Pros and cons to living in Washington state (Seattle, Spokane: ski resorts, sales)

[NathanJames]

Im not sure if this question was ask before but i want to know your opinion on what are the pros and cons to living in Washington state?.

Nathan

[ccm123]

One current pro - they have the best football team in the world! Congrats, Seahawks!

[StealthRabbit]

Better search, since you left us no details...

You may be a Jr Higher, doing research, or you may have legitimate need to relocate.

If the former... search and Google is your friend

if the latter. ... we need to know...
Price range
City or rural,
job needs
healthcare needs
commute desires
Wet or dry climate (WA has both and plenty in between)
EDU needs,
Kids?
College?
cultural desires?
Hobbies?
Recreation?
Mtn or Prairie?
Seaside or desert?

...

If you are self employed and have a business and / or employees... We need many more details.

Generic =
Benefit = no income tax and highest minimum wage in USA

Con... if you are an employer... you have to pay that minimum wage, and B&O on GROSS...
No income tax means WA needs to get the revenue somewhere... in my case it is $1,200 / month in property taxes (up from $65 / month a few yrs ago).

If you are an 'employee, rather than an employer... and if you RENT rather than own your house... WA might be to your advantage.

[Jay F]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Better search, since you left us no details...

You may be a Jr Higher, doing research, or you may have legitimate need to relocate.

If the former... search and Google is your friend

if the latter. ... we need to know...
Price range
City or rural,
job needs
healthcare needs
commute desires
Wet or dry climate (WA has both and plenty in between)
EDU needs,
Kids?
College?
cultural desires?
Hobbies?
Recreation?
Mtn or Prairie?
Seaside or desert?

...

If you are self employed and have a business and / or employees... We need many more details.

Generic =
Benefit = no income tax and highest minimum wage in USA

Con... if you are an employer... you have to pay that minimum wage, and B&O on GROSS...
No income tax means WA needs to get the revenue somewhere... in my case it is $1,200 / month in property taxes (up from $65 / month a few yrs ago).

If you are an 'employee, rather than an employer... and if you RENT rather than own your house... WA might be to your advantage.

$1200 a month in property tax? Wow that is high. That would absolutely crush many Americans.

[Votre_Chef]

Originally Posted by NathanJames

Im not sure if this question was ask before but i want to know your opinion on what are the pros and cons to living in Washington state?.

Nathan

Pros:

If you like the outdoors, it's an outdoors-lovers' paradise. You like skiing, snowboarding, snowmobiling, riding off-road vehicles, hiking, camping, fishing, biking, hunting, boating, diving, mountain climbing, or just viewing natural wonders and fantastic scenery, Washington is a good choice with an abundant variety of I want to say ecosystems, but I'm sure that's not the right word. Let me put it this way, it's hard to see the rocky canyons near Steptoe, the rolling hills of the Palouse, the beach at Ocean Shores, the San Juan Islands, the areas of the East that resemble the high plains, the beautiful scrub land of Wenas, with it's lovely yellow birches in autumn as you near Cow Valley, the gaping maw of Mt. St. Helens from Johnston Observatory, the rainforest of the Olympic Peninsula and the sparsely populated west side of Hood Canal, the alpine meadows near Mt. Rainier, the ski resorts of the Cascades, the Enchantments, Leavenworth, the Seattle skyline and abandoned, decrepit 100-year old factories and warehouses in Tacoma, the Black Hills near Olympia, the Mima Mounds, Spokane along the riverfront, and so much more....and believe you been in the same state the entire time. So basically, there's the physical beauty and sheer variety of landscapes of it and abundant activities for the outdoors enthusiast.

If you dislike a state income tax and prefer a sales tax, that's Washington.

If your politics are more liberal, there's places like Seattle and Tacoma. If you're more conservative, you'll fit right in in Eastern Washington.

Washington has a fairly prestigious university system, with the University of Washington usually ranked very highly as a public institution of higher learning. Washington State university is one of the top schools for agricultural research in the nation. The K-12 system is good compared to the rest of the nation. Of course, your mileage may vary depending upon where you would live in Washington, some districts are very good, some are below average.

The greater Seattle area's weather is fairly temperate. Heat waves and large snow events are fairly uncommon. Although people may talk about the number of gray days the area has (and it has many) the summers are usually sunny and fairly dry. If it does get too hot, escape to the ocean beaches is always a possibility, where the temperatures are usually much cooler. The East has colder, harsher winters and hotter (but drier) summers.

Washington has crime rate lower than most other states. Not the lowest, but below the national average when it comes to most categories, especially violent crimes. So it's safer than most on average. Again, some areas are going to be safer than others (as in every other state), but like education, were I to be dropped in some random location within the state, I like my odds compared to other states.

Washington has a diversified economy with manufacturing, technology, service, agriculture (including forestry and fishing), government (example, defense, like military posts), transportation, energy and education sectors all being strong.

And there's more. Overall, I'd say it's a great place to live and would be a great place to raise a family, especially if you're the active type. However....


Cons:

Washington, especially the greater Seattle area, is expensive. Property taxes are high, the cost of living is higher than in other places and living in the downtown core of Seattle? Forget about it unless you have some real dough.

When it snows in the greater Seattle area, the whole place falls apart. This is somewhat due to topography (Western Washington is rather hilly).

Washington is in the process of beginning long overdue infrastructure improvements (transportation) that are going to be costly. Washington's population exploded during/after WW II (40% increase during the 1940s alone), especially from the 60s through the 80s and the state never really built the infrastructure to handle the immense growth, so there's been sprawl and now an attempt to fix the problem.

Although summers are lovely, it is gray in Western Washington most of the rest of the year. The rainfall totals aren't all that great (I think NYC gets more), it's just more of a regular drizzle and overcast skies. For the most part, Eastern Washington has 4 distinct seasons. Western Washington seems to just have two: Chilly and gray and then summer.

If you like thunderstorms, Washington doesn't get that many of them. Especially in Western Washington. Western Washington storms are more of the mid-latitude cyclonic variety, with low centers that can bring heavy rains and high winds, especially in autumn and spring.

Although Washington has an excellent network of universities, community colleges and technical colleges, inflation in education has hit them hard over the last few years and prices have gone up quite a bit. You might find a better bargain elsewhere.

Western Washington could suffer a devastating earthquake.

Mt. Rainier could erupt massively (devastating if you live in the valleys to the west due to mudflows, but the winds will probably carry the ash eastward, so Eastern Washington could be in big trouble if that happens too). Although a lateral blast like the 1980 St. Helens eruption, aimed in the right direction, could be terrible (doubtful it could hit Seattle or Tacoma, but could hit other places closer further to the south along I-5).

Your friends might think that if you move to Washington, you'll start wearing flannel and drink fancy coffee. You probably will, so deal with it.

Also, KING canceled Almost Live! and I'll never forgive them for that.

That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure there are glaring omissions.

[Ultrarunner]

My biggest con was having my Property Tax Assessment increase 80% over what I had paid for my home just the year before...

Property Tax went from $6,800 to $12,240 and since has bounced around from $10,500 to $13,500.

It is important to know this would not have been possible except the fact I-747 was tossed by a Judge and this opened the floodgates. Voters approved I-747 to provide some stability in taxes and one judge overruled the will of the voters.

For this one reason alone... it does make Washington a risky bet when it comes to property taxes.

My home is currently rented and it takes almost 7 months of rent just to pay Thurston County property tax.

Contrast this with renting my home in California and Property Taxes were less than 2 months rent for a home in the San Francisco Bay Area.

[ukiyo-e]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Con... if you are an employer... you have to pay that minimum wage, and B&O on GROSS...
No income tax means WA needs to get the revenue somewhere... in my case it is $1,200 / month in property taxes (up from $65 / month a few yrs ago).

However, that property tax is unusual, and it's not indicative of the entire state because of one odd outlier. If you search Stealth Rabbit's posts you can find many references to his property tax situation. It's not the norm. My property taxes are barely over $200 a month here, on a home with a value in the high $300K range.

Our sales taxes are rather high - in my county it's 9%. However, I would have to spend a majority of my income for the sales tax to equal the income tax savings I benefit from living here. And the state I moved from had very high state income tax rates as WELL as a 9% sales tax in my county.

[Ultrarunner]

Add one more to the outlier... plus my neighbors too!

My understanding of what happened to us is as follows.

Someone bought a large parcel of land with plans to subdivide and paid a record price based on a pipe dream... however the money paid was real.

This spike which is a true outlier was all the assessor needed to review all local property values and we paid the price... in my case an 80% spike over what I had paid the year before when I bought.

The Southern California Developer hung in there for several years and we tried our best with appeals... no luck... assessor said they had a bona fide sale and that was that.

Fast forward and the guy lost the property and now it is part of a land trust... so we can't even use the resale for a comp so the original comp still stands.

I had no idea one purchase, could affect everyone in the area and there was not a darn thing to do about it except appeal for the good it did.

I'm sure the swings are tempered if you live in city limits and your home is just like many others in a subdivision... not quite the same when you own country property in the county.

[Creature of the Wheel]

Originally Posted by NathanJames

Im not sure if this question was ask before but i want to know your opinion on what are the pros and cons to living in Washington state?.

Nathan

A major negative right now is dealing with all of the sudden Seahawks "fans" who have come out of the woodwork. Where were they in the previous seasons? Oh, that's right, they were rooting for one of their other "favorite" winning teams. *rolls eyes* The biggest crock of crap a Seahawks "fan" says is how they've been a fan since childhood. Yeaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, right!

[509]

Having moved over from Idaho my biggest gripe is that Washington state is corporate owned. The latest Boeing "gift" from the taxpayers with another coming this fall is the classic example.

Writing the elected officials at the state and Federal level is an exercise in futility.

In Idaho, they not only read your letters but answered them. I once got a apology and a four page handwritten letter in response to my letter. The apology was for not typing it.

In Idaho, I felt like I was a citizen of the state. In Washington, I feel like serf.