Riggerjack wrote:So, you like the weather, need people, don't need a job. Juneau, AK comes to mind. Also, Springfield/Eugene Oregon.
I like Vancouver, but the Portland drivers/traffic are just too much. And really is there enough of a price difference to justify the move?
Rent has gone up, and as a landlord, I enjoy that. But my predilection for rural really limits my recommendations. I can say that from Clinton, it is just a 20 minute ferry ride to the sounder, and you are downtown. But I have no need to ever be downtown, so I have never made that trip.
I guess I'm just fishing for what it is that you do, that makes where you are in the Seattle sprawl the right place. Because it pretty much stretches from Olympia to Marysville, and soon to Burlington. Rents vary greatly within that corridor, but population demographics far less so.
Juneau would be too isolated for me at this point. Eugene/Springfield I like but the 9% state income tax is a killer there, it takes away a lot of the cost advantage of Seattle vs. Eugene. The income tax in OR also discourages you from striving to make more money as they just take more.
Van is a good deal cheaper on rent than Seattle (and house prices), I would say a $950/mo very basic 1 bed apt in Van goes for $1,250 in a average suburb 15-30 miles out of Seattle. That is a $3,600 difference a year, nothing to sneeze about. And I think Seattle area prices will escalate faster going forward over the long term than Van (both houses prices and rents...i.e Seattle being SF Bay 2.0). I think home prices in Van are a good deal lower than most of the Seattle metro if I do try to beat the bushes for a deal to buy where I could keep my PITI <$1,000/mo.
Being a major metro Seattle just offers a ton of stuff to do, all kinds of varieties from shopping, live music, social meetup groups (for this point in my life I like that...20 yrs from now I will feel differently). I would probably stay here for the next 10 yrs if I could get lower rent or buy a place and fix my PITI payment from inflation. The traffic is really bad, but doesn't really affect me much since I am retired and do not have to commute and I can do things outside of rush hour time most of the time, and create my own little world in my suburb north of Seattle and not have to get on the freeways. Also, Seattle offers great access to the Cascade mountain passes (hwy 2, hwy 90, hwy 20) since it is central in the state (I get up and hike, ski, snowshoe, camp).
The reason for looking at a place like say Pittsburgh is it gives me a major metro with much lower housing costs. That would be probably the only reason to move to a place like that from WA State, housing costs.
I have looked at a lot of the small cities in WA that are lower cost pretty far from a Seattle and I just can't see myself living there yet, except for Van. A smaller city is not out of play if it would offer want I want. At this point I can't live in a smaller city that is dumpy, low education levels, isolated, economically depressed, little to do (i.e. Aberdeen, Centralia, Mount Vernon, Longview would be examples...although MV is getting a lot better). That's why sometimes college towns can be good, because they offer some culture and ambiance, more educated folks, but in a smaller city lower cost package (this is a NICE thing about say Bruswick Maine pop 30k with Bowdoin College...gives is a little bit of a cosmopolitan vibe despite being a smaller city with lower house prices and rents).
So to summarize, the main thing making me brainstorm a move is the HOUSING COSTS. I can control all my expenses and cut them to the bone (no cable, bulk food, carpool, movies library, eat at home, cheap cell plan, etc....) But housing and health care are the two toughest costs to get lower. It takes much more work and more radical actions like making big moves to cheaper parts of the country. And I do not do roommates anymore (been there done that from age 18-33, but now I love my privacy and do not want to give it up) and I don't want to really live on a boat or RV's. So to lower my housing payment, my only option is to move to a cheaper area or pray for a housing crash.
To lower my health insurance premium my only choice is to find a way to get taxable income a lot lower (or get a JOB with an employer that subsidizes it... a JOB...yikes). There is really no other option for my now but to suck up that high Obama Care premium with it's massive deductible.
them.