Thinking about moving to Washington...Pros & Cons?

So the wife and I are pretty tired of California, we are born & raised here but I think we've had enough. We are thinking about moving to the Olympia area, maybe Chehalis or Centralia. So far it looks like you pay a little more in Property Tax, but there is no State Tax, & Sales Tax is about a percent higher. I haven't had a chance to look up Vehicle Registration fees yet, but that is a big one on my list, I'm tired of getting raped by Cali every year. I've been up there a few times, & I do like the area, There seem to be a lot of good breweries & golf courses. I would definitely like the cooler climate, but I always hear about much rain Washington gets. I'm sure that is blown out of proportion. For the Wife it's important to be in Horse Country and the Olympia area seems to have plenty of that.

Anyhow, if any of you Washingtonians have any advice I would appreciate it. I'm sure the last thing y'all want is another California family moving up there.

Thanks in advance

Golf courses and good breweries? Ahh, priorities!

While my post is pretty useless regarding Washington, just over the river in Oregon, my sister in Portland does report that even though the cumulative rainfall may not be huge, it happens slowly and often. Especially in fall, winter, and spring.

Why move from California if taxes (and climate?) are similar or better there anyway?

nebben said:

Golf courses and good breweries? Ahh, priorities!

While my post is pretty useless regarding Washington, just over the river in Oregon, my sister in Portland does report that even though the cumulative rainfall may not be huge, it happens slowly and often. Especially in fall, winter, and spring.

Why move from California if taxes (and climate?) are similar or better there anyway?

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I'm still trying to figure that out, I think the tax situation is better in Washington since there is no state tax, but even though the other rates are a little higher, I think it still works in my favor a little. I suppose either way the gub'ment is gonna get theirs. Climate wise, I don't think it gets to 105* in Washington, but I could be wrong. But I think mostly it is just time for a change in scenery.

Forty years ago - when I lived in Seattle - the summers rarely got past about 78°, but last year I think they got in the 90s, and no one has air conditioners....

Nebben has the rain right - summers were usually drier and pleasant, but the mountains cause the rainfall, so if you don't mind a daily drizzle, you'll do just fine.

I'd go back...but my life evolved here, ex's, kids, grandchildren, job, ...

Western Washington and western Oregon have similar weather, drizzle from September to May, with the serious rain in December and January. The last couple summers were unusually hot, 100F+ many days; but this summer was average, ~85F with a few over 90F (like last week). Inland it is hotter in the summer and colder in the winter.

Vehicle registration fees are much lower. California basically charges the sales tax over again every year.

As an Oregonian, I encourage you to move to Washington.

Disclaimer: I've lived in California, but I'm not FROM California.

I was born and raised in Olympia, moved to Puyallup with my wife. quite frankly I'm ready to get out of washington as the cost of living is pretty high. that's pretty much the norm up and down the west coast though. it does rain a lot, car tabs are relatively cheap and depending on what county you live in you may or may not have to go through emissions as well. marijuana laws aren't as lax as california, but they're getting there. gun laws are much more lax compared to california.

david_42 said:

Disclaimer: I've lived in California, but I'm not FROM California.

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Me too, only I STILL live here!

I'm hoping to move back up north to western Washington myself at some point.

I was born and raised in Puyallup until I was 22, then moved to SoCal. I now live in Huntington Beach. I would not trade HB for anything in Washington!!!

Don't get me wrong, the summers there are incredible. It's just the other 10 months of the year that I can do without. If you're an outdoors person and the rain doesn't bother you, then go for it. Myself, I prefer the sunny beach and clean cars year round.

JonW said:

I was born and raised in Puyallup until I was 22, then moved to SoCal. I now live in Huntington Beach. I would not trade HB for anything in Washington!!!

Don't get me wrong, the summers there are incredible. It's just the other 10 months of the year that I can do without. If you're an outdoors person and the rain doesn't bother you, then go for it. Myself, I prefer the sunny beach and clean cars year round.

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Yeah I lived down in So Cal when I was in the Marines, and I liked it a lot. But my lifestyle these days requires me to have a decent size piece of land, and there is no way I could afford that down there. I agree though, the climate in So Cal is perfect.

david_42 said:

Vehicle registration fees are much lower. California basically charges the sales tax over again every year.

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It's high, but not nearly that high. You can use the DMV online calculator to see what the fees are for a new vehicle. Using $30K as an estimate for a 2010 gasoline vehicle, tax is $2625 (8.75% in OC) and registration is $434. Registration normally goes down each year unless there is a bump in fees.

I'm not sure what the property tax rates are in WA, but they do asses it on full (current) market value where CA does it based on purchase price. Thus if you purchased years ago, your property taxes are much lower than what you would pay today if you bought the same house. This is a huge savings.

Here's a site I just found that compares a bunch of the taxes by state: http://retirementliving.com/RLtaxes.html . It might help in the research a bit.

JonW said:

It's high, but not nearly that high. You can use the DMV online calculator to see what the fees are for a new vehicle. Using $30K as an estimate for a 2010 gasoline vehicle, tax is $2625 (8.75% in OC) and registration is $434. Registration normally goes down each year unless there is a bump in fees.

I'm not sure what the property tax rates are in WA, but they do asses it on full (current) market value where CA does it based on purchase price. Thus if you purchased years ago, your property taxes are much lower than what you would pay today if you bought the same house. This is a huge savings.

Here's a site I just found that compares a bunch of the taxes by state: http://retirementliving.com/RLtaxes.html . It might help in the research a bit.

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Thanks Jon, That link will definitely be useful. Vehicle Registration has become a big sorespot with me. I'm tired of getting slammed with the Weight Fees that California charges. I pay an extra $400 every year just because I own two trucks. I pay about $180 for my 1/2 ton and $220 for my 3/4 ton. It just really irks me.

If you want climate that's less of a shock, you can look into the Sequim area. Lots of people from Cali relocate to that area. Very little rain and lots of sun compared to the rest of washington. Of course the median age is somewhere around.... let me remember... somewhere around DEAD last I checked, so it might not be your kinda crowd if you're younger. Sequim gets about 15 inches of rain a year. An hour west of there and the annual rainfall is over 100 inches. It's an odd place. And they have a few nice golf courses.

Western Washington/Oregon = Rain. I've lived in western Oregon since I was eight and the summers are great as others have said. I am also an avid golfer but if you aren't prepared to play in the rain don't expect to play much during fall/winter(especially)/spring. I do feel you though on getting sick of living in a certain place, I have recently started to consider relocating myself. The question is where can I golf all year, have relatively mild summers and a great beer scene?

Kriznac said:

Western Washington/Oregon = Rain. I've lived in western Oregon since I was eight and the summers are great as others have said. I am also an avid golfer but if you aren't prepared to play in the rain don't expect to play much during fall/winter(especially)/spring. I do feel you though on getting sick of living in a certain place, I have recently started to consider relocating myself. The question is where can I golf all year, have relatively mild summers and a great beer scene?

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What are the rains like in Fall & Spring? is it a terrential down pour or a constant drizzle? I don't mind playing in the rain if it's not ridiculous, but my wife can't a lot on the horses if it's raining too much & I can't afford a covered arena.

Ya know, I've lived in Western Washington pretty much my whole life and always had the "I have gills so I can live with the constant rain" attitude and the "We have summer here... last year it was a tuesday" jokes, but about 2 years ago I started taking the bus to work. I have to walk about a half mile to and from the bus stop and during that time I can honestly say, busing 3 or 4 days a week, I've only had to walk in serious rain about a half dozen times. Most of the rain here is more of a light drizzle. Don't even bother with an umbrella. We have our major squalls, but they're actually few and far between and there are plenty of rain-free days.

It rains more often in Miami than it does in Seattle.

http://www.komonews.com/weather/faq/4308212.html

Yeah, its not torrential most of the time but it does rain a lot, maybe a better description would be very often. As far as golf goes, get some good raingear and a good pair of shoes and go play. Its actually a bit more of a challenge I think because it is so much easier to hit a fat shot on wet, soggy turf. Also be prepared for a lot of time with no sunshine. Even during dry spells it can remain overcast constantly. May not seem like a big deal but some people do have a hard time with it.

That's the one thing. Even if it doesn't rain all the time, it is cloudy about 2/3 of the time. But everything is lush and green and that helps a lot. When I visited California it was nice and sunny, but everything looked brown and dried up and depressing to me.

By raingear, you don't need anything serious. Just a waterproof windbreaker with a good hood is all you need and you're set.

ChshreCat said:

That's the one thing. Even if it doesn't rain all the time, it is cloudy about 2/3 of the time. But everything is lush and green and that helps a lot. When I visited California it was nice and sunny, but everything looked brown and dried up and depressing to me.

By raingear, you don't need anything serious. Just a waterproof windbreaker with a good hood is all you need and you're set.

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I guess it's all in the eyes of the beholder. I took trips to WA in both March and May and both times everything looked dead and grey to me. Other than the evergreens, all yard foliage was dead. Every car on the road was grey/brown and covered in dirt. It seems nobody washes their cars because they're just going to get dirty again.

Contrast that to SoCal where we have lush tropical foliage year round and everyone keeps their cars looking nice.

Just sayin'....

And no, I'm not all negative about WA. Like I said, if you're an outdoors person and don't mind the weather, then it is a great place. You can get a heck of a lot of land for your money there - you can't argue with that.

What part of washington did you visit? Sure we have deciduous trees that lose their leaves in the fall, but most of the west half of the state is covered in evergreens. Now, if you were east of the mountains... that's high desert. Dusty and brown all year roun'! I lived there for about five years and then fled back to the westside (wetside) of the cascades. My yard is lush and green 10 months out of the year. We're not allowed to water in my neighborhood in July and August (well water) so the lawn dies, but I keep the flowers and garden going.

There were a few years where the seattle area was under water restrictions due to low snowpack in the mountains those years so people couldn't water, but usually they can water all summer long.

The cheap land is one of the problems with Sequim. People down in Cali would retire and sell their small one or two bedroom houses and get enough to buy an acre and build their dream mansion in Sequim. Then they die a few years later and the house goes on the market. But the only folks who could afford it are the ones retiring and moving up from Cali, and they want to build THEIR dream house, not buy someone else's so the vacant McMansions go unsold. Not sure if they found a way to fix it. We moved out of the area about 5 years ago.

I do agree that it really is in the eye of the beholder. When I went to cali, I did see tropical plants, but they were in yards and business landscaping. When you looked at the hills, they were barren and brown and that's what struck me. Nothing was growing unless it was put there on purpose and tended. It all depends on what you're used to. I grew up on the edge of a temperate rainforest on the coast of Washington (where we got WAY more ran than Seattle ever gets) and got used to that sort of a place. If you wanted a place that wasn't dense with green plants, you had to tend it constantly. If you didn't, the plants took over!

JonW said:

I guess it's all in the eyes of the beholder. I took trips to WA in both March and May and both times everything looked dead and grey to me. Other than the evergreens, all yard foliage was dead. Every car on the road was grey/brown and covered in dirt. It seems nobody washes their cars because they're just going to get dirty again.

Contrast that to SoCal where we have lush tropical foliage year round and everyone keeps their cars looking nice.

Just sayin'....

And no, I'm not all negative about WA. Like I said, if you're an outdoors person and don't mind the weather, then it is a great place. You can get a heck of a lot of land for your money there - you can't argue with that.

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This is what I'm hoping for, cuz I need land. I can't imagine moving back into a track neighborhood. Thanks for the input so far guys, I do appreciate it.

Any idea where in Washington your interested in? What type of area?

I thought this was going to be an old Donovan Mcnabb thread.

ChshreCat said:

Any idea where in Washington your interested in? What type of area?

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I think we have pretty much settled on somewhere around Olympia,Centralia or Chehalis, which I believe is pretty much Lewis County. The wife has been doing some research on those areas for Horse Activity, and there seems to be quite a bit going on there. Training facilities, events & shows, and so on. I was looking at the the weather reports last night for Olympia and really seems to be pretty mild, the annual rainfall was about 50 inches, which isn't bad at all IMO.

I do have one question though, is there a lot of meth up there? Where I am at now it's a big problem, and is another reason we want to move. I know it's everywhere and you can't necessarily get away from it, but it would nice to live somewhere where half the people aren't jacked up on meth and missing most of their teeth.

All depends on the crowds you end up with. It's everywhere, but I know I don't see it in my neighborhood, if that's what you mean.

If you're big on horses, then east of the mountains would really be the place for you. I lived in Ellensburg for a while and it's like they're trying really hard to be in east texas, not Washington.

There's a lot of horse people where I am around North Snohomish, Skagit and Island county too.

wow, it is like you read my mind. I grew up in Washington and then moved to cali about 5 years ago. The sum of my visit is that I can't wait to move back. I bought a house otherwise I would be up there now. I hear you on the raped by Cali part. I don't want to be a part of this bankrupt small country anymore.

Really, I think the NW portion is just more appealing through collective reasoning. I think there is plenty of outdoor activities to do all times of the year, jobs are more plentiful in this economy, I like the beer but I like California beers too but I can get them up there too.

I may be biased as I have lived most of my life up there but what are ya gonna do....

Yankeehillbrewer said:

I think we have pretty much settled on somewhere around Olympia,Centralia or Chehalis, which I believe is pretty much Lewis County.

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If you do settle around Centralia or Chehalis just check to make sure you're not in the flood plain...I'm not joking. Nothing wrong with that area though. I have family in that area and further south in Washington as well as up on the Olympic Peninsula, where I lived for the first 25 years of my life. I'm pretty familiar with the west side of the state and went to college on the east side, which has a completely different type of climate.

humann_brewing said:

wow, it is like you read my mind. I grew up in Washington and then moved to cali about 5 years ago. The sum of my visit is that I can't wait to move back. I bought a house otherwise I would be up there now.

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I'm hearing you. I've been down in the bay area for almost 13 years now. I actually really like this area, but also purchased a house a few years back and am looking to get out of this area because it’s just too expensive. Luckily the beer scene is very good!

Shooter said:

If you do settle around Centralia or Chehalis just check to make sure you're not in the flood plain...I'm not joking.

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+1 on that. They got it bad recently:

ChshreCat said:

+1 on that. They got it bad recently:

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I've been in that Wal-Mart a couple of times!

Luckily, my brother's place wasn't hit by any of the floods the past few years.

humann_brewing said:

wow, it is like you read my mind. I grew up in Washington and then moved to cali about 5 years ago. The sum of my visit is that I can't wait to move back. I bought a house otherwise I would be up there now. I hear you on the raped by Cali part. I don't want to be a part of this bankrupt small country anymore.

Really, I think the NW portion is just more appealing through collective reasoning. I think there is plenty of outdoor activities to do all times of the year, jobs are more plentiful in this economy, I like the beer but I like California beers too but I can get them up there too.

I may be biased as I have lived most of my life up there but what are ya gonna do....

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Yep and with our current choices for Gubner things won't be getting better anytime soon.

I tell ya the more I research Washington, the more appealing it is. I have family(in-laws) in Doty, and I had forgotten that I spent about a month working in Bothell a few years ago. So I've experienced Summer and Winter up there, but just for short period. Hopefully we can make a few more trips up there before we decide to pull the trigger.

I lived in the Olympia area for 6 years and it is beautiful. You are close to Puget Sound, the Olympic Mountains and the Cascades.

Yes it rains a lot in Washington but we get less rain the DC, NY and many other areas - it is just that we get it little by little. So we have more days of rain during late fall-spring.

The summers are great warm but not normally hot and normally stretch into late Sept. With the rain in the winter we don't get much snow or really cold weather either.

If you like the outdoors and are ok with some gray sky's - it is a great place to live.

Thanks Billy, One other thing. What about LHBS's? I found Rocky Top in Olympia but the website is under construction. I also see Brewers Health Supplies, and a bunch of other ones in various towns. Any feedback on those places?

Keep in mind that 2/3rd of Washington is a desert. Everybody always talks about he rain and while most of the population is on the west side (wet side) and where most of the stories are from, there is still 2/3rd of the state that has all 4 seasons with a dry summer.

Did you ever move up this way?

Warthogrugby said:

Did you ever move up this way?

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Nope, can't get a decent price for my house here. I'd lose my arse if I tried to move.