mike734

Not at all. Please don't opine on things you know nothing about. Sales tax is high in urban areas and property taxes are moderate but high income people, like airline pilots, benefit disproportionately by low income taxes. The other taxes don't come close to "making up for it."

Rabid Seagull

[QUOTE=ViperDrvr;2008174
SVA402, good opening. We do love the outdoors, and we are looking for somewhere with 4 true seasons (snow required). [/QUOTE]


Snow required, eh? I would suggest central to eastern Washington. Start looking at Wenatchee, Ellensburg, Yakima (it's a stretch), and as someone mentioned, out to Spokane.

Not to get into the weather patterns of the PNW, but central and eastern WA get sunnier days, higher highs in the summer and lower lows in the winter...and snow.

Lots of outdoor stuff - mountains, good hunting, and camping.

Sure you might drive a lil longer and can be tough going across the mountain passes in the winter, but you mainline folk only work a couple days a month anyway

If Seattle is too blue for you, it all turns red as soon as you get across the mountains . Open spaces, lots of farming, little traffic, and lower cost of living.

Good luck

p.s. And if you think the Seattle traffic is better on weekends, when you might not be working, it is not.

full of luv

Yes and remember he said "retired" military. Check of the month club goes a little bit further when your state isn't confiscating up to 15% of it before the feds even get their hands on it like in the state of Cali, or nearly 10% in Oregon. (by the time you add it to your Delta earnings, that will be the state's take).
Most military woefully underestimate the tax bite of the civilian world.

waflyboy

Snow is about an hour away from the greater Seattle area. Personally, I don't think of Western WA has having the "4 traditional" seasons. If your preference is for this region, you might consider Spokane (mentioned above) or Cour d'Alene. Otherwise, maybe MSP or SLC?

Flyfalcons

I live in the area. The state gets their money one way or another. We have higher gas prices, property tax, and sales tax than most.

crewdawg

Yup. I would need a 30% pay increase to maintain the same standard of living as I have now. Real estate prices alone are 80-100% more! Here's hoping for a housing bubble burst in the Seattle area in the next 5-6 years!

Having said that, it's still on the short list of places to move when I retire from the Guard...

tailendcharlie

Dirtdiver

I moved from PTC to Gig Harbor last year. Tags were more in GA. My property tax millage rate is the same. But I dropped paying the GA governor $18K! Sales tax and gas tax and tolls seem to be the only places they're hitting me harder. House prices are higher for what you get, the biggest negative is the traffic. Not the Narrows bridge, but where 16 joins I-5 7 lanes pinches to 3.

NuGuy

I like SEA. Amazing what a few decades can do for a city. Back in the 70's, when the logging industry went "pfffft", the joke was "would the last person leaving Seattle, please turn the lights off?".

Lots of people had the last laugh on that one.

Nu

Bainite

I edited to leave the ones that I was going to say. I lived in Renton for 9 months and was close enough to the airport to not deal with too much traffic to/from work but going anywhere else was a pain. Local beers are too numerous and changing to keep up with and many are great. Wish I could get Hale's here in TX! Lots of great hiking biking kayaking even right around Renton.
Check out the historical Rainier lahar maps. Many areas SE of Seattle have been under a hundred feet of mud and debris and will be again, just a matter of when. I personally would have stayed in the area but wife is a sun and heat worshiper and pretty much cried every drizzly day.