moving to seattle washington, what are home rental like? jobs? home ownership prices?
leaving las vegas nv,& a job, around feb/march 09, been here over 20 years, sick of the desert, kids are grown, but in this bad economy are there jobs over there?, am in management, & customer service, my husband in contruction, his ex-boss told him to come out, I dont even care if I get a job at walmart just want to live a beautiful state like washington, how are the prices there, cost of living? job wages for good workers?, rental prices, home value, websites to find home, job,? THANKS
One Response
jesser
23 Feb 2010
jobs right now are tight, but this is coming from a recent college grad who doesn’t have much experience. you and your husband sound like you’ve been in the working world for a while, so you have plently of experience under your belts. there are a lotttttt of big corporations that are headquartered in the area and if you would be satisfied with a job at walmart or something retail, you will probably be ok. finding a higher paying job, of course, is harder to do. i’m not sure what kind of construction your husband is in to, but from what i’ve heard on the local news here, housing construction is down because of the market and economy a lot of companies that support construction, like window and wood companies that are headquartered locally have actually done major layoffs recently because of the construction slow down.
the cost of living in the seattle area is high which is why we also have the highest minimum wage in the country. i grew up an hour or so away from seattle and the average price of an old 3 bedroom 2 bath house is 250,000+ and for a newer construction it would be nearing the 400,000 mark. living IN the city, expect to pay even more. so its always very mind boggling to me to think that if i lived in the midwest or something i could get a brand new 3 bed, 2 bath house for maybe 150,000 haha and that what you pay for a "normal" house here could get you a mansion elsewhere. i’m not too sure about housing rental prices, but apartment/condo rentals in seattle and the surrounding area are pricey as well. 1000 will get you an ok apartment in one of the suburbs, if you’re looking to live actually downtown look to pay at least 1300-1500 for a decent 1 bedroom where you won’t feel like you’re going to get robbed.
some more affordable places IN the city are probably fremont, wallingford, magnolia, and ballard. if you’re looking to get the whole seattle/washington feel, yet not pay the price of living IN the city you should check out some of the surrounding suburbs. in north seattle there’s places like shoreline, mountlake terrace, and edmonds. on the "eastside" which is considered the area in which you take the bridge over to the eastside lake washington there are bothell and kirkland which are probably the more affordable of the suburbs on that side.
for jobs/rentals check out the local seattle newspapers classifieds
http://www.seattletimes.com
http://www.seattlepi.com