima = Yakima
Kittitas = Ellensburg/Cle Elum
Chelan = Wenatchee/Leavenworth
Benton = Kennewick (Tri-Cities)
Franklin = Pasco/Richland (Tri-Cities)
Walla Walla = Walla Walla
Whitman = Pullman
Jefferson = Port Townsend
Clallam = Port Angeles/Sequim
Grays Harbor = Aberdeen/Hoquiam
Lewis = Centralia
Skagit = Mt. Vernon/Anacortes
Island = Oak Harbor/Coupeville

[MarciaMarshaMarcia]

You'll find Clallam County on the Olympic Peninsula to be rural & cheap compared to Austin. You may be able to find work in it or the adjacent county, Jefferson, both beautiful areas, or on the Kitsap Peninsula, more suburban, down the road 60 miles from Clallam/Jefferson & people actually do commute across the Hood Canal Bridge.

Also, people don't speak up on this forum a lot like they do on other forums, I guess it's the PNW way.

Good luck to you, and if you move here, welcome to Washington!

[MamaRed]

Originally Posted by PS90

As I mentioned earlier, definitions of "rural" vary. But official definitions would certainly NOT define anywhere around Monroe as rural. Monroe itself qualifies as "micropolitan" (not rural) and Monroe is not even the largest city in Snohomish County.

https://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/def...013/b13-01.pdf

Having a couple of fields squeezed between two big cities does not make that area rural.

Just don't want the OP to be expecting "real" rural, and be disappointed by the lack of rural when she gets here, is all...

I do agree with your comment about the internet - there's nothing I like less than sitting in front of a computer for hours.

I agree the town itself would not qualify as rural, but I have to disagree about the rest. We're on a cattle ranch, surrounded by farmland. It takes us 20 minutes to get to either downtown Monroe or Duvall. We're driving through nothing but farmland for, probably, 18 minutes of that drive. I regularly have to slow down when I get stuck behind a tractor, and it's not unheard of to have to stop and wait for an escaped farm animal to get out of the road - had to do it just yesterday. I'm not sure how much more rural someone can get, and still be within commuting distance to a city.

[carolochs]

Interested in following this thread, too, and curious about the def. of rural. I guess after living in a tract home and neighbors so close they say "God Bless You" when I sneeze in my backyard....(Grrr!), "rural" to me is having a house on at least a couple of acres and spread out. I have lived on that size plot before and it was called rural here in CA. Not so there?

Also...is there any high speed internet at all in areas like Seabeck???

[PS90]

Originally Posted by MamaRed

I agree the town itself would not qualify as rural, but I have to disagree about the rest. We're on a cattle ranch, surrounded by farmland. It takes us 20 minutes to get to either downtown Monroe or Duvall. We're driving through nothing but farmland for, probably, 18 minutes of that drive. I regularly have to slow down when I get stuck behind a tractor, and it's not unheard of to have to stop and wait for an escaped farm animal to get out of the road - had to do it just yesterday. I'm not sure how much more rural someone can get, and still be within commuting distance to a city.

I guess my point was that most of the official definitions of rural are classified county-by-county, so therefore Snohomish county would not be classified as rural.

Otherwise like I said, it's all relative. I was talking to a professor at WSU just the other day about the emerging practice of raising urban livestock, and apparently they consider my town (Colville) to be "peri-urban", not rural. And my county has 20 times LESS people than Snohomish county -by last census: 43K vs 745K.

So apparently, I'm not even rural (according to WSU), and we can drive for well over an hour before getting to ANY populated area.

[MamaRed]

Originally Posted by carolochs

Interested in following this thread, too, and curious about the def. of rural. I guess after living in a tract home and neighbors so close they say "God Bless You" when I sneeze in my backyard....(Grrr!), "rural" to me is having a house on at least a couple of acres and spread out. I have lived on that size plot before and it was called rural here in CA. Not so there?

Also...is there any high speed internet at all in areas like Seabeck???

That must be why I feel like I'm rural now! Our backyard neighbor in California used to tease the dogs over the back wall, then call the police because they were barking at him.

We moved here in May 2013, and didn't even realize we had 2 neighbors behind us until fall, when the leaves fell off the trees. The property we're currently on is a total of about 35 acres, and we rent the back portion of about 5 acres. Most of the properties around us are of a similar size.

[Haakon]

Originally Posted by Nerda

It's very serendipitous that this thread took a turn for the technological since that was next on my list of questions to ask. However I see a ton of counties that are being mentioned, and it's actually just a bit difficult for me to associate counties with the cities that could of them... Is there some way that can be narrowed down for me to some degree- or is there a website I'm missing that might tell me? I'm having trouble deciphering where is what through my own efforts.

Thanks again, yall- this has been great.

Go to maps.google.com and enter the county name, it will outline the county and lightly color it so you can easily see where the boundaries are.