New graduate looking to move to WA or OR from CA

[GentlySpoken]

Originally Posted by Jenbar

I disagree - there are NO good mexican restaurants in Seattle, nor the surrounding suburbs. They have "american" mex. They do have "authentic" burrito carts (little converted busses, vans, trucks made into traveling kitchens) and those are about as authentic as you can get - but totally nasty and dirty.

Tri Cities has truly authentic Mexican food. Several restaurants, as a matter of fact. I'm from SoCal and miss the American Mexican food! I have fond memories of Rubios and Robertos!

[jwb123]

Never been to Tri-Cities - I was talking about Seattle.

I disagree - there are NO good mexican restaurants in Seattle

[ruby2zdy]

There's a Baja Fresh in Kent (SE Seattle), 8821 So. 180th St; and one in Bellevue (E. Seattle), 120 Bellevue Way NE. Just found out that BF belongs to Wendy's, but as far as I'm concerned that doesn't degrade the food.

There are Chipotle Grills in Seattle, Redmond, Bellevue, Issaquah, Kent, Lynnwood, Federal Way: http://www.chipotle.com/mapquest/adv...=30&radius=150

Myself, I prefer Amerimex because they're less likely to use lard.

[ruby2zdy]

I moved up here (Olympia) from CA 2 yrs ago, dreading the rain. But I find that I don't mind the rain. I mind heat (even 90, which is Olympia's version of Sacramento's heat waves). Eastern WA is going to be hot. Western is (I'm guessing) more beautiful. More "Evergreen State". Until the developers finish cutting down all the trees.

I've heard that Yakima is a drug center.

If you like skiing and/or hiking, from either side there are several great places to go in the Cascades. From Olympia, they're a day trip, and I suspect that's true for the towns not so far from the Cascades on the east side too.

The Olympic Mtns have trails (no ski lifts, I think, could be wrong) but if you really want to see them, you need to backpack.

One wonderful advantage to the west side is the Sound. It's just beautiful! Also there's Seattle if you like big cities. Or, if you want to avoid the outrageous 8.4-8.7% sales tax, like, say, on your next car, you could live in Vancouver WA, just across the Columbia River from Portland. Buy in Oregon. No tax. This puts you with immediate access to Portland and 160 miles from Seattle.

If you like college towns, Olympia's the place. Evergreen State College always has something intellectually stimulating going on.

In Lacey (east of and bordering Olympia) or Tumwater (so. of Olympia) you can get a 4-5 BR house now for $400-$450K. The market is stagnant and it's a buyer's mkt. Overbuilt in certain places. (Olympia itself has filled its boundaries, so houses are more expensive.) My house (Lacey) is 7 yrs old, has 5 BR, 3 full ba., formal LR & DR in addition to the great room, lots of expensive extras, on an OK sized lot, and not close to my neighbors, in a very nice neighborhood where all the lots have several Doug fir trees. If I wanted to sell it, I probably wouldn't be able to get more than $450K, if that.

[Six-S-Properties]

I also left SoCal to find a place where cost of living is more reasonalble. I do like realestate and own in both OR and WA. I chose to live in WA as the inome tax savings is real, and the realestate is less expensive for like properties (more bang for the buck). The tax rates are actually very simular between OR and WA for realestate. If you chose SW WA, you can still shop in OR when you shose to.

Good decission to move, godd luck with it.