I have not looked at COL indexes recently, but COL depends a little about where you live, center city in puny condo, transitional neighborhood with more modest prices or suburbs and how much you commute.
Real estate prices are down about 10% in King County where Seattle is compared to last year. Hard to lament that since the market was overheated and is still ridiculous in some categories. At the moment I know of one lovely older 3+BR home on a great lot listing for $400k in N Seattle but I have seen that price on much smaller and more cramped new stuff.
I am serious though when I say factor commute time into your calculations.
As an ardent Seattleite, I have a feeling some of what I say mgith turn out to sell Portland in terms of mass transit infrastructure and traffic congestion. Seattle has a light rail system just due to come online next year. Bus service has gotten a lot better over the time I have lived here. I do not drive. I do not regret that actually since traffic on many road segments is MISERABLE. As far as Portland, Powell's is indeed phenomenal. Everyone I know goes there before they go to any of the standard tourist destinations. That might just be the manic bibliophiles from the hinterlands I know, but Powell's is so big it has several locations for different subjects all over one section of downtown Portland. Every time I have stumbled into a Powell's store I have found something amazing.
Does this help?
DoreneC, Seattle WA On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 10:34 PM, Gar Lipow <the.typo.boy at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Jul 28, 2008 at 8:38 PM, Miles Jackson <cqmv at pdx.edu> wrote:
> > shag wrote:
> >>
> >> thoughts?
> >>
> >> I'm trying to negotiate contracting rates with this staffing agency for
> >> microsoft and the dude is driving me totally bonkers because I keep
> telling
> >> him I can't fathom why I'd want to leave my current job to move to a
> place
> >> with a much higher standard of living for anything less than X/hr. dewd
> >> keeps calling anyway, with different positions, trying to get me to work
> for
> >> a crappy hourly rate.
> >>
> >> It's possible that I'm way off, but i don't think so....
> >>
> >> Anyway, I have a line on many other gigs out that way, both seattle and
> >> portland. What COL are we talking here? I'm seeing things like $750k
> median
> >> for homes. Gak. That's twice what it is here, and I'm living in a zip
> that
> >> is pricey -- though there are zips that are pricier.
> >
> > Seattle and Portland are worlds apart in housing costs. About a year
> ago, I
> > sold a stupid little 1000 square foot ranch house in a working class
> > Portland neighborhood for 200k. You can probably do better now. Double
> that
> > for Seattle.
> >
> > 750k would buy a very ritzy home in a very nice neighborhood in the
> > Portland/Vancouver area. I'm happy living in a 1928 Craftsman that was
> just
> > assessed at 220k.
> >
> > Miles
> > ___________________________________
> > http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> >
> I currently live in Olympia with a much lower cost of living than
> either Portland or Seattle. Both are nice cities. I liked some of the
> intangibles in Portland. I really liked being able to go places by
> train, though only about a third of the city is Max accessible. OK bus
> system. I freaked over Powells, more used books together than you've
> ever seen together in one place in your life - and with unionized
> staff (and that was a fight). Lot's of good food from most cultures,
> though for some reason good Mexican is hard to find (not impossible,
> but tough). In terms of cost. If work had a Max stop you could maybe
> live in a suburb and commute by rail. Commute time would not be lost
> cause you could read or play on the Internet during commute. (Of
> course important not over-romanticize transit. The whole "do x" while
> you travel thing only applies if you find a seat. If all seats are
> taken you grab a bar while you stand so as not to fall on your ass,
> just curse or state blankly into space. You can talk on your cell
> though, and annoy the other passengers until the train goes into a
> tunnel if you like.) Anyway, not pushing you one way or the other on
> any move. If you do decide to move though, seriously consider
> Portland. Most (not all) of the pluses of Seattle, a lot fewer of the
> minuses and it has the Max. And, again, Powells. Not the only cool
> bookstore either.
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