3 ms·

I'll take a look in the area, thanks.

taxyz 5y ago
If I am being honest (and by no means want to come off disrespectful) but your list comes off as if you're looking for confirmation to move to the PNW. As someone who lived in both Portland and Seattle for years (currently in Seattle and looking to leave) you should add some criteria to your list that doesn't self select for "small cute fun towns near enough to Portland and Seattle without having to compete on price." The people in Portland and Seattle are actually very different. For the most part people in Seattle are assholes (check out the urban dictionary for the Seattle freeze) people in Portland are a bit nicer but it's a hard town if your focus is your career (maybe this changes a bit with remote opportunities - but I am still in the camp that remote devs are always going to play second fiddle to the devs at HQ/in-office if thats an option). If you are going to move somewhere with a remote job, Seattle would be a terrible place. And to be honest the surrounding area is not a much better bet. With how bad traffic is, 90 minutes isn't going to get you to small cute cheap towns, in fact most of the towns just outside Seattle are more expensive. It's not an undiscovered gem. As someone without a remote job currently in Seattle, I wish I could just trade spots with you. I don't even care how bad your situation could be. Feel free to reply if you want any questions about Portland or Seattle. Happy to help if I can.
- MathCodeLove 5y ago
  No disrespect taken, thanks for your comment. I hadn't really even considered the area prior to the above commenters suggestion. I suppose it's certainly possible that my subconscious guided me to the self-selection, but it wasn't intentional. Looking in Tacoma I'm seeing quite a few 1 bedroom apartments for <$1.5k a month which seems decent to me, and I imagine Tacoma is more expensive than some of the smaller surrounding towns. This doesn't line up with your comment so my question is, what am I missing?
  - taxyz 5y ago
    To be curt, that Tacoma is actually really really a hit or miss shithole. The part of Tacoma you're finding those apartments in, I can almost guarantee if you visit will not be the part of town you want to live in. If you look at the conforming loan limits for both King and Pierce counties - the county that Seattle and Tacoma are in respectively - they have the same limit which is like $871k I think? There's really not much going on in Tacoma and taking the link from there to Seattle is a pain - sure its doable but you're talk about a huge hit to quality of your life. They are trying to make public transit better in the region but its a 20 year plan before its expanded to where it needs to be. The small towns around Tacoma are either military towns or also very expensive - Lakewood is basically a town for JBLM and Gig Harbor is mostly retirees cashing out and moving on the water.

If I am being honest (and by no means want to come off disrespectful) but your list comes off as if you're looking for confirmation to move to the PNW. As someone who lived in both Portland and Seattle for years (currently in Seattle and looking to leave) you should add some criteria to your list that doesn't self select for "small cute fun towns near enough to Portland and Seattle without having to compete on price." The people in Portland and Seattle are actually very different. For the most part people in Seattle are assholes (check out the urban dictionary for the Seattle freeze) people in Portland are a bit nicer but it's a hard town if your focus is your career (maybe this changes a bit with remote opportunities - but I am still in the camp that remote devs are always going to play second fiddle to the devs at HQ/in-office if thats an option). If you are going to move somewhere with a remote job, Seattle would be a terrible place. And to be honest the surrounding area is not a much better bet. With how bad traffic is, 90 minutes isn't going to get you to small cute cheap towns, in fact most of the towns just outside Seattle are more expensive. It's not an undiscovered gem. As someone without a remote job currently in Seattle, I wish I could just trade spots with you. I don't even care how bad your situation could be. Feel free to reply if you want any questions about Portland or Seattle. Happy to help if I can.

MathCodeLove 5y ago
No disrespect taken, thanks for your comment. I hadn't really even considered the area prior to the above commenters suggestion. I suppose it's certainly possible that my subconscious guided me to the self-selection, but it wasn't intentional. Looking in Tacoma I'm seeing quite a few 1 bedroom apartments for <$1.5k a month which seems decent to me, and I imagine Tacoma is more expensive than some of the smaller surrounding towns. This doesn't line up with your comment so my question is, what am I missing?
- taxyz 5y ago
  To be curt, that Tacoma is actually really really a hit or miss shithole. The part of Tacoma you're finding those apartments in, I can almost guarantee if you visit will not be the part of town you want to live in. If you look at the conforming loan limits for both King and Pierce counties - the county that Seattle and Tacoma are in respectively - they have the same limit which is like $871k I think? There's really not much going on in Tacoma and taking the link from there to Seattle is a pain - sure its doable but you're talk about a huge hit to quality of your life. They are trying to make public transit better in the region but its a 20 year plan before its expanded to where it needs to be. The small towns around Tacoma are either military towns or also very expensive - Lakewood is basically a town for JBLM and Gig Harbor is mostly retirees cashing out and moving on the water.