Wanting to move from Nebraska to Washington. Advice please (Seattle: real estate, rental)

[PS90]

Originally Posted by Ifemmak

Is Spokane a with good schools for kids? A nice safe place to live, earn good wages, and have a good family time?

Read up in the Spokane sub-forum. You will read everything from Spokane being a great place to live to Spokane being the most tweaker-infested, crime-ridden hell-hole on earth.

[Ifemmak]

Less expensive to me is not paying $1,500 for a 4brd apartment. Education wise to me is a good school system that has high standardize test scores. Good pay to me is 35k -40k per year. Am a student who is majoring in Criminal Justice, while my wife's skill sets are administrative, clerical work and customer service specialist work. Family oriented activities like is there a zoo, amusement park? Not like actually here where I have to drive 3 hours to Denver to have family time. I want to leave Nebraska because I need more job opportunities and Gering Nebraska is not for the young, but for the retirees.


If you are to choose between Seattle, Spokane, Richland, and Connell based on my needs listed above, which will you choose and why did you make the choice?

Thanks guys for your assistance.

[StealthRabbit]

Walla Walla from the above choices. (no zoo) Jobs, schools (including 2 colleges) nicer city than your suggestions.

Or Vancouver, WA area if you can survive a wet climate. Having Portland 10 min away solves your need for activities, and provides many diverse employment and upper education needs. (along with a 9% income tax if you work in Oregon).

I have spent a lot of time in Gering and area.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by Ifemmak

Is Spokane a with good schools for kids? A nice safe place to live, earn good wages, and have a good family time?

Spokane is Washington's third largest city, so will have good and less good schools, safe and less safe neighborhoods. You can drill down at Zillow to find the GreatSchools ratings of assigned schools for a property. The higher the school ratings, however, the higher the rents. Realize that those school ratings merely measure average student scores on standardized tests. Use them to filter out schools with bad learning environments, but don't depend on them to tell you what would be the "best" schools for your kids.

You'll definitely have a better chance of finding a good-paying job in Spokane than in Connell. It is the major transportation/freight hub for the "Inland Empire", which includes parts of five states.

[Ifemmak]

i never thought of Walla Walla

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by Ifemmak

i never thought of Walla Walla

Arid (for WA), banana belt for commercial AG. State penitentiary for PAID CJ schooling and relevant employment, LARGE home school population and SDA focused area (Seventh Day Adventist).

kinda far from the beach (coast) but very nice community (and near Oregon / Blue Mtns / Idaho).(lots of recreation)

Consider Vancouver as well (very different city than Walla Walla) and near a zoo.

[CrazyDonkey]

As for "good family time" in Spokane:

63 Things to Do with Kids in Spokane,*WA | TripBuzz

[MarciaMarshaMarcia]

Try Ellensburg, right in the middle of the state, small town, home of Central Washington University, close to the Cascades.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by TurquoiseOne

Try Ellensburg, right in the middle of the state, small town, home of Central Washington University, close to the Cascades.

Only if he nails down a job beforehand. I wouldn't move there without one. If moving without a job, head for a major job center, not a college town.

[seasallyttle]

Maybe look into Olympia also?

Spokane has good and bad parts. Some junky and some really pretty. It does have kind of groovy, old feeling downtown. There is an amusement park (like a Six Flags) in Idaho near Spokane and tons of outdoor recreation in that area. You are very near Coeur D'Alene there as well. Nice college town with a beautiful lake.