The anecdotal evidence is out there when we have relocating singles, couples and families contacting us for help in finding a short term rental to stay in as they come to the Emerald City for a new job, school, or otherwise. Some of these folks are also looking for a 1-year lease because they believe they’ll want to get to know the area for a while and then purchase. Most of the time when we ask what the maximum rent is that they’ll pay we get an amount that makes us wince a little bit and think, “you won’t get the size place you want for that much around here.” That’s mostly due to relocaters not yet having done the full research of the difference in cost of living from where they are coming from to the Seattle and surrounding market. You can find online resources such as Bankrate.com and Moving.com. There are lots more if you do a search online using search terms like “cost of living comparison for cities”.
Sure, they may have visited on vacation before, but back then they weren’t checking out housing prices for either buying or renting. You can see the article where Seattle ranks in the top 10 nationally for rent increases here.
I had a similar experience when I moved here back at the end of 1989. My boyfriend at the time and I moved from Wichita, KS to Renton where we’d lived in a nice little one-story post-war 2 bedroom, 1 bath house. Since he had an engineer’s salary at Boeing we were hoping that when we got to Seattle we would buy a place within a year or so. Sad for us though that we moved at a time when Seattle was going through a boom year in real estate that blew that idea out of the water after we started house hunting. I was just starting my career at the time and was managing a small family owned chain of children’s furniture stores (where I cut my teeth on “staging” with all the furniture merchandising we had to do). It took another 5 years before I was in a position to buy a house here and by that time I had a new boyfriend and was on a new career path that covered sales into manufacturing and technology firms.
If you’re considering relocating to our area you might start with research related to your new job. You can find data on salary ranges for various professions at Salary.com. There is also a city comparison for cost of living here as well.
If you want to learn more about the Seattle/Bellevue metro area we also recommend you go to our Team Reba site and check out relocation page. You can order our relocation packet which will provide you with an overview map of the area and we also provide a guide that gives information about the majority of cities and even individual neighborhoods in the Puget Sound area. This booklet is completed each in conjunction with local Chamber of Commerce organizations and the local REALTOR(R) organization (Seattle King County Association of REALTORS(R)). Included are city demographics, school info, medical facility details, business climate info and more.
