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Thinking of moving the PNW (Washington), just wanted to know....

Spunger

Spunger

Git yer dumb questions here
Feb 19, 2003
2,257
0
805
Hey guys,

I figured this would be a good place to ask some questions about moving to Washington State. I haven't really figured out where would be a good spot. My girlfriend has family in Spokane? But I'd like to live closer to the city if possible (Seattle but it doesn't matter).

I was just wondering what the job markets are like, how much is rent or to even buy a house in different areas? I'm tired of Southern California (after being born and raised here it's time to leave) and I figured there's riding in Washington, Canada, and other surrounding states. So it might be a good change to get out and live life a little.

I'm more concerned with the job's and such and cost of living. Here's it's really high to live unless you have a hookup of some sort (most studio's are in the $650-800, 1 bedrooms are $800-1000, and 2 bedrooms are 1200+) so I'm hoping to escape this a little. Plus jobs suck in my area and pay squat. I'd be open to just about anything.

Just wondering what you Washington :monkey:'s think and such. It'd be a long drive from Santa Barbara (2 hrs north of Los Angeles) so I wouldn't want to get up there and find out it won't work. That's just one long haul.

Any help/ideas/info would be greatly appricated.

Thanks in advance :)
 
M

mattv2099

Monkey
Aug 16, 2004
192
0
Bellingham, WA
Western WAshington completely sucks. It's boring and it always rains. If you move here you will become depressed (because the sun never comes out) and you will kill yourself.

Spokane is the best place on earth. please move there.
 
Toshi

Toshi

butthole powerwashing evangelist
Oct 23, 2001
39,061
8,221
heh, anti-californian sentiment have we? my opinion of seattle:

- traffic and rain are almost its downfall
- people are wonderful
- job market seems fine, but i'm not a good one to ask as most of my friends are in school still or at microsoft or amazon
- rent's not cheap, but cheaper than the bay area or boston (and probably cheaper than socal)
 
kinghami3

kinghami3

Future Turbo Monkey
Jun 1, 2004
2,239
0
Ballard 4 life.
I love it here. I grew up in Bellingham, lived in Spokane for a year, and am now in Seattle. The rain doesn't bother me, and traffic is only in he city center and I-5. I love Bellingham, and Seattle's good to, but Spokane is a dead city in my opinion. Outdoors-wise, it doesn't get any better. Got Canada right across the border, plus biking all up and down the coast and then Devil's Gulch in the middle and Beacon in Spokane. For climbing there's Leavenworth/Wenatchee area. Not sure about the job market really; I haven't started looking yet. However, I haven't heard anything about unemployment so I assume it's good.
 
T

thesacrifice

Monkey
Aug 4, 2004
451
0
360
I'ved lived in California as well. That place is fun for some time... Beautiful women, beautiful weather...but those things become trivial once you have a long term girlfriend and get tired 80s all the time.

Washington is great.. It's laid back, the people are for the most part excellent. Our environment is an outdoors persons dream.

Don't move to eastern washington and don't move into the city. Eastern Washington just sucks and the city is damn expensive. The suburbs are where it's at. I think Washington is a place young people take for granted and that older people really appreciate.
 
buildyourown

buildyourown

Turbo Monkey
Feb 9, 2004
4,832
0
South Seattle
As much as we despise californians, it's a nice place to live. I'm a transplant too. Rent doesn't seem that bad cause I've never rented anywhere else.
Job market is pretty good for my trade at least. I'm a machinist and I just changed jobs. I had 2 job offers within a week.

Housing market is pretty crazy right now. But that means rents are comparitively low. I live in the city of Seattle. Figure $1000 for a decent 2 bdr.
Right now, liveable houses in the city are starting at 300k. High, but not by bay area standards.
I would never move to the eastside of the mountains. I can't stand living where it snows.
 
Corporatefailure

Corporatefailure

Monkey
Nov 14, 2004
513
0
W.Seattle
Yah same I can't stand living in snow.
I was born in Santiago De Chile and moved up here when I was about 5 or 4 can’t remember. I love it up here folks are nice, food is good.
Lots of good spots to just relax. I got the union backing me up for my trade, yet they are having a rough time finding me work.
 
pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
mattv2099 said:
Western WAshington completely sucks. It's boring and it always rains. If you move here you will become depressed (because the sun never comes out) and you will kill yourself.

Spokane is the best place on earth. please move there.
Click to expand...

ahhaha, yes. do this. :thumb:
 
dwaugh

dwaugh

Turbo Monkey
May 23, 2002
1,816
0
Bellingham, Washington ~ U.S.A.
Come to Bellingham if you dont want the huge city with bad traffic, and if you do want some great riding. People come up from seattle just to ride in Bellingham, they say it's easier than riding there.
 
M

mattv2099

Monkey
Aug 16, 2004
192
0
Bellingham, WA
dwaugh said:
Come to Bellingham if you dont want the huge city with bad traffic, and if you do want some great riding. People come up from seattle just to ride in Bellingham, they say it's easier than riding there.
Click to expand...
Ok, I guess I'm one of the lucky ones. I was born in bellingham and love it...

But, the job market here SUCKS... Too many people like you have come here to live. College degrees are a dime a dozen and it's not uncommon for a janitor to have a masters degree. If you do move here be prepared to find some sucky job that doesn't pay well.

Two of the top 3 employers in the area have nearly shut down in the last 5 years. GP and Alcoa each layed off most of their workforce.

The top employer in the area is WWU with about 1800 employees or something.

Our largest industry is retail. We sell lots of stuff to the millions of canadians that live just across the border.

If you have a degree in CS and want to live here then you are qualified to work at Best Buy.
 
geargrrl

geargrrl

Turbo Monkey
May 2, 2002
2,379
1
pnw -dry side
mattv2099 said:
Western WAshington completely sucks. It's boring and it always rains. If you move here you will become depressed (because the sun never comes out) and you will kill yourself.

Spokane is the best place on earth. please move there.
Click to expand...
it is, if you like affordable housing, being within 90 miles of five ski areas, lots of fantastic outdoors stuff, and you don't care about living in a cosmopolitan mega metropolis.

geargrrl
 
M

Mad Dog

Chimp
Feb 23, 2005
60
0
Los Angeles, CA
I moved to Vancouver (southwest WA, near Portland) in November and I don't regret it a bit. I may have to drive a little to get to the best riding but this place rocks. NO problem finding a job-if you're not a Meth-head. Rent is CHEAP compared to SoCal. 600/mo for a large 1 bd. with a fireplace-try getting that for less than 1400 in the OC!. The riding is great and they have these things called trees on either side of the trail to keep you on track. Good Luck!
Mad Dog
 
Spunger

Spunger

Git yer dumb questions here
Feb 19, 2003
2,257
0
805
Thanks for all the input guys, it does help on making future decesions.

So-cal (atleast Santa Barbara) is nuts. Most houses within the last few years have almost doubled in value. Starter 2 bedroom homes are like $500,000+, and if you want anything much bigger than that you're aiming at the $1 mil mark. Rent is outragious as well. I'm lucky right now that my girlfriend gets a hookup from her parents on our apartment but they are thinking of selling it (not their choice, greedy sibilings).

I have no collage degree or anything. I'm basicly as open to a paying job as I can be. $600 rent works for me :)

It's all something to think about and ponder. I am just tired of California. The people here aren't all that friendly, everything is a giant trek away, and the cost of things keeps going up and up and up...
 
seand

seand

Monkey
Nov 22, 2003
790
0
seattle
after spending 20 years just outside manhattan, i lived in sandiego and sanfran and then moved to seattle...gotta love the cities that start with the letter s :P

this winter, seattle is like sandiego..its strange.

so far, seattle has been my favourite place to live...geo is perfect, the people are awesome...and the job market...well it sucks for my niche, but it sucks everywhere for network engineers :/

the cost of living in seattle has been rated as the highest in the US by forbes for 2004/5. Keep that in mind :) The traffic is the worst in the US according to various sources... i can honestly say that traffic in/around NYC, sanfran and sandiego are less of a burdon than seattle..the traffic here never goes away! it seems that any given day on any given hour, trying to get through the u-district can take forever...it just sucks...outside of that, its not THAT bad i guess.

i dont like stupidly hot climates, so i would say stay away from eastern washington...but spokane isnt a shabby place to lay stakes in. i have a few friends who live there and LOVE it.

you best bet for cheaper and better living is the east side...though west seattle isnt to bad.

the whole cali trek thing...i know exactly what you mean. when we lived in sanfran, we put more miles on our car in a short time than I thought possible. that ended once we moved to seattle :) so thats a good thing! the coffee is much better here too :)

the riding..i know this is a not-so-important thing to base moving on; but at the same time it is. the pnw has quite the array of trails to choose from and once you get up to BC..forgetaboutit.

there are worse places to live, thats for sure. find a job FIRST...then move based on that...trust me on that. i made that mistake and paid dearly for a few months while trying to find work.
 
Bullitrider

Bullitrider

Monkey
Apr 17, 2004
577
0
Seattle
Funny how you differentiated between Spokane and "the city".

According to the Seattle P.I. the unemployment rate is at a 4 year low. Looks like G-dub has protected the status quo brilliantly.
 
seand

seand

Monkey
Nov 22, 2003
790
0
seattle
yeah but lowest in 4 years isnt that impressive seeing as over the last 4 years it was the highest in WA history :) so its still amazingly high compared to what would be a growing economy, but low compared to an upcoming depression.

...tis all relative.
 
zane

zane

Turbo Monkey
Mar 29, 2004
1,036
1
Vancouver, WA
The vancouver area is pretty nice, it's a decent sized city and portland is 10 minutes away. Rent is relatively cheap too, I have a nice 1 bedroom for 650/month (add 50/month for my garage...). I like it here- good area, good weather (not as rainy as seattle) and good riding. I couldn't tell you about the job market- I don't know what field you're going into....
 
olytrayne

olytrayne

Chimp
Apr 7, 2002
47
0
olympia
I rent a sweet three bedroom house with yard and three car garage/workshop for $900 in Oly. There are not many jobs but the cost of living is so low you can almost live without one... and many do. The riding is OK too.

The simple fact is that people in the NW can't drive. They can't merge, can't get out of the fast lane, and brake way too much.

Anyway, my $.02.
 
pnj

pnj

Turbo Monkey till the fat lady sings
Aug 14, 2002
4,696
40
seattle
olytrayne said:
The simple fact is that people in the NW can't drive. They can't merge, can't get out of the fast lane, and brake way too much.

Anyway, my $.02.
Click to expand...
and 95% of the people living here aren't from here.

so keep your non-driving self in cali. :nuts: :D :sneaky:
 
bullcrew

bullcrew

3 Dude Approved
Dec 8, 2004
9,098
2,817
I'm dude playing dude pretending to b another dude
I was born and raised in woodinville washington, moved to san diego then manhattan beach just n. of Redondo. I moved here because of my wife. The end of summer were moving back to LA. Man theres a reason I moved to s. cali from up in the NW.
Cold weather sucks, rain sucks more and the gloom that hangs over seattle is depressing as hell. So if someone tells you that it's not a ploy to keep you from coming, It's the truth. 3 things to survive in washington state if you come.
#1 a tanning bed so you don't go all pasty white.
#2 a job at a place with no windows so you don't have to look at the weather
#3 A huge dose of prozac (intreveniously preferred with a constant drip system)
If you don't take caution and heed my words you'll look like darby from lord of the rings.
 
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