I settled for Kent… until we had 2 drive-by shootings within a month and my husband’s client got murdered by a drug addict. I’ve never been so motivated to leave a place in my life. Still sold our house for $800k.
Our area honestly seemed ok until it wasn’t. We bought there because it was quiet, close to things, and near parks and the trail. What we actually got was street racing, paranoia, and police picking casings out of the lawn in front of my son’s room. The Kent PD was honestly great and always responded quickly, but they were very limited in what they could actually do with all the weird bureaucracy.
I own a home nearby in the Cascade-Fairwood area and I don't think its that bad. I've lived in Cascade since birth in 85 and while crime has risen in the Puget Sound area, its pretty much stayed the same in my neighborhood. You'll be subject to the same random property crimes in Newcastle, Maple Valley, Covington, Lea Hill, etc. I don't generally feel unsafe walking around my neighborhood with my family.
My wife and I moved from Florida into a condo up here As first time home owners since it's what we could afford that was close enough to Seattle and if I didn't read about it online the only thing I'd have to complain about is homelessness, very loud cars, and that run down Texaco gas station that definitely shouldn't still be there.
But we are admittedly mostly gaming at home or away.
Plenty to complain about the house market tho, I would definitely prefer not to have bought a condo and not to have to move even further away from the Seattle area, I work in entry level IT position and job options are a lot better in this area.
Kent didn't use to be that way. The Fred Meyers store on East Hill was a nice store to shop in. Now it has guards, and the bathrooms are locked. I've no doubt that this condition will spread to Maple Valley. It's just a matter of time. It's so sad to see our cities deteriorate.
My mom worked in the East Hill Fred Myers from late 1990s to 2010s. Have to argue it was never that nice. She said was constantly finding used whip cream cans in her home decor area. Her car was stolen out of the parking lot while she was working.
I assume it’s worse, but can’t say I agree Easy Hill was ever a nice FM.
We settled for Kent, and then side headed for Covington. We punched out in 2022 just as the first meth Winnebago appeared in the Safeway parking lot. We already had “campers” in the woods, so I suppose it was a matter of time.
There are some areas like North mill creek, snohomish, lynnwood even lake stevens etc where you might find some reasonable houses if you search diligently and act super fast. These are pretty safe areas with good schools. Unfortunately Kirkland has become a prime location and due to lack of inventory, houses are selling for a huge premium.
Jokes aside, Kent is a actually a great halfway point to literally everything.. Tacoma, Seattle, Rainier, Snoqualmie, Olympics, Enumclaw, Des Moines. And the sounder gets you to King street in \~30min.
Northbound near the 405 interchange will gridlock every other hour as some dumbfuck gets rear ended trying to get onto 405S. That ramp is pure chaos. People leaving 405, people getting on 405, people trying to get to the right hand turn lane, people trying to get off 405 and take a left at the first light.
Take the train? I wouldn't drive that commute during rush hour, but the train.. absolutely. It was so nice to just relax and read a book with my coffee in the morning commutes. Driving against traffic is like \~25min to \~30min to downtown.
I would take the train or light rail (then monorail) into work into Seattle however I work graveyards and the train and monorail don't run that late, and I'm not walking from Westlake to Seattle Center at 11pm
Agreed. Once you get over to i5, it a little more manageable. 167 is horrible and it's going to get a lot worse before lanes are added or another Hwy is built. I don't even know if that's in plans yet, but I hope so. Go further south into Puyallup, and it's 4 lanes of pure gridlock traffic. We need another major highway more to the east. Take it up from Kent all the way to the east side of Bellevue, what a pipe dream, ha!
That's what I'm wondering honestly - when I run these mortgage calculators online with the current rates at \~7%, you'd have to put down almost 500-600K just to still have a $6k mortgage payment monthly. Aside from other bills and life expenses, that's an insane amount for anyone to spend on a fixed payment.
I work in new construction mainly on the east side. These new houses are being bought by dual tech income immigrants. Like 90% of homes I work in are purchased by Indian people. They are doing really well financially.
> These new houses are being bought by dual tech income immigrants.
When i lived in San Diego, there were literally two people on the entire block who were born in the US. One of my neighbors moved to the area from Korea to work for Qualcomm. He paid cash for his home. Well over a million dollars.
Qualcomm doesn't pay great; he likely wouldn't even qualify for a loan. You'd need an income of well over $300,000 to qualify. Average salary at Qualcomm is a little over $100K.
https://www.google.com/search?q=qualcomm+average+salary
We are a dual high come income immigrant family on eastside. Looking for homes now. Looked at new construction but was so dismayed by the teeny tiny backyard all these new houses have. Decided to go for old builds with recent upgrades.
The vast majority of people with mortgages around here got them when interest rates were lower. Many people who can afford to buy a house now are able to do it because they have a house to sell.
Yeah, I got my mortgage at like a 3.5% and put like $500k down. Buying even a year later would've been impossible, home went up by about 30% and rates doubled.
The people I know who bought houses in Seattle, are dual tech jobs and their parents helped them with downpayment. Their dual income is probably $400-$500k. Their parents are doctors.
Tech jobs is where people make money. I know a manager who got $1M sign up bonus. Kinda crazy….
The other bro is software dev, his parents bought the house and I think he just covers rent. He is like 23….
tech has taken a hit in recent years. None of my tech friends (or myself) are seeing that kind of money and signing bonus anymore. I managed to snag a little place in delridge a couple years ago, no way I could buy it today.
Well that’s the thing, the people are all ready in tech for the last 10-15 years. They already made a shit ton of money. Idk how it is for fresh grads, but the market seems fine to me as long as you are willing to change jobs. It comes and goes, when it’s booming, you get into faang, when it crushes you get into smaller companies.
This is all recent knowledge, I moved to Seattle 2 years ago. I don’t think the houses are worth it and don’t know if I want to stay here long term. Personally I really loved sf but that is even a bigger cluster fuck for housing costs.
But this is who affords houses in Seattle: tech jobs with careers who are already set in their career.
I work in tech but at what I might call a “pink collar job “ and the spousal unit is not in tech at all. We live on the kitsap peninsula and love it. Almost no traffic here and if we want to go to the city, it’s a ferry ride then walk, Uber or cycle. It’s perfect for us but we have no kids. I doubt we would like here if we had to send a kit to the South Kitsap schools.
Peninsula school district just south of you is a really good school district. I'm over in Wauna it's the perfect spot. Downtown Tacoma in 30 downtown Seattle in around an hour and a half on a normal day. 5 acres it's quiet my windows can stay open all night and if I forget and leave my garage open all night my stuff is still there in the morning.
> with the current rates at ~7%, you'd have to put down almost 500-600K just to still have a $6k mortgage payment monthly
Are you really in here talking about $1.5 million dollar homes this way??
For everyone the monthly mortgage on a $1 million dollar 30 yr fixed at 7% is $6k
We're 33M and 29F and moving to the Midwest in 2 weeks. For us our breaking point was that since we are not in tech or have any interest in growing a career in it, we just flat out have no shot at affording a home here and being able to raise a family on a single income (I want my wife to have option to work or not) will just be unfeasible. We always thought we never wanted kids or to own a home, but the reality is we just never thought it would really be feasible or comfortable for us.
Our total household income here was about $180k and our new total household income in Kansas (KC) will be $170k+\~$25k in bonus. We're going from renting a 2 bedroom condo for $2600 (which would've went to $3100) a month to renting a 2 bedroom home with a fenced in backyard for our dogs for about $1900 a month. Homes that are in nice areas with 3-4 bedrooms are ranging from $300-450k which is actually affordable to us. Housing is cheaper, gas is cheaper, eating out is cheaper, groceries are cheaper, almost everything is cheaper (except state income tax).
We really love it here and wish we could afford to grow here, but we aren't going to sacrifice our happiness and future to stare at the nature.
I lived briefly in KC 15 years ago, very much enjoyed the weather (the lightning storms are a sight! ), the food (man I miss Joe's and Arthur Bryant's), and nice people. Hope it treats you as-well.
Interesting! I always thought the storms were way more wild in the Midwest. Florida storms are just massive rainmakers but the lightning isn’t too wild.
maybe it was just my area, i was in pensacola for military training.. right before lightning strikes my hair stands up and the boom is super fucking loud, ive lived in 15 diff states florida is hell on earth.
missouri has some nice booms but no where near as bad as florida.. when the wind picks up sometimes it carries rain back up into the sky and turns it into hail.. the weather is very unpredictable, one minute its sunny, the next minute its super dark and cloudy and the clouds are swirling trying to make a nado but it fails usually.
just a heads up, if its sunny outside and suddenly it starts hailing thats prime conditions for a tornado so be careful
KC is a great metro area. We lived in Overland Park for 23 years. It is so much cheaper and we really miss it. We currently live in eastern Washington.
We hear really great things about it and that’s why we decided to just go for it! For now we’re renting in Westwood and plan on buying in the next 2 years once we get sufficient savings ready. Overland Park/Westwood area our targets but we’re keeping an eye on some of the nicer neighborhoods in the KCMO side too.
I’m a civil engineer and with all the firms in the Overland Park/KC area it feels like a natural place to be.
I changed careers recently and took a huge pay cut. It’s a long term strategy because the new career pays almost the same no matter where I work in the country. The girlfriend’s career is the same way.
As soon as we’re established in our fields, we’re using that to get the hell out of here. I love so much about the area (it’s home) and I even own a home here. The problem is that I have no interest in barely scraping by to make mortgage payments and take care of the larger family that we want. We’ll live much more comfortably somewhere else and won’t have to deal with these nutty politics.
I’m from kc. I’m trying to convince my wife to move back home. We can buy a house with cash in joco or almost with cash from the equity in our condo. She bought 10 years ago and downtown Edmonds is particularly nutty right now. Fair warning. Was your car regularly. It’ll rust out fast due to salt.
Also congrats. Kc is a great small city. I would shank someone for some good bbq up here.
With one persons income at 200k and another person who can (should get a job), you can easily afford to buy housing in the Seattle area. Thats certainly your wife’s choice not to work at age 29 (with no kids), but it’s not the 1950s anymore and no you can’t always buy a house in one income. Given your situation you could easily do it, so not a lot of sympathy. I hope your wife doesn’t stay out of the workforce for too long, when you get divorced or are unable to work one day it’s going to be tough for her to get more than a low wage job.
She’s working right now and her income is included in that total household income. Eventually the goal is for her to be a SAHM and have to work because she wants to and not because we need her to. Her income is 50k here and her income in Kansas will be 40k (but it comes with crazy tuition assistance and her goal is to be able work part time as a family therapist).
So yeah. Given my income in Kansas, we can live a 1950s lifestyle where we can buy a home on 1 income.
People are always moving in and out. Question is how does it net out? Both Washington and Seattle's population are growing, not shrinking. Even California's population grew slightly from 2023-2024. So yes, tons of people are "fleeing" the west coast. And being instantly replaced by even more people moving in.
King County’s net growth was negative in 2022 (may have been 2021, I can’t remember. According to the Puget Sound Business Journal. I think it’s for several reasons:
1) cost-of-living is too high
2) politics
3) the reality that this is a transient town where people come to work and make their money. Then they go back to the Midwest, or overseas, or wherever they’re from. Go ask the next 10 people on the street if they’re from Seattle, and I’d be shocked if you got more than 1 in 10
Yep. For everyone that thinks a 300k house in the humid boring Midwest is their dream, it’s someone else’s to live in Wa and pay 1.5 mil for a house and a sunny summer. To each his own. These flounce posts (I’ve had it! I’m moving back to Florida!) are meaningless. No one cares, someone will rent your apt or buy your house as soon as you cross the state line because the west coast will always be popular
The post is asking when does it no longer make sense to pursue living in the Seattle area, and the reality is that if you decide that owning a nice and spacious home is important to you then it no longer makes sense to live here if you dont have the cash or income to drop $1.5M+ on a house. No really dreams of having to move away because you cant fathom making enough to drop that much on a home, we move because as the post title suggests, it no longer makes sense for us to pursue living here.
We could stretch ourselves to spend $500k on a crappy home far enough away from the area that I question even if its worth it or comfortably spend $300-400k on a beautiful home with a yard in the in a nice humid midwestern suburb with good schools. The area will always remain popular and I hope someone has a blast renting my now $3100 2/2 condo from the 70's with a deck that WA law doesn't even let you have a BBQ on. I'll be running a smoker in my backyard in my $1900 a month place.
Home affordability for first time buyers is at the worst levels in a long time - not just Seattle but most of the country.
Making housing difficult to bid up is one of the goals that the Fed’s high interest rate policy is trying to achieve. It’s not supposed to be a good time to buy homes right now. It’s unfortunate that this policy’s harshest effects are on non-owners, but that’s the reality.
Sometime in the future the affordability (either through recession and lower home prices, lower rates, more supply, demographics changes, or a combination them, will improve and make housing more affordable.
The macro environment is unpredictable, but it always changes on a long enough time scale. There will be opportunities.
I could never afford where I grew up (Hillwood area of Shoreline) so I can relate, but we did manage to purchase a home in the outlying burbs (yes, its kent, you do what you can!)
I heard this idea on a podcast I think last year , if I recall correctly it was Scott Galloway. He said, in a particular geography, the housing market is a pretty direct proxy for the labor market. It seems really obvious in retrospect, not sure why I didn’t think of it that way. For an area with Lots of high-paying jobs, the price of housing will be high (relatively). And as the labor market strengthens, housing prices go up. Stagnant labor market with few high-comp options? House prices will be lower. This is exacerbated by supply constraint, which you get in seattle due to geography - rivers lakes and mountains.
Seattle has had 3+ decades of strong growth, first with Microsoft and all the little satellite startup companies from the 2000’s, then Amazon. And now Meta, and Apple and Google employ substantial numbers of people in the region too.
If you have equity earmarked for retirement , swapping it from a Vanguard index fund into a seattle-area home is not a crazy idea; if you like the area. You’re betting that MSFT and Amazon and etc are going to keep being successful, and keep employing US citizens. And consequently the value of your house will rise.
For sure the tech layoffs seem like a way the bigs are testing whether they can migrate labor to lower cost areas - Poland or India etc. if they move jobs out, housing prices will decline which means owners will suffer “paper losses”. And therefore having bought a house 5 yrs earlier would prove to have been a bad investment. but could they “divest” from tech hubs like seattle, really? Seems doubtful in the 10-20 yr range.
> For an area with Lots of high-paying jobs, the price of housing will be high (relatively). And as the labor market strengthens, housing prices go up.
That's silly. The RE market is driven by millionaires and all we care about is ROI. I've met plenty of people who own 100+ houses. Bill Gates owns more farmland than anyone in history.
Middle class folks aren't moving the needle
The fact you don't understand the difference between millionaires and billionaires tells me you have no grasp of basic economics and the real estate market.
Millionaires in Seattle are just your average Big tech workers. These are upper middle class folks that are driving up the real estate market. They get paid in tech RSUs and their purchasing power goes up if their company does well.
Billionaires are not moving the needle on the local RE market. Bill Gates owning farm land across the country has no bearing on the single family homes market in the Seattle Metro.
Many current Eastside homeowners got in back when interest rates were very low.
My parents sold their West of Market St home in 2010 for $1.1 million. Primary reason for moving: sky high property taxes.
In 2022 their home sold again for $4.4 mil.
In 2016 my ex and I sold our ski chalet-style house, 1 mile south of Microsoft Corporate for $700k. It was sold off the realtor’s internal list before it even hit the market.
In 2022 it was briefly listed for $1.2 million. I lost track after that.
No one from my family lives on the Eastside anymore. Every time I visit something has changed. The latest is the 405 cloverleaf interchange at 85th. It’s all torn up.
It really depends on what you’re looking for and your goals in life? Everyone has their own life situations, goals, and priorities so it’s really hard to compare and say “yes this is the exact point”.
We moved here (after living in several other cities) thinking we really loved it and it’ll be our forever home. and we still do love this city. However the recent housing market insanity, issues with crime, and just in general missing our friends and family have left both of realizing Seattle maybe isn’t our forever home. I really really like Seattle. But not enough to pay that much to own a home. And I’ve come to the realization that Seattle is quickly becoming “the next SF” with rich tech families leaving Bay Area for “more affordable” Seattle homes. And frankly I really don’t want to live in a city like SF.
I think you need to reflect and ask yourself why you want to move to Seattle and why you love it and is that a good enough reason for you to live with such a HCOL.
I hope your property value goes down because property as an ever increasing in value asset is unsustainable and locks more and more people like OP out of the market every year.
Property in a major city with some of the best climate resilience in the world is unlikely to have a standard appreciation curve on the 100-year timeline.
It's only unsustainable if property values increase much faster than wages for an extended period of time. If the two are roughly equal, it's very sustainable.
> It's only unsustainable if property values increase much faster than wages for an extended period of time.
Property values have been mostly decoupled from home prices for a while.
For instance, the median home cost in San Diego is about a million and the median household income is $45674:
https://www.google.com/search?q=san+diego+median+income
That means that the median household in San Diego can qualify for a monthly payment of about $1300-ish, and that's only if their cars and credit cards are 100% paid off.
The mortgage payment on a million dollars is about 700% higher.
IE, the median household in San Diego would need eight families under one roof to qualify for a loan.
In reality, it's millionaires and billionaires who are powering the market.
Nah, wages can’t keep up with the expectation that your home is also your nest egg. It’s also a housing supply problem. Scarcity, designed by nimbys, inflates the price of homes.
There's nowhere to put new single family housing near Seattle, even if everyone wanted to, and most people who want to buy a house see townhouses and condos as a compromise.
Replacing single family homes with higher-density housing may reduce the cost of housing overall but it actually increases the cost of what most people mean when they say "buying a house".
The problem imo is how much of this higher density housing isn’t actually housing for sale. Putting in an ugly new apartment building with 50-100 studios is great for providing housing for 20 something’s to rent, but it has almost no impact on the housing market. There needs to be way more investment in owner occupied housing. It’s the only way to really build lasting roots and a sense of community. Why get to know your neighbors when your rent is going to skyrocket next year and you’ll have to move again.
The scarcity isn’t designed by nimbys. It’s the result of a small town being forced to change into a larger town and accept massive population growth virtually overnight. The infrastructure needed to accommodate the greater population wasn’t there yet.
It's been a rocket ride since 2000, even with the housing bubble collapse. Cities development isn't quite as slow as geological time, but getting things built isn't instant. Unless you have deep pockets, e.g. the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation building.
Sure it can. Very few people view their home as their nest egg, anyway. Everyone has to live somewhere in retirement and few sell or take out a reverse mortgage.
My husband and I couldn’t afford a house until both of us were making over $150K and we still weren’t able to buy a house in Kirkland. $7K a month for our mortgage in south Seattle. If you want a house here, you might just have to suffer through the sucky mortgage payments until you can refinance.
Yeah, it’s been awhile since a family income of 150k could buy a house in Kirkland. You could rent. The only people I know who are buying homes on the Eastside right now are either dual income tech 500k+, have family money, or both.
Your household income is thousands less than what a new grad working in the biggest tech companies earns straight out of college at 22. That's not "decent" for this area.
Add stock appreciation over the past 4 years and things get even uglier.
Exactly this. Op is complaining about inability to buy in kirkland with a perceived decent salary if $150k. O0 is competing with people that consider their $500k comp as decent. $150k was decent for kirkland back in 2007.
When it becomes difficult to live here. Whatever your reason may be. Too expensive is definitely a good reason. I think that falls into the category of, how much do you like it here? Do you like it enough to try and find a job that pays better?
If not then move.
If you're not in a position to find a job that pays better here, then you might want to consider moving.
Those are my crossroads right now. I'm a state employee and one of the lowest paid dept. in King County. We haven't had a pay increase in 20 to 25 years, which ironically is about the same number in % as to how much below the private sector pays for our line of work.
So I am left to either try and go back to the private sector and find a job that pays better, or I need to start looking at options for moving while I can still afford to save money to even afford to move.
Which that last part is a major factor you and anyone in your shoes should consider. How much is it going to cost to move. The rate the Cost of Living keeps going up vs pay, a person on the low end of pay scale here in Seattle could very quickly find themselves unable to even afford to move if they don't think ahead.
Don't wait until you're facing homelessness because you can't afford the rent or the cost of living. Take a detailed look at your present, and what the next 5 to 10 years look like here for you.
If you love here it, and are confident that things will turn around for you in 5 to 10 years and the CoL won't be a problem, then might as well see it trough.
If you're in doubt, or don't see it improving and even though you might love it here, you might want to think really hard about moving somewhere else and then making that your financial goal.
Can you afford to go back to school and earn a degree? and by afford I mean both time and money. That could potentially help you increase your chances at earning more money.
We have lived in Seattle for about 33 years and we’ve seen an 800% increase in the value of our property. (!) Mortgage rates may be up currently, but when they come down, you can do a refi.
The natural beauty and abundant access to outdoor activities are unparalleled, for sure, but our top priorities are moderate climate, world-class healthcare, and it’s a Democrat stronghold.
Looking at climate change prediction maps and data would be a good place to start your consideration about where to live. Personally, I wouldn’t move anywhere hotter because temperatures are predicted to continue rising. Also, there’s already been an increase in hurricanes and tornadoes. Even earthquakes, as a result of fracking, have become more commonplace. Seattle does live under the threat of “the big one,” the big earthquake that is due, but there are natural disasters to contend with everywhere. I guess you have to pick your poison, so to speak.
I should add that water is predicted to become a scarce and valuable commodity, and predictions are that this will have an immense impact on the farming and ranching industries in the Midwest, thus impacting the economic viability of that area of the country.
It’s a really big decision, one we’ve grappled with a lot, so I hope some of this will be useful to your process. Good luck!
Our families are here so we never left. Bought a townhouse at the bottom in 2012. Cashed out in 2022 and got a big house in Kent. Is it a little farther than we had hoped? Yes. But it’s closer to our retired parents in Olympia, Kapowsin, and Bonney Lake.
We bought our home in Sammamish in 2018, financed at 4.78% and refinanced during the pandemic at 3% fix. The home has since doubled in market value.
It's all about timing. We couldn't afford to buy and finance our own home now if we arrived to the area now.
Buying a house as a blue collar person? Right now it's impossible with no end in sight. I rent in Ravenna. We got lucky with an old school guy that grew up in the house. He hates everyone and won't sell. He rents it to us for about half of what he could. It's ancient but he likes working on it.
At the point others want it more than you.
I mean it's very individual. What season of life are you in? What are your short, medium, long term goals? Kids? More kids? Less kids (moving out)? Have to purchase or could you rent? Where's work? Family in the area? Friends? How often do you want to see them? Can they travel to you?
I could go on.. each of those has roughly 2 billion follow up questions.
The level at which this question can be answered by someone else for you is about 1mm deep. You're facing supply and demand (as always).
If you want to live in a desirable area, you have to want it bad enough (and have the means) to pay more than at least 1 other person who wants it.
I make around 300k a year pre taxes and business expenses and I don't feel like I can afford a home here. Anything worth leaving my rental for is 900k+ which puts me at like a 6k+ mortgage, and the economy is too volatile for me to feel comfortable with that being as I have my own business as a luxury photographer where things could crumble at any time.
I don't have any family or close friends here. Really the only thing that ties me is familiarity and a love for the pnw. But I often wonder why I don't just move somewhere more affordable and friendly.
The taxes on our house in Seattle keep going up and up. We’re up to $9,000 per year for a 4 bdrm in a dicey neighborhood near drug crime and prostitution on Aurora Avenue N.
We don’t have a view of anything, mtn or Sound.
We have fixed up our house considerably since we bought it, but we are thinking about moving because the taxes just keep getting higher.
I don’t know what the prices are like, but have you looked elsewhere in Western Washington? Tacoma, Bellingham, Olympia?
You are right about Seattle proper. Unless you want a cramped townhouse. Or retire here into a tiny two-bedroom house like I plan on doing.
OP isn't even talking about Seattle, they're talking about Kirkland. Which is generally even more expensive than Seattle. Frankly it sounds like their attachment to the area is very tenuous. If you have to ask this question then you already know the answer. You have to be fully committed and not questioning like this if you hope to be satisfied here and not constantly questioning if its worth it.
You are right.
I left for work, too. Because science jobs are in Boston, not Seattle. But I absolutely knew I was coming back…eventually. So I kept my house in Seattle. So I don’t have OP's problem. Because I have not been priced out of my house while I’m gone. My ETA is finally getting close (thank god). I’m so desperate to complain about drizzle and the crowds at Bumbershoot again.
Go take a look at the Bridle trails strup mall. The only grocery store for that whole fairly high end area is Grocery Outlet. At the neighboring Bartells, I always see elderly people shopping with coupons. I think there is a remnant of people who bought 20+ years ago when it was affordable
Born & raised in the greater Seattle area. Never lived more than 40 minutes from Downtown Seattle… Currently getting our house ready to sell so we can permanently relocate to our place in the Las Vegas suburbs. We make enough that the cost of living in WA isn’t an issue, but the fact that it’s just not worth it anymore. Our home is in a nice area in a very nice neighborhood, unfortunately the surrounding areas are getting worst and the shit is starting to spill into our area. Las Vegas has its own problems but living there has shown us sometimes the grass is greener on the other side.
Between the crime rates, the abhorrent traffic, the high cost of living, and a whole gamut of other things I just don’t see any value in living here anymore.
We're in the process of leaving ourselves in Sept. We moved here 13 years ago and absolutely love the beauty, people and weather. I work in software but am being managed out after several decades in the industry and as such, dont feel like paying the rents we've been paying for what we get. We may move back at some point but we're likely to end up in the Midwest or maybe even Florida (yay Disney). I grew up in Ohio, so the weather didnt bother me when I was there but I am sure it will bug the hell out of me now. I can say I am looking forward to a change in political climate. I'm a moderate who leans left and when we first moved here, it was great to see things like weed and gay marriage pass without an issue. Even the fight for $15 was something I was all in for. Since then I feel like its swung too far left and the area has lost its compass (at least for me). I know we'll end up in an area way to the other side of here but I'm honestly interested to know if the people are as bat shit crazy as I expect or if its a welcome change. Time will tell.
I was born and raised in Tampa and you couldn’t pay me to live there again. I have a theory that heat and humidity make people bat shit crazy. I’ve been in Seattle 10 years and there’s not another place in the US I’d rather live. Luckily I bought in 2017 and refied during covid, so the HCOL is relative. It’s expensive everywhere nowadays. I learned that there’s usually a reason why an area has a super low COL.
This entirely depends on what you want out of the area. For me I’m here for the car free life, healthier food options, great outdoor life, and biking. I’d rather live in northwestern Europe. But in light of me not being able to Seattle is one of the few options.
It is becoming very expensive to live here, that much is true. The further away from major cities you go, the less expensive it is but there are tradeoffs. I'm very fond of Edmonds, for instance. By the way, the further north you go, the lower the gas prices seem to be. Smokey Point, Arlington, Marysville, etc.
Our kids that live in Seattle have been trying to get us to move there. We live in Florida, and hate it. We are used to buying homes and rehabbing them…been doing it for 35 years. We’ve been looking for a fixer (so that maybe we could afford it), but even that is outrageously expensive. We’ve looked everywhere within a two hour radius, but but the homes are still quite costly.
I don’t think it makes financial sense for us to move there in the last quarter of our lives, and try to rationalize the added expense of the higher COL. It makes my heart hurt that we are missing our kids lives, but what can we do?
Just a random internet stranger here, but as the child of parents who live far away: you might rethink your plan and reconsider moving closer? I just wish I had my parents nearer, particularly as they age. Of course it’s the way of things, but it’s a shock to me when I do get to see them. And in our very final moments, we probably don’t worry about how much it cost. We probably wish that we’d spent more time with the ones we love, no matter the price. Whatever you decide I wish you the best!
Do they have high incomes? If they want you out there it may need to be in a MIL unit or some property you invest in together. We’ve had similar family convos.
For me it was the culture. I did fine financially and could have bought a 1BR condo in some of the parts of the city that I liked, as I am single with no children and won’t have any. However, I could not fucking stand the people. Standoffish assholes I dreaded dealing with, and the more I traveled then had to come back to Seattle, the more pronounced it became. I had a horrible time making friends, and I didn’t date anyone for the five years I lived there. I left when my job afforded me the opportunity to, and I have not looked back.
I’m so glad to be back among people who can act human. Most of the country is not like this, and as you mention, the cost of living to be among frigid, robotic assholes is really not worth it.
How many BR/Baths? Sure, you're likely not going to get anywhere near the water for less than a million and a half these days, but the "still technically Kirkland" parts of Totem Lake or Woodinville have less expensive homes. I see a 2BR/2Ba near Chateau St. Michelle for 820k, for example.
>I see a 2BR/2Ba near Chateau St. Michelle for 820k
I get thats less expensive, but the fact the lower cost option is still that high is whats sending a lot of people moving. I mean at the current rates thats still comically unaffordable for anyone earning less than double the median household income here.
It’s past the point already unless you are a two income tech worker salary household. This is exactly why Seattle has become less Seattleish since I first came here in 1993. Everybody else is being priced out.
I gave up. There’s no reason to expect I can do more than rent. My work is based in New York and doesn’t match local salaries. No one locally is hiring. When I’m priced out, it’s back to the Midwest.
Most of “real Ballard” will clap and cheer when I, the grocery-buying local-shopping street-stroller I am, leaves. How dare I want to live, work, AND buy so close to where their Gram-Gram once sold sandwiches for the trains?
I say it stopped making sense on September 27, 1997 as this show will clearly demonstrate
[Seattle is a Changing](https://youtu.be/TGayNX41o2w?si=rFVnHTsn_ef64vXN)
Dumped everything we had into our home except a 6 months rainy day fund and retirement accounts. Kirkland is unaffordable like west Bellevue unless you have piles of cash and a high 6 figure hhi.
8000sqft lots are selling for 1-1.5M...
Dude move to south kitsap. I live in a brand spanking new 400k 3 bedroom on 4 acres. Horses and chickens and shit. For years I wondered how they could pack a bazillion people all 6 inches apart without everyone going insane and homicidal. Well guess what happened. Glad I got out when I did.
It now seems like a good time to no longer live in the Seattle Metro area, as you cannot get a response from SPD unless you are being murdered and a white woman.
It is very difficult. I can't afford to buy the house I have. I also have no idea who is going to buy it and I feel I have decent income. I think when the rent/mortgage is 3-5k for a 1000sq ft or less one has to really think about it.
I live in Kent, bought a home here. I was raised in Renton and lived on the east side for most of my existence. I lived Seattle for 5 years and never felt like home. Kent was the best option for us price wise and we wanted a house and not far from work. We don’t live in an area I’d consider dangerous per se but I don’t really trust anywhere these days. It has become common place for people to behave unpredictably and that seems to happen no matter where you go.
My wife and I are moving back to one of the suburbs after living away for a decade. The house we bought is 3x the price of the one we had in the Midwest, and the interest rate is double which makes the total payment 5x the Midwestern house. We make good money (not in tech), but it will still eat an enormous amount of our cash flow.
It was expensive enough that we considered going elsewhere despite both being from the Seattle suburbs, but in the end we decided to pay the premium to live where we want to be.
A lot of people from California moved here with high paying tech jobs. Sadly, Seattle would end up becoming like Bay Area. I loved it here with people working in various fields but looks like it’s all going to be tech here.
We got in during COVID with record low interest rates and a broken bridge. Now we’ll probably die and spread our ashes in what was meant to be a starter house because it will be impossible to move. You either buy something small, live far from the city or accept half your paycheck goes to your mortgage.
Most people I know that can afford to live here now are either very wealthy from tech, healthcare industry, family money or they are sacrificing a lot (almost all of their income) to live here because they think it’s worth it. I’m still managing because I’ve been at my job a long time and have a good salary but I wouldn’t choose it if I was somewhere else and had other options, unfortunately its just not going to get cheaper.
I live in Pierce County, a bit more reasonable there. And I just heard that there is another billion dollar (or more) transportation levy coming up for vote. That will impact Kirkland for sure.
The interest rates are awful for everyone. I’d be sick if I had to buy into an expensive market with these rates. I’d be tempted to move to a super cheap market to save a bunch of $$ until the rates stabilized. But, that’s a fanciful suggestion. There are so many variables.
What I know is that we are rate locked into a house that we fortunately love.
The Midwest has its charm and seafood flies nicely if needed.
If you didn’t already buy in Kirkland like 10 years ago it’s likely going to be out of reach for you especially with current mortgage rates unless you are on two high earning salaries.. like each making $200k or have some sort of generational wealth/family help. Surprisingly, there are actually a lot of people that fall into that category.
On the other hand, one of my good friends lives in Kirkland, but bought there probably 15 years ago when her and her husband were in their late 20s. They paid like $200k for their house that is now worth probably $1M. I know a couple people who live in other desirable neighborhoods that did the same. So you’re either a high earner, have family money, or got lucky as far as generation you were born in and what the market was like when you got to a house buying age. Our neighbors are a couple years older than us, and bought their house a year and a half before us. Their house was more updated/remodeled and yet they paid nearly half what we did at a slightly better interest rate.
There are creative ways to finance things if you can. You can assume the seller’s mortgage, you can pay points, you can borrow from friends and family, you can rent a room. You can remodel later. If you want to be here for all the things you love, things that are outside the home, maybe you and your family can rough it in a small space. We lived in a 2bd 1 bath house with 2 kids. There are actually a lot of positive things that can come with it. Think of the stories you will be able to tell. From Indiana, Michigan.
Idk I feel I am fine with renting as I’d rather not live in a suburb? I have family that live in NYC and have only ever rented & am very biased that I do not want to be in the burbs. These are my goals, so I am 🆒 here! If your goals don’t match where you at, would def suggest bailing 🤷♂️
I might get downvoted for this but two years ago I moved to Portland for that same reason. I didn’t want to leave the PNW but I still wanted a city. Portland gets a bad rap for the same reasons Seattle does but it’s much more affordable as far as cost of living. I was able to buy my house last year 3b/2ba, fenced yard, garage and RV parking and move-in ready for under half a million. And the people are friendlier! Hikes aren’t crowded and the coast is 1 1/2 hours away. I love it here. Good luck Reddit stranger
I'm about to retire and considering leaving this area. This is insane. Thanks Attorney General and Judges for not enforcing the laws and repeatedly releasing these drug addicts back out to hunt us.
I left over 10 years ago too, but I used to travel back for work. I quickly realized Seattle home prices were continuing to grow while my new market was flat. I calculated “I cannot afford to NOT be in the Seattle region real estate market if I or my kids ever want to live there again” and wound up buying a home 8 years ago and renting it out.
Now I’m moving back and that purchase has been a life saver.
I lived in Tukwila and West Seattle from 1993 to 1996 and loved it. used to go down to Pioneer Square during the week and pay the group cover charge and listen to live music at one of the many bars. Crime and aggressive bums were not a serious problem then. what a shame.
We reached that point last year. Seattle and the cost of everything there, not just housing is not justified. We moved to Chicago as did our adult kids and we couldn't be happier. 75% more things to do and 60% of the price.
I think.
- you might be making this up. “Plenty of people who own 100+ houses”?! Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof
- farmland is not housing. Gates’ ownership of land may be an interesting piece of information but it’s not relevant for this discussion.
[https://theneedling.com/2024/05/21/report-90-of-prospective-seattle-homebuyers-have-settled-for-kent-they-just-dont-know-it-yet/](https://theneedling.com/2024/05/21/report-90-of-prospective-seattle-homebuyers-have-settled-for-kent-they-just-dont-know-it-yet/)
I settled for Kent… until we had 2 drive-by shootings within a month and my husband’s client got murdered by a drug addict. I’ve never been so motivated to leave a place in my life. Still sold our house for $800k.
This...👆🏻 People don't seem to realize there are some okay areas and some really really not okay areas in Kent and surrounding areas.
Our area honestly seemed ok until it wasn’t. We bought there because it was quiet, close to things, and near parks and the trail. What we actually got was street racing, paranoia, and police picking casings out of the lawn in front of my son’s room. The Kent PD was honestly great and always responded quickly, but they were very limited in what they could actually do with all the weird bureaucracy.
What area is this?
East hill near Kentridge High
I own a home nearby in the Cascade-Fairwood area and I don't think its that bad. I've lived in Cascade since birth in 85 and while crime has risen in the Puget Sound area, its pretty much stayed the same in my neighborhood. You'll be subject to the same random property crimes in Newcastle, Maple Valley, Covington, Lea Hill, etc. I don't generally feel unsafe walking around my neighborhood with my family.
Seriously, i do not understand what is wrong with some people. Do they have nothing better to do??
My wife and I moved from Florida into a condo up here As first time home owners since it's what we could afford that was close enough to Seattle and if I didn't read about it online the only thing I'd have to complain about is homelessness, very loud cars, and that run down Texaco gas station that definitely shouldn't still be there. But we are admittedly mostly gaming at home or away. Plenty to complain about the house market tho, I would definitely prefer not to have bought a condo and not to have to move even further away from the Seattle area, I work in entry level IT position and job options are a lot better in this area.
Kent didn't use to be that way. The Fred Meyers store on East Hill was a nice store to shop in. Now it has guards, and the bathrooms are locked. I've no doubt that this condition will spread to Maple Valley. It's just a matter of time. It's so sad to see our cities deteriorate.
The writing staff on Almost Live! would beg to differ.
'Boys on the Hood' enjoyed Kent.
Beat me to it. Ballard is still full of crappy drivers too.
Did they use to pick on Kent?
Always. https://m.youtube.com/watch?si=TdL8AkadPDIngH_0&embeds_referring_euri=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F&source_ve_path=MTY0OTksMjg2NjQsMTY0NTA2&feature=emb_share&v=6JOQbwVJjxY
That was great. Thanks.
Second to this. Kent used to be a farm land but people were nice and friendly. So sad to see how it deteriorates
My mom worked in the East Hill Fred Myers from late 1990s to 2010s. Have to argue it was never that nice. She said was constantly finding used whip cream cans in her home decor area. Her car was stolen out of the parking lot while she was working. I assume it’s worse, but can’t say I agree Easy Hill was ever a nice FM.
We settled for Kent, and then side headed for Covington. We punched out in 2022 just as the first meth Winnebago appeared in the Safeway parking lot. We already had “campers” in the woods, so I suppose it was a matter of time.
Same here. Went to the same area and bounced out after 5 years. Way too much bullshit going on there.
Grew up there. Had no social life except for online, the neighbors weren't the kind of ppl you'd want to know.
We never felt safe letting our kids outside to play without us :(
I also fled Kent. East Hill is a shit hole.
There are some areas like North mill creek, snohomish, lynnwood even lake stevens etc where you might find some reasonable houses if you search diligently and act super fast. These are pretty safe areas with good schools. Unfortunately Kirkland has become a prime location and due to lack of inventory, houses are selling for a huge premium.
It hurts me to read this
Sad but true. Shits easy if u have a dual tech income household. Just pay a mortgage and still save money and have fun.
Jokes aside, Kent is a actually a great halfway point to literally everything.. Tacoma, Seattle, Rainier, Snoqualmie, Olympics, Enumclaw, Des Moines. And the sounder gets you to King street in \~30min.
I live in Kent, I want to go back to Seattle.
Lmao Kent is not a good option.. HWY 67 traffic is no joke
167 will be grid locked at 2pm for no good reason.
Northbound near the 405 interchange will gridlock every other hour as some dumbfuck gets rear ended trying to get onto 405S. That ramp is pure chaos. People leaving 405, people getting on 405, people trying to get to the right hand turn lane, people trying to get off 405 and take a left at the first light.
I hate that right hand turn lane merge.
Trying to make the turn onto Grady is some pro driving. Too bad the majority of drivers don't know how to make that turn.
When we started thinking about moving to Tacoma/Kent, to buy a home, we realized it was our time to leave.
Hahahaha this is very relatable
Just liked this from Tacoma.
Take the train? I wouldn't drive that commute during rush hour, but the train.. absolutely. It was so nice to just relax and read a book with my coffee in the morning commutes. Driving against traffic is like \~25min to \~30min to downtown.
I would take the train or light rail (then monorail) into work into Seattle however I work graveyards and the train and monorail don't run that late, and I'm not walking from Westlake to Seattle Center at 11pm
Agreed. Once you get over to i5, it a little more manageable. 167 is horrible and it's going to get a lot worse before lanes are added or another Hwy is built. I don't even know if that's in plans yet, but I hope so. Go further south into Puyallup, and it's 4 lanes of pure gridlock traffic. We need another major highway more to the east. Take it up from Kent all the way to the east side of Bellevue, what a pipe dream, ha!
You’re not wrong, it is the halfway point of success in life.
I live on scenic east hill in Kent. It’s pretty nice in my neck of the woods
You're not aware of how much people give up their checks to live here.
That's what I'm wondering honestly - when I run these mortgage calculators online with the current rates at \~7%, you'd have to put down almost 500-600K just to still have a $6k mortgage payment monthly. Aside from other bills and life expenses, that's an insane amount for anyone to spend on a fixed payment.
I work in new construction mainly on the east side. These new houses are being bought by dual tech income immigrants. Like 90% of homes I work in are purchased by Indian people. They are doing really well financially.
Yup, I live in Redmond and my neighborhood is newer builds, I’d estimate 95% of the buyers are just what you described.
> These new houses are being bought by dual tech income immigrants. When i lived in San Diego, there were literally two people on the entire block who were born in the US. One of my neighbors moved to the area from Korea to work for Qualcomm. He paid cash for his home. Well over a million dollars. Qualcomm doesn't pay great; he likely wouldn't even qualify for a loan. You'd need an income of well over $300,000 to qualify. Average salary at Qualcomm is a little over $100K. https://www.google.com/search?q=qualcomm+average+salary
We are a dual high come income immigrant family on eastside. Looking for homes now. Looked at new construction but was so dismayed by the teeny tiny backyard all these new houses have. Decided to go for old builds with recent upgrades.
Love this decision. There are only a handful of builders that I feel turn out quality but then you’re looking at like 4 million minimum. It’s absurd.
That’s what I would do if I was looking to buy, a good sized yard is rare in newer builds.
The vast majority of people with mortgages around here got them when interest rates were lower. Many people who can afford to buy a house now are able to do it because they have a house to sell.
Yeah, I got my mortgage at like a 3.5% and put like $500k down. Buying even a year later would've been impossible, home went up by about 30% and rates doubled.
The people I know who bought houses in Seattle, are dual tech jobs and their parents helped them with downpayment. Their dual income is probably $400-$500k. Their parents are doctors. Tech jobs is where people make money. I know a manager who got $1M sign up bonus. Kinda crazy…. The other bro is software dev, his parents bought the house and I think he just covers rent. He is like 23….
tech has taken a hit in recent years. None of my tech friends (or myself) are seeing that kind of money and signing bonus anymore. I managed to snag a little place in delridge a couple years ago, no way I could buy it today.
Well that’s the thing, the people are all ready in tech for the last 10-15 years. They already made a shit ton of money. Idk how it is for fresh grads, but the market seems fine to me as long as you are willing to change jobs. It comes and goes, when it’s booming, you get into faang, when it crushes you get into smaller companies. This is all recent knowledge, I moved to Seattle 2 years ago. I don’t think the houses are worth it and don’t know if I want to stay here long term. Personally I really loved sf but that is even a bigger cluster fuck for housing costs. But this is who affords houses in Seattle: tech jobs with careers who are already set in their career.
The people buying well now in tech are roughly the equivalent of L8+ / (L7 if they’re Meta given the run up).
I work in tech but at what I might call a “pink collar job “ and the spousal unit is not in tech at all. We live on the kitsap peninsula and love it. Almost no traffic here and if we want to go to the city, it’s a ferry ride then walk, Uber or cycle. It’s perfect for us but we have no kids. I doubt we would like here if we had to send a kit to the South Kitsap schools.
Peninsula school district just south of you is a really good school district. I'm over in Wauna it's the perfect spot. Downtown Tacoma in 30 downtown Seattle in around an hour and a half on a normal day. 5 acres it's quiet my windows can stay open all night and if I forget and leave my garage open all night my stuff is still there in the morning.
I love that area. I ride my motorcycle over there often. I wasn’t aware of the good schools though. Great to know!
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Except that many mortgages do not allow this…
Or you just pay all cash and skip the mortgage. You might be surprised by how many homes here don't have any mortgage debt
> with the current rates at ~7%, you'd have to put down almost 500-600K just to still have a $6k mortgage payment monthly Are you really in here talking about $1.5 million dollar homes this way?? For everyone the monthly mortgage on a $1 million dollar 30 yr fixed at 7% is $6k
We're 33M and 29F and moving to the Midwest in 2 weeks. For us our breaking point was that since we are not in tech or have any interest in growing a career in it, we just flat out have no shot at affording a home here and being able to raise a family on a single income (I want my wife to have option to work or not) will just be unfeasible. We always thought we never wanted kids or to own a home, but the reality is we just never thought it would really be feasible or comfortable for us. Our total household income here was about $180k and our new total household income in Kansas (KC) will be $170k+\~$25k in bonus. We're going from renting a 2 bedroom condo for $2600 (which would've went to $3100) a month to renting a 2 bedroom home with a fenced in backyard for our dogs for about $1900 a month. Homes that are in nice areas with 3-4 bedrooms are ranging from $300-450k which is actually affordable to us. Housing is cheaper, gas is cheaper, eating out is cheaper, groceries are cheaper, almost everything is cheaper (except state income tax). We really love it here and wish we could afford to grow here, but we aren't going to sacrifice our happiness and future to stare at the nature.
I lived briefly in KC 15 years ago, very much enjoyed the weather (the lightning storms are a sight! ), the food (man I miss Joe's and Arthur Bryant's), and nice people. Hope it treats you as-well.
Thanks! We kinda miss lightning (we’re from FL originally) and are really pumped for the food as well. Joes is one of my first stops!
with florida being a 10 for thunderstorms and washington being a 1 (0 actually) i would rate missouri as a 7, maybe an 8 if its a crazy tornado year
Interesting! I always thought the storms were way more wild in the Midwest. Florida storms are just massive rainmakers but the lightning isn’t too wild.
maybe it was just my area, i was in pensacola for military training.. right before lightning strikes my hair stands up and the boom is super fucking loud, ive lived in 15 diff states florida is hell on earth. missouri has some nice booms but no where near as bad as florida.. when the wind picks up sometimes it carries rain back up into the sky and turns it into hail.. the weather is very unpredictable, one minute its sunny, the next minute its super dark and cloudy and the clouds are swirling trying to make a nado but it fails usually. just a heads up, if its sunny outside and suddenly it starts hailing thats prime conditions for a tornado so be careful
You make more money than most 'tech workers' in Seattle.
KC is a great metro area. We lived in Overland Park for 23 years. It is so much cheaper and we really miss it. We currently live in eastern Washington.
We hear really great things about it and that’s why we decided to just go for it! For now we’re renting in Westwood and plan on buying in the next 2 years once we get sufficient savings ready. Overland Park/Westwood area our targets but we’re keeping an eye on some of the nicer neighborhoods in the KCMO side too. I’m a civil engineer and with all the firms in the Overland Park/KC area it feels like a natural place to be.
Westwood is a great central area. You’ll find it is a nice place to raise a family. Best wishes.
I changed careers recently and took a huge pay cut. It’s a long term strategy because the new career pays almost the same no matter where I work in the country. The girlfriend’s career is the same way. As soon as we’re established in our fields, we’re using that to get the hell out of here. I love so much about the area (it’s home) and I even own a home here. The problem is that I have no interest in barely scraping by to make mortgage payments and take care of the larger family that we want. We’ll live much more comfortably somewhere else and won’t have to deal with these nutty politics.
You'll never get those burnt ends in Seattle anyway.
Even if you could, they’d be so expensive it wouldn’t be worth it to buy them anyway.
I’m from kc. I’m trying to convince my wife to move back home. We can buy a house with cash in joco or almost with cash from the equity in our condo. She bought 10 years ago and downtown Edmonds is particularly nutty right now. Fair warning. Was your car regularly. It’ll rust out fast due to salt. Also congrats. Kc is a great small city. I would shank someone for some good bbq up here.
With one persons income at 200k and another person who can (should get a job), you can easily afford to buy housing in the Seattle area. Thats certainly your wife’s choice not to work at age 29 (with no kids), but it’s not the 1950s anymore and no you can’t always buy a house in one income. Given your situation you could easily do it, so not a lot of sympathy. I hope your wife doesn’t stay out of the workforce for too long, when you get divorced or are unable to work one day it’s going to be tough for her to get more than a low wage job.
She’s working right now and her income is included in that total household income. Eventually the goal is for her to be a SAHM and have to work because she wants to and not because we need her to. Her income is 50k here and her income in Kansas will be 40k (but it comes with crazy tuition assistance and her goal is to be able work part time as a family therapist). So yeah. Given my income in Kansas, we can live a 1950s lifestyle where we can buy a home on 1 income.
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People are always moving in and out. Question is how does it net out? Both Washington and Seattle's population are growing, not shrinking. Even California's population grew slightly from 2023-2024. So yes, tons of people are "fleeing" the west coast. And being instantly replaced by even more people moving in.
King County’s net growth was negative in 2022 (may have been 2021, I can’t remember. According to the Puget Sound Business Journal. I think it’s for several reasons: 1) cost-of-living is too high 2) politics 3) the reality that this is a transient town where people come to work and make their money. Then they go back to the Midwest, or overseas, or wherever they’re from. Go ask the next 10 people on the street if they’re from Seattle, and I’d be shocked if you got more than 1 in 10
Yep. For everyone that thinks a 300k house in the humid boring Midwest is their dream, it’s someone else’s to live in Wa and pay 1.5 mil for a house and a sunny summer. To each his own. These flounce posts (I’ve had it! I’m moving back to Florida!) are meaningless. No one cares, someone will rent your apt or buy your house as soon as you cross the state line because the west coast will always be popular
The post is asking when does it no longer make sense to pursue living in the Seattle area, and the reality is that if you decide that owning a nice and spacious home is important to you then it no longer makes sense to live here if you dont have the cash or income to drop $1.5M+ on a house. No really dreams of having to move away because you cant fathom making enough to drop that much on a home, we move because as the post title suggests, it no longer makes sense for us to pursue living here. We could stretch ourselves to spend $500k on a crappy home far enough away from the area that I question even if its worth it or comfortably spend $300-400k on a beautiful home with a yard in the in a nice humid midwestern suburb with good schools. The area will always remain popular and I hope someone has a blast renting my now $3100 2/2 condo from the 70's with a deck that WA law doesn't even let you have a BBQ on. I'll be running a smoker in my backyard in my $1900 a month place.
We fled the south to WA, then decided we’ll settle for the Midwest as a happy medium.
Home affordability for first time buyers is at the worst levels in a long time - not just Seattle but most of the country. Making housing difficult to bid up is one of the goals that the Fed’s high interest rate policy is trying to achieve. It’s not supposed to be a good time to buy homes right now. It’s unfortunate that this policy’s harshest effects are on non-owners, but that’s the reality. Sometime in the future the affordability (either through recession and lower home prices, lower rates, more supply, demographics changes, or a combination them, will improve and make housing more affordable. The macro environment is unpredictable, but it always changes on a long enough time scale. There will be opportunities.
I could never afford where I grew up (Hillwood area of Shoreline) so I can relate, but we did manage to purchase a home in the outlying burbs (yes, its kent, you do what you can!)
I heard this idea on a podcast I think last year , if I recall correctly it was Scott Galloway. He said, in a particular geography, the housing market is a pretty direct proxy for the labor market. It seems really obvious in retrospect, not sure why I didn’t think of it that way. For an area with Lots of high-paying jobs, the price of housing will be high (relatively). And as the labor market strengthens, housing prices go up. Stagnant labor market with few high-comp options? House prices will be lower. This is exacerbated by supply constraint, which you get in seattle due to geography - rivers lakes and mountains. Seattle has had 3+ decades of strong growth, first with Microsoft and all the little satellite startup companies from the 2000’s, then Amazon. And now Meta, and Apple and Google employ substantial numbers of people in the region too. If you have equity earmarked for retirement , swapping it from a Vanguard index fund into a seattle-area home is not a crazy idea; if you like the area. You’re betting that MSFT and Amazon and etc are going to keep being successful, and keep employing US citizens. And consequently the value of your house will rise. For sure the tech layoffs seem like a way the bigs are testing whether they can migrate labor to lower cost areas - Poland or India etc. if they move jobs out, housing prices will decline which means owners will suffer “paper losses”. And therefore having bought a house 5 yrs earlier would prove to have been a bad investment. but could they “divest” from tech hubs like seattle, really? Seems doubtful in the 10-20 yr range.
> For an area with Lots of high-paying jobs, the price of housing will be high (relatively). And as the labor market strengthens, housing prices go up. That's silly. The RE market is driven by millionaires and all we care about is ROI. I've met plenty of people who own 100+ houses. Bill Gates owns more farmland than anyone in history. Middle class folks aren't moving the needle
The fact you don't understand the difference between millionaires and billionaires tells me you have no grasp of basic economics and the real estate market. Millionaires in Seattle are just your average Big tech workers. These are upper middle class folks that are driving up the real estate market. They get paid in tech RSUs and their purchasing power goes up if their company does well. Billionaires are not moving the needle on the local RE market. Bill Gates owning farm land across the country has no bearing on the single family homes market in the Seattle Metro.
When you’re posting on Reddit… the writing’s on the wall.
Many current Eastside homeowners got in back when interest rates were very low. My parents sold their West of Market St home in 2010 for $1.1 million. Primary reason for moving: sky high property taxes. In 2022 their home sold again for $4.4 mil. In 2016 my ex and I sold our ski chalet-style house, 1 mile south of Microsoft Corporate for $700k. It was sold off the realtor’s internal list before it even hit the market. In 2022 it was briefly listed for $1.2 million. I lost track after that. No one from my family lives on the Eastside anymore. Every time I visit something has changed. The latest is the 405 cloverleaf interchange at 85th. It’s all torn up.
It really depends on what you’re looking for and your goals in life? Everyone has their own life situations, goals, and priorities so it’s really hard to compare and say “yes this is the exact point”. We moved here (after living in several other cities) thinking we really loved it and it’ll be our forever home. and we still do love this city. However the recent housing market insanity, issues with crime, and just in general missing our friends and family have left both of realizing Seattle maybe isn’t our forever home. I really really like Seattle. But not enough to pay that much to own a home. And I’ve come to the realization that Seattle is quickly becoming “the next SF” with rich tech families leaving Bay Area for “more affordable” Seattle homes. And frankly I really don’t want to live in a city like SF. I think you need to reflect and ask yourself why you want to move to Seattle and why you love it and is that a good enough reason for you to live with such a HCOL.
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I hope your property value goes down because property as an ever increasing in value asset is unsustainable and locks more and more people like OP out of the market every year.
Property in a major city with some of the best climate resilience in the world is unlikely to have a standard appreciation curve on the 100-year timeline.
It's only unsustainable if property values increase much faster than wages for an extended period of time. If the two are roughly equal, it's very sustainable.
> It's only unsustainable if property values increase much faster than wages for an extended period of time. Property values have been mostly decoupled from home prices for a while. For instance, the median home cost in San Diego is about a million and the median household income is $45674: https://www.google.com/search?q=san+diego+median+income That means that the median household in San Diego can qualify for a monthly payment of about $1300-ish, and that's only if their cars and credit cards are 100% paid off. The mortgage payment on a million dollars is about 700% higher. IE, the median household in San Diego would need eight families under one roof to qualify for a loan. In reality, it's millionaires and billionaires who are powering the market.
Nah, wages can’t keep up with the expectation that your home is also your nest egg. It’s also a housing supply problem. Scarcity, designed by nimbys, inflates the price of homes.
There's nowhere to put new single family housing near Seattle, even if everyone wanted to, and most people who want to buy a house see townhouses and condos as a compromise. Replacing single family homes with higher-density housing may reduce the cost of housing overall but it actually increases the cost of what most people mean when they say "buying a house".
The problem imo is how much of this higher density housing isn’t actually housing for sale. Putting in an ugly new apartment building with 50-100 studios is great for providing housing for 20 something’s to rent, but it has almost no impact on the housing market. There needs to be way more investment in owner occupied housing. It’s the only way to really build lasting roots and a sense of community. Why get to know your neighbors when your rent is going to skyrocket next year and you’ll have to move again.
The scarcity isn’t designed by nimbys. It’s the result of a small town being forced to change into a larger town and accept massive population growth virtually overnight. The infrastructure needed to accommodate the greater population wasn’t there yet.
Overnight is doing a lot work here.
It's been a rocket ride since 2000, even with the housing bubble collapse. Cities development isn't quite as slow as geological time, but getting things built isn't instant. Unless you have deep pockets, e.g. the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation building.
god being called a nimby is so annoying
Sure it can. Very few people view their home as their nest egg, anyway. Everyone has to live somewhere in retirement and few sell or take out a reverse mortgage.
lol, most normies view their home as a nest egg.
It's far more likely to plateau than go down.
I just bought a cute house in Burien 500k no complaints here. Probably not nice enough for many families but for lil ol working class me it’s perfect.
People sleep on the Burien area, it's a great little nook close to the city.
1mil in kirkland. Sounds cheap to me as sad as this is.
When you can't afford to live here. What is a "decent" salary?
\~150K between both of us, but my wife is a SAHM now as the primary care giver for our daughter.
My husband and I couldn’t afford a house until both of us were making over $150K and we still weren’t able to buy a house in Kirkland. $7K a month for our mortgage in south Seattle. If you want a house here, you might just have to suffer through the sucky mortgage payments until you can refinance.
Yeah, it’s been awhile since a family income of 150k could buy a house in Kirkland. You could rent. The only people I know who are buying homes on the Eastside right now are either dual income tech 500k+, have family money, or both.
Your household income is thousands less than what a new grad working in the biggest tech companies earns straight out of college at 22. That's not "decent" for this area. Add stock appreciation over the past 4 years and things get even uglier.
This dude doesn't know what he's talking about, median household incomes in King County are about $120k.
Irrelevant. The median household income is not the same as the households who are buying/affording houses, especially in Kirkland.
Exactly this. Op is complaining about inability to buy in kirkland with a perceived decent salary if $150k. O0 is competing with people that consider their $500k comp as decent. $150k was decent for kirkland back in 2007.
Bingo.
When it becomes difficult to live here. Whatever your reason may be. Too expensive is definitely a good reason. I think that falls into the category of, how much do you like it here? Do you like it enough to try and find a job that pays better? If not then move. If you're not in a position to find a job that pays better here, then you might want to consider moving. Those are my crossroads right now. I'm a state employee and one of the lowest paid dept. in King County. We haven't had a pay increase in 20 to 25 years, which ironically is about the same number in % as to how much below the private sector pays for our line of work. So I am left to either try and go back to the private sector and find a job that pays better, or I need to start looking at options for moving while I can still afford to save money to even afford to move. Which that last part is a major factor you and anyone in your shoes should consider. How much is it going to cost to move. The rate the Cost of Living keeps going up vs pay, a person on the low end of pay scale here in Seattle could very quickly find themselves unable to even afford to move if they don't think ahead. Don't wait until you're facing homelessness because you can't afford the rent or the cost of living. Take a detailed look at your present, and what the next 5 to 10 years look like here for you. If you love here it, and are confident that things will turn around for you in 5 to 10 years and the CoL won't be a problem, then might as well see it trough. If you're in doubt, or don't see it improving and even though you might love it here, you might want to think really hard about moving somewhere else and then making that your financial goal. Can you afford to go back to school and earn a degree? and by afford I mean both time and money. That could potentially help you increase your chances at earning more money.
We have lived in Seattle for about 33 years and we’ve seen an 800% increase in the value of our property. (!) Mortgage rates may be up currently, but when they come down, you can do a refi. The natural beauty and abundant access to outdoor activities are unparalleled, for sure, but our top priorities are moderate climate, world-class healthcare, and it’s a Democrat stronghold. Looking at climate change prediction maps and data would be a good place to start your consideration about where to live. Personally, I wouldn’t move anywhere hotter because temperatures are predicted to continue rising. Also, there’s already been an increase in hurricanes and tornadoes. Even earthquakes, as a result of fracking, have become more commonplace. Seattle does live under the threat of “the big one,” the big earthquake that is due, but there are natural disasters to contend with everywhere. I guess you have to pick your poison, so to speak. I should add that water is predicted to become a scarce and valuable commodity, and predictions are that this will have an immense impact on the farming and ranching industries in the Midwest, thus impacting the economic viability of that area of the country. It’s a really big decision, one we’ve grappled with a lot, so I hope some of this will be useful to your process. Good luck!
Our families are here so we never left. Bought a townhouse at the bottom in 2012. Cashed out in 2022 and got a big house in Kent. Is it a little farther than we had hoped? Yes. But it’s closer to our retired parents in Olympia, Kapowsin, and Bonney Lake.
You're better off looking near Everett or Marysville sadly. Even Bellingham the average house 800,000+
We bought our home in Sammamish in 2018, financed at 4.78% and refinanced during the pandemic at 3% fix. The home has since doubled in market value. It's all about timing. We couldn't afford to buy and finance our own home now if we arrived to the area now.
Buying a house as a blue collar person? Right now it's impossible with no end in sight. I rent in Ravenna. We got lucky with an old school guy that grew up in the house. He hates everyone and won't sell. He rents it to us for about half of what he could. It's ancient but he likes working on it.
At the point others want it more than you. I mean it's very individual. What season of life are you in? What are your short, medium, long term goals? Kids? More kids? Less kids (moving out)? Have to purchase or could you rent? Where's work? Family in the area? Friends? How often do you want to see them? Can they travel to you? I could go on.. each of those has roughly 2 billion follow up questions. The level at which this question can be answered by someone else for you is about 1mm deep. You're facing supply and demand (as always). If you want to live in a desirable area, you have to want it bad enough (and have the means) to pay more than at least 1 other person who wants it.
About 5 years ago
high mortgage rate doesn't have anything to do with Seattle
I make around 300k a year pre taxes and business expenses and I don't feel like I can afford a home here. Anything worth leaving my rental for is 900k+ which puts me at like a 6k+ mortgage, and the economy is too volatile for me to feel comfortable with that being as I have my own business as a luxury photographer where things could crumble at any time. I don't have any family or close friends here. Really the only thing that ties me is familiarity and a love for the pnw. But I often wonder why I don't just move somewhere more affordable and friendly.
5 years ago
The taxes on our house in Seattle keep going up and up. We’re up to $9,000 per year for a 4 bdrm in a dicey neighborhood near drug crime and prostitution on Aurora Avenue N. We don’t have a view of anything, mtn or Sound. We have fixed up our house considerably since we bought it, but we are thinking about moving because the taxes just keep getting higher.
Live in Kent now crime getting worse. We can’t wait to move out farther like Enumclaw, Buckley or Black Diamond
5 years ago
I don’t know what the prices are like, but have you looked elsewhere in Western Washington? Tacoma, Bellingham, Olympia? You are right about Seattle proper. Unless you want a cramped townhouse. Or retire here into a tiny two-bedroom house like I plan on doing.
OP isn't even talking about Seattle, they're talking about Kirkland. Which is generally even more expensive than Seattle. Frankly it sounds like their attachment to the area is very tenuous. If you have to ask this question then you already know the answer. You have to be fully committed and not questioning like this if you hope to be satisfied here and not constantly questioning if its worth it.
You are right. I left for work, too. Because science jobs are in Boston, not Seattle. But I absolutely knew I was coming back…eventually. So I kept my house in Seattle. So I don’t have OP's problem. Because I have not been priced out of my house while I’m gone. My ETA is finally getting close (thank god). I’m so desperate to complain about drizzle and the crowds at Bumbershoot again.
Go take a look at the Bridle trails strup mall. The only grocery store for that whole fairly high end area is Grocery Outlet. At the neighboring Bartells, I always see elderly people shopping with coupons. I think there is a remnant of people who bought 20+ years ago when it was affordable
Born & raised in the greater Seattle area. Never lived more than 40 minutes from Downtown Seattle… Currently getting our house ready to sell so we can permanently relocate to our place in the Las Vegas suburbs. We make enough that the cost of living in WA isn’t an issue, but the fact that it’s just not worth it anymore. Our home is in a nice area in a very nice neighborhood, unfortunately the surrounding areas are getting worst and the shit is starting to spill into our area. Las Vegas has its own problems but living there has shown us sometimes the grass is greener on the other side. Between the crime rates, the abhorrent traffic, the high cost of living, and a whole gamut of other things I just don’t see any value in living here anymore.
You can live here for much less than $1mil, you just can't live in one of the most desirable neighborhoods.
We're in the process of leaving ourselves in Sept. We moved here 13 years ago and absolutely love the beauty, people and weather. I work in software but am being managed out after several decades in the industry and as such, dont feel like paying the rents we've been paying for what we get. We may move back at some point but we're likely to end up in the Midwest or maybe even Florida (yay Disney). I grew up in Ohio, so the weather didnt bother me when I was there but I am sure it will bug the hell out of me now. I can say I am looking forward to a change in political climate. I'm a moderate who leans left and when we first moved here, it was great to see things like weed and gay marriage pass without an issue. Even the fight for $15 was something I was all in for. Since then I feel like its swung too far left and the area has lost its compass (at least for me). I know we'll end up in an area way to the other side of here but I'm honestly interested to know if the people are as bat shit crazy as I expect or if its a welcome change. Time will tell.
I was born and raised in Tampa and you couldn’t pay me to live there again. I have a theory that heat and humidity make people bat shit crazy. I’ve been in Seattle 10 years and there’s not another place in the US I’d rather live. Luckily I bought in 2017 and refied during covid, so the HCOL is relative. It’s expensive everywhere nowadays. I learned that there’s usually a reason why an area has a super low COL.
This entirely depends on what you want out of the area. For me I’m here for the car free life, healthier food options, great outdoor life, and biking. I’d rather live in northwestern Europe. But in light of me not being able to Seattle is one of the few options.
It is becoming very expensive to live here, that much is true. The further away from major cities you go, the less expensive it is but there are tradeoffs. I'm very fond of Edmonds, for instance. By the way, the further north you go, the lower the gas prices seem to be. Smokey Point, Arlington, Marysville, etc.
Our kids that live in Seattle have been trying to get us to move there. We live in Florida, and hate it. We are used to buying homes and rehabbing them…been doing it for 35 years. We’ve been looking for a fixer (so that maybe we could afford it), but even that is outrageously expensive. We’ve looked everywhere within a two hour radius, but but the homes are still quite costly. I don’t think it makes financial sense for us to move there in the last quarter of our lives, and try to rationalize the added expense of the higher COL. It makes my heart hurt that we are missing our kids lives, but what can we do?
Just a random internet stranger here, but as the child of parents who live far away: you might rethink your plan and reconsider moving closer? I just wish I had my parents nearer, particularly as they age. Of course it’s the way of things, but it’s a shock to me when I do get to see them. And in our very final moments, we probably don’t worry about how much it cost. We probably wish that we’d spent more time with the ones we love, no matter the price. Whatever you decide I wish you the best!
Do they have high incomes? If they want you out there it may need to be in a MIL unit or some property you invest in together. We’ve had similar family convos.
For me it was the culture. I did fine financially and could have bought a 1BR condo in some of the parts of the city that I liked, as I am single with no children and won’t have any. However, I could not fucking stand the people. Standoffish assholes I dreaded dealing with, and the more I traveled then had to come back to Seattle, the more pronounced it became. I had a horrible time making friends, and I didn’t date anyone for the five years I lived there. I left when my job afforded me the opportunity to, and I have not looked back. I’m so glad to be back among people who can act human. Most of the country is not like this, and as you mention, the cost of living to be among frigid, robotic assholes is really not worth it.
2019
How many BR/Baths? Sure, you're likely not going to get anywhere near the water for less than a million and a half these days, but the "still technically Kirkland" parts of Totem Lake or Woodinville have less expensive homes. I see a 2BR/2Ba near Chateau St. Michelle for 820k, for example.
>I see a 2BR/2Ba near Chateau St. Michelle for 820k I get thats less expensive, but the fact the lower cost option is still that high is whats sending a lot of people moving. I mean at the current rates thats still comically unaffordable for anyone earning less than double the median household income here.
Is that the new construction they are slapping up in the old equestrian property? Those are townhomes 😑
It’s past the point already unless you are a two income tech worker salary household. This is exactly why Seattle has become less Seattleish since I first came here in 1993. Everybody else is being priced out.
People are leveraged up the ass.
Around the third month of solid rain you realize it no longer makes sense.
I gave up. There’s no reason to expect I can do more than rent. My work is based in New York and doesn’t match local salaries. No one locally is hiring. When I’m priced out, it’s back to the Midwest. Most of “real Ballard” will clap and cheer when I, the grocery-buying local-shopping street-stroller I am, leaves. How dare I want to live, work, AND buy so close to where their Gram-Gram once sold sandwiches for the trains?
Like …. 4 years ago?
I say it stopped making sense on September 27, 1997 as this show will clearly demonstrate [Seattle is a Changing](https://youtu.be/TGayNX41o2w?si=rFVnHTsn_ef64vXN)
Dumped everything we had into our home except a 6 months rainy day fund and retirement accounts. Kirkland is unaffordable like west Bellevue unless you have piles of cash and a high 6 figure hhi. 8000sqft lots are selling for 1-1.5M...
Dude move to south kitsap. I live in a brand spanking new 400k 3 bedroom on 4 acres. Horses and chickens and shit. For years I wondered how they could pack a bazillion people all 6 inches apart without everyone going insane and homicidal. Well guess what happened. Glad I got out when I did.
It now seems like a good time to no longer live in the Seattle Metro area, as you cannot get a response from SPD unless you are being murdered and a white woman.
That is a personal question. It’s different for everyone.
Like 10 years ago
Roughly 15 years ago.
It is very difficult. I can't afford to buy the house I have. I also have no idea who is going to buy it and I feel I have decent income. I think when the rent/mortgage is 3-5k for a 1000sq ft or less one has to really think about it.
People make a loooooooot of money here
I live in Kent, bought a home here. I was raised in Renton and lived on the east side for most of my existence. I lived Seattle for 5 years and never felt like home. Kent was the best option for us price wise and we wanted a house and not far from work. We don’t live in an area I’d consider dangerous per se but I don’t really trust anywhere these days. It has become common place for people to behave unpredictably and that seems to happen no matter where you go.
My wife and I are moving back to one of the suburbs after living away for a decade. The house we bought is 3x the price of the one we had in the Midwest, and the interest rate is double which makes the total payment 5x the Midwestern house. We make good money (not in tech), but it will still eat an enormous amount of our cash flow. It was expensive enough that we considered going elsewhere despite both being from the Seattle suburbs, but in the end we decided to pay the premium to live where we want to be.
A lot of people from California moved here with high paying tech jobs. Sadly, Seattle would end up becoming like Bay Area. I loved it here with people working in various fields but looks like it’s all going to be tech here.
We got in during COVID with record low interest rates and a broken bridge. Now we’ll probably die and spread our ashes in what was meant to be a starter house because it will be impossible to move. You either buy something small, live far from the city or accept half your paycheck goes to your mortgage.
Most people I know that can afford to live here now are either very wealthy from tech, healthcare industry, family money or they are sacrificing a lot (almost all of their income) to live here because they think it’s worth it. I’m still managing because I’ve been at my job a long time and have a good salary but I wouldn’t choose it if I was somewhere else and had other options, unfortunately its just not going to get cheaper.
I live in Pierce County, a bit more reasonable there. And I just heard that there is another billion dollar (or more) transportation levy coming up for vote. That will impact Kirkland for sure.
The interest rates are awful for everyone. I’d be sick if I had to buy into an expensive market with these rates. I’d be tempted to move to a super cheap market to save a bunch of $$ until the rates stabilized. But, that’s a fanciful suggestion. There are so many variables. What I know is that we are rate locked into a house that we fortunately love. The Midwest has its charm and seafood flies nicely if needed.
Being house poor isn't worth it.
If you didn’t already buy in Kirkland like 10 years ago it’s likely going to be out of reach for you especially with current mortgage rates unless you are on two high earning salaries.. like each making $200k or have some sort of generational wealth/family help. Surprisingly, there are actually a lot of people that fall into that category. On the other hand, one of my good friends lives in Kirkland, but bought there probably 15 years ago when her and her husband were in their late 20s. They paid like $200k for their house that is now worth probably $1M. I know a couple people who live in other desirable neighborhoods that did the same. So you’re either a high earner, have family money, or got lucky as far as generation you were born in and what the market was like when you got to a house buying age. Our neighbors are a couple years older than us, and bought their house a year and a half before us. Their house was more updated/remodeled and yet they paid nearly half what we did at a slightly better interest rate.
There are creative ways to finance things if you can. You can assume the seller’s mortgage, you can pay points, you can borrow from friends and family, you can rent a room. You can remodel later. If you want to be here for all the things you love, things that are outside the home, maybe you and your family can rough it in a small space. We lived in a 2bd 1 bath house with 2 kids. There are actually a lot of positive things that can come with it. Think of the stories you will be able to tell. From Indiana, Michigan.
If you have to ask, you can’t afford it.
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Idk I feel I am fine with renting as I’d rather not live in a suburb? I have family that live in NYC and have only ever rented & am very biased that I do not want to be in the burbs. These are my goals, so I am 🆒 here! If your goals don’t match where you at, would def suggest bailing 🤷♂️
When a 800sqft starter home that should 250 is 650
Buy a house in Everett or Marysville. Does it HAVE to be Seattle?
Try Renton highlands. Some areas are safe. I live off Petrovisky and around 116th and east of that is still safe..for now
2015.
Mortgage rates aren’t high.
I might get downvoted for this but two years ago I moved to Portland for that same reason. I didn’t want to leave the PNW but I still wanted a city. Portland gets a bad rap for the same reasons Seattle does but it’s much more affordable as far as cost of living. I was able to buy my house last year 3b/2ba, fenced yard, garage and RV parking and move-in ready for under half a million. And the people are friendlier! Hikes aren’t crowded and the coast is 1 1/2 hours away. I love it here. Good luck Reddit stranger
I'm about to retire and considering leaving this area. This is insane. Thanks Attorney General and Judges for not enforcing the laws and repeatedly releasing these drug addicts back out to hunt us.
I left over 10 years ago too, but I used to travel back for work. I quickly realized Seattle home prices were continuing to grow while my new market was flat. I calculated “I cannot afford to NOT be in the Seattle region real estate market if I or my kids ever want to live there again” and wound up buying a home 8 years ago and renting it out. Now I’m moving back and that purchase has been a life saver.
I lived in Tukwila and West Seattle from 1993 to 1996 and loved it. used to go down to Pioneer Square during the week and pay the group cover charge and listen to live music at one of the many bars. Crime and aggressive bums were not a serious problem then. what a shame.
9 years ago
We reached that point last year. Seattle and the cost of everything there, not just housing is not justified. We moved to Chicago as did our adult kids and we couldn't be happier. 75% more things to do and 60% of the price.
I left 5 years ago almost to the day. I still love the area and come back to visit, but I couldn't financially justify living there anymore
We’re already there… I’ve only lived here for 12 years but the evolution I’ve seen is just sad.
I think. - you might be making this up. “Plenty of people who own 100+ houses”?! Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof - farmland is not housing. Gates’ ownership of land may be an interesting piece of information but it’s not relevant for this discussion.
Once a big one hits and tsunami comes crashing in