I don't know why but I've always wanted to live in Seattle or somewhere around there. Never even been to Washington, much less Seattle. But there is something about Seattle that draws me to it more and more. I know part of it is the weather.. even when it's 97 here in Mississippi, it's nice and pleasant in Seattle. The older I get, the more I tell myself just do it.. move there now. So fill me in.. what kind of house can you buy in the area for say, $100,000? What's a loaf of bread and a gallon of milk cost there? These things say a lot about affordability and such. Here in Mississippi, you can get a lot of house for $100,000. A gallon of milk is $3.49 + 7% tax. My favorite bread, Whitewheat, is $2.50 a loaf.
Wow a house for 100,000 that is redonculous . Around me there is hardly every anything for less than 200,000. Most townhouses are 130,000+.
Not to distract from the aim of this thread, but you I got to thinking, what if all of us TSD'ers moved to Seattle? Be pretty funny, right? But then better idea...what if we all found a big expanse of unclaimed land, moved there, and started up TSDVille or something . Okay, pointless dribble over, back on topic... It seems Seattle is a pretty significant major US city, it'd probably be like trying to find a $100,000 house in Dallas...good luck. But then again, with the economy and housing market as it currently is, you never know. This thread is certainly curiously interesting to me, I'll be keeping up with it
Pretty interesting Could get our own blade plant. Would be NIICEEE Ya I think 100,000 for a house anywhere close to major cities is not going to happen. I don't know tons about the housing market in the states but in Canada it is going up.
I've just had a look at a real estate site.. lots of houses in the city and surrounding cities for $100k and under. Don't know what kind of neighborhoods they are but it's nice to know I could afford something there. It's just 2 of us so we don't need a huge mansion.. something around 1500 to 2000 square feet would be perfect. And I like older homes.. better built and full of character. And the market is ripe for a good buy right now. Of course the $100k wouldn't be in my hands to move and spend until I sold my house. That's the only hinderance for me.. doing the actual work and following through. :happy102
$100,000 - HA :happy102 :happy102 :happy102 you crack me up. More like $250,000. I have heard that the current market lets you get one right around $200,000 but I have not seen one that has sold. Milk and bread seems about the same, gas is hovering around $3.85 right now. The weather sucks! We get rain all the time. People in Washington don't tan they rust. We do get pretty good summer weather starting around mid July-ish sometimes earlier and sometimes later. You can't really count on it not raining though. August is a fairly dry month but October through February - forget it. November it can be rainy for the whole month. By rainy I mean wet air, misty drizzle, never really raining. Enough to make everything cold wet and miserable but not enough to keep your windshield wipers going without jumping around on the windshield every other stroke. We do get snow from time to time and that is fun but then the rain comes and makes it all a muddy mess. If you can't tell I am not fond of the weather here. We do have some beautiful country though.
I can deal with rain. It's this sweltering Mississippi heat that makes summer a rough time for me. And it seems with each passing year, our winters are getting warmer (don't see a cold day in the 30s until mid November now when we used to have them in September, then October). Then it's gone by mid to late January. We used to get 5 full months of cold weather. Now it's about a month and a half. I love cold, period! If I get cold, I can put on more clothes. When I'm hot, I can't take enough clothes without the police being called! :happy097 Yeah, gas is higher there. It's $3.26 to $3.46 here depending on the area. It's a guilty pleasure of mine... to laugh at the rich folks when I pass through "their part of town" and see their gas stations are charging them 20 cents more a gallon than the gas stations in my middle class area, knowing all of the stations buy their fuel from the same terminal in Vicksburg, Mississippi. :happy102 I surfed http://sea.themlsonline.com/ a bit today and found many under-$100k homes. Older and probably smaller than most people have in mind, but with only 2 of us, many of them are perfect.
I only visited Seattle, but lived in Portland OR for a while. I didn't much care for it out there. The rain was miserable and seemed to last for at least a month or two longer then I could tolerate. Even though it was warmer then on the east coast, I was always colder out there. It is beautiful out there and there are lots of really big trees. I spent about a year and a half out there and high-tailed it back east. Living out there taught me that I much prefer the east coast. If you are seriously considering it, visit twice. Go during the summer and during the winter so you know what to expect.
Maybe it was cause I was younger, and such things aren't as noticeable, but I never felt it rained that much. I like the area, and have lots of family in the Tacoma area. I've lived all around the Tacoma area, and spent some time living in Lynnwood when I worked in Seattle, and also Bremerton was I was a child. I am a west coast gal and wouldn't hesitate to move back if I could.
I've seen pics of the North West. Absolutely beautiful. I, too, prefer the cooler climates of the North East. My only problem? The time zone. Here on the east coast I can get out of church and back home without missing too much of the football game
I live in Bremerton and the rain sure does get to me. It could be because I drive a sweeper truck three nights a week cleaning parking lots and the rain really messes with my ability to do a good job. Plus for me it is just depressing. November, December, January all look the same - look out the window gray skies misty rain I feel like I live in the Degobah System with Yoda! Come on out! We would love to have ya! Yeah - we don't get to watch the morning games around here - but hey most churches in this area have wifi and you can bring in an iPad or Ipod and watch the play by play on NFL.com during the sermon! (not that I have ever done that. :ashamed001 )
Here is what it looks like today in the Seattle area! Maybe not typical of every day of the year. Picture is from downtown Bellevue, looking north toward Kirkland with a bit of Lake Washington in the scene. Joanna, we can use our imagination and look a few miles further north beyond Kirkland to Lynnwood!
OK, the $2.50 price on bread is for store brand. Gas prices vary, but are always 25-30 cents higher than national average. Your transportation costs can be considerably more than what the gas price inflicts -- Seattle rates in the top ten for worst traffic in the nation. You'll also encounter ferry and bridge tolls. Rain around Seattle varies from 25 to 50+ inches per year, mostly what you would consider a light sprinkle or drizzle. Most of the year is cool, wool sweaters are summer clothes! No state income tax, but 8.5% state sales tax. Definitely more expensive than the south or midwest.
WA, OR, ID and MT are some very nice areas to drive through, regardless of the season. I don't know about living there though, because I have not lived there, only driven through. Go get a job driving trucks and visit all of the states, take some notes and then take some vacation time in the top states you like the most, then figure out which states offer the most in terms of climate and taxes and livability. Spokane and Bellingham are my favorite cities in WA. If I moved to OR, it would probably be Bend. If I went to ID it would have to be Wallace. MT is a bit tricky, but I would most likely jam on Missoula or Great Falls. I am most certain that as soon as I left Florida, I would want to haul butt back here though.
the river with railroad tracks running along it around spokane. wa was area was awe inspiring . The drive up the coast from seatle to vancouver canada is awesome One really pleasant memory was hiking up a mountain during memorial day holiday temp was 78-81 when I got to shade It still had a foot of snow (!) on ground and temp under trees dropped and another 10 degrees very nice morning hike for a florida boy like myself on vacation. Another pleasant memory is being in a mustard field off road near spokane a field of the yellow as far as the eye can see in the valley with mountains majestic in the backround
