Poll of the Day > Anyone here formerly from or live in Washington State?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Or even just spent time there I guess. I want your opinion in the place.

I'm a born Hoosier myselfs, an Indiana boy, and I reckon it's 'bout time I make like a pan 'o kettle corn an' "pop" on my way like a man aught ta, jus' like ol' Johnny Appleseed done did, It'd be a mighty long distance but nothin' I couldn't handle considerin' I can still watch them Colts and my college basketball on the ol' television these days, yep I'd sure enough miss the deep fried everythin' and acres of nothin' but fields far as ya can see soon as ya leave the city but I'll make do, don'tya worry 'bout me, I'll make do, 'cause that's what a man's got-ta do.

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tl;dr

anyways, after hyping up seattle for so many years, when I actually visited, it felt like a soulless city. Hiking mt. rainer was awesome and will definitely visit the state again for other hikes.

I believe a regular here at least lives in WA

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nogaems posted...

tl;dr

anyways, after hyping up seattle for so many years, when I actually visited, it felt like a soulless city. Hiking mt. rainer was awesome and will definitely visit the state again for other hikes.

I believe a regular here at least lives in WA

If I moved there it definitely wouldn't be to Seattle, although I would want to be relatively close to the ocean.

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I live in central WA, which is basically a desert, but I'm not too far from major forests so I do a lot of camping and fishing. Lots of nice wilderness here. Seattle is alright. We went through there a lot when I was a kid to visit family on Whidbey Island. My aunt owned a shop on the pier there.

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I'm in tacoma WA (fairly near Seattle) now, but was in Olympia/lacey for the last 3 years.

It's ok....it drizzles most of the time, hardly ever has real rain, probably have some cloud cover like 60% or more of the days though.

Prices are fairly high, food sucks over all, but there are worse places to live.

I'm spoiled because I lived in the Bay Area most of my life.
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WA State makes any other state look like a pleb state.
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wolfy42 posted...

Prices are fairly high, food sucks over all, but there are worse places to live.

The prices were the one thing I was worried about, since my region of Indiana is known as one of the cheapest places to live in the country. The minimum wage here is $7.25 and in Washington it's $12 so it's basically a given that everything would be more expensive but... I make about $13.50 at my current job, not sure how that would "translate" over, like I doubt I could find a job that paid $20 an hour out there with my resume.

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Bada-bump. I actually really am interested in moving and Washington seems like a good pick, although maybe there really aren't that many people here who know much about it.

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What was your last job, cause there is bad news about WA.

See the problem is min wage jumped drastically here in the last 4 years, so many jobs...that say were paying $12.50 before min wage jumped, are paying......you guessed it......12.50 now that min wage has gone up.

Care givers for instance made $11.50 an hour when I first moved here in 2015, and Wa min wage was $9.

The min wage quickly jumped to $11 an hour, but no increase for caregivers (who actually have to take a 3 month course that costs $500 btw to get their job).

On the plus side now that min wage has gone up over $11 an hour, they finally got a raise!!

But yeah cost of living has skyrocketed in olympia/lacey/tacoma etc. When I moved here my friends apartment complex (then run it) rented 1 bedrooms for almost 700-800$...and they are now over $1000 minimum. Price of food has also gone up significantly (I'd say at least 20% over all and often more than that).

That being said min wage is now going up to $13.50 in January.....so that is a significant increase since 2015....even though costs of living have zoomed....even min wage jobs can handle the costs a bit better. The people who really lose out are those on a fixed income (social security etc). It does kinda suck if you had a moderately skilled job before though because they have not been increasing the pay for them.....so if for instance you had a job that paid $15 before....you get 15$ an hour now......which is only $1.50 over min wage.
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Well I worked in a bakery for a few years and worked my way up from $8.50 to $14, but now I'm at a distribution warehouse that started me at $12 and caps around $15 I think. I wouldn't consider either job to be really be skilled and I don't have a degree in anything so realistically I would probably only be able to get a minimum wage job to start off.

Oh and for reference the average rent for a decent apartment around here is $450-$650, I've seen small homes go for around that too. The only places that would be a grand or more would be the newly built condos in the heart of downtown probably.

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Ouch! May I ask why you are considering moving here?

Seriously check out craigslist, you can get a room for rent for about $500 (if your good you can get it for less, but it's often pretty hard to find something that isn't....pretty bad for under $500).

There are some studio apartments for around $750-$800 but they are pretty rare and in high demand.

Otherwise most of the 1 bedrooms near my area (and there is crime here all the time, cars stolen/broken into, a person was stabbed a block over last month etc)...go for about $1200 min.

On the plus side you'll get a job for $13.50 that is easy to do, tons of min wage jobs around here, and min wage goes up in a bit over a month to that level.

But yeah jobs that pay more than that are harder to find since so many of the jobs that used to pay up to 50% over min wage, now are just at min wage like all the others.

Still if you work 40 hours a wekk, you'll net about $2000 a month so you can afford to pay $1200 for rent ifyou have to. I would rent a room personally unless you just can't handle having a roomate...cause it'll save you a good $600 a month pretty much.
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I spent about half my life in WA but recently moved to Alaska

Lived in Snohomish County, north of Seattle

It's a pretty good state. Probably a top tier state

wolfy42 posted...

Ouch! May I ask why you are considering moving here?

Well honestly I want to move just in general. Like I've spent the last couple years living with a friend (so my current rent is even lower than the average I listed) and I feel like it's time for me to get my own place. At the same time I feel like I've been stagnating for other reasons and if I stay in my hometown forever nothing will change. So I want to at least move out of state, and Washington caught my eye since it's literally the farthest I can get away from this place in the continental U.S. After looking up some basic stuff like the climate, geography, and amenities I thought it seemed like a cool, almost "romantic" sort of place for me to try and adapt to.

Maybe I should look at things from a more practical approach though...

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I think it's a good idea to visit a place you have your eyes set on. A round-trip flight ticket is no big deal compared to moving blind and hating where you go. Learned that from experience.

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Dreaming_King posted...

wolfy42 posted...

Ouch! May I ask why you are considering moving here?

Well honestly I want to move just in general. Like I've spent the last couple years living with a friend (so my current rent is even lower than the average I listed) and I feel like it's time for me to get my own place. At the same time I feel like I've been stagnating for other reasons and if I stay in my hometown forever nothing will change. So I want to at least move out of state, and Washington caught my eye since it's literally the farthest I can get away from this place in the continental U.S. After looking up some basic stuff like the climate, geography, and amenities I thought it seemed like a cool, almost "romantic" sort of place for me to try and adapt to.

Maybe I should look at things from a more practical approach though...

I would recommend staying on your hometown, but maybe traveling more. You have security there, but can still see more of the world. Especially with cheap rent there. And this could hurt financially. Depending on an SO, if you decide to get romantically involved with anyone, they could help or hurt the situation... I would say, at the very least, visit like nogaems said. But I would say to save up money while there, an just travel... maybe...
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Dreaming_King posted...

Bada-bump. I actually really am interested in moving and Washington seems like a good pick, although maybe there really aren't that many people here who know much about it.

Really it all depends on where you would move to. wolfy is talking exclusively about living in or close to the a city. How close to a city would you want to live? And don't forget that you could live closer to Portland if you wanted and still be in WA.
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I lived in Everett for a couple years and loved it up there.

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LinkPizza posted...

I would recommend staying on your hometown, but maybe traveling more. You have security there, but can still see more of the world. Especially with cheap rent there. And this could hurt financially. Depending on an SO, if you decide to get romantically involved with anyone, they could help or hurt the situation... I would say, at the very least, visit like nogaems said. But I would say to save up money while there, an just travel... maybe...

Thank you for the advice, I'll stop letting my imagination run wild now and focus more on the realistic side of things. Traveling is an idea since I've never gone more than 150 miles or so from this town. I don't really have much time to do so though... Ahh I feel like if I put this off I'll look up and another couple of years will have passed but I shouldn't rush things.

AllstarSniper32 posted...

Really it all depends on where you would move to. wolfy is talking exclusively about living in or close to the a city.

I wouldn't want to live in a big city, a small to mid sized town is more my speed, but that might also make it harder to find a job quickly wherever I end up.

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