cathang

Moving to Washington from Sydney. Can anyone tell me the cost of living in Washington?
Also like to know what are the places we can rent that are safe for family.
I am looking at Kirkland, Bellevue , Remond, Clyde Hill, Medina or Seattle( near University of Washington). Can I find houses for rent in the above areas and are they expensive? My husband will be working in Redmond. I have 2 children, one is due to attend University next year and one is still in primary. Any suggestions are highly appreciated.

Manc

what does still in primary mean?

Is he dead clever then, cos when I was in primary, it was touch and go whether or not I was ready for my 11-plus, let alone university.

cathang

Primary school in Australia is elementary school in US. My older child is due for college while my younger child is still in elementary school.

AmerLisa

My husband works in Redmond. We had to buy a house quite a distance away as real estate is very expensive. There was another person on this site that got fed up with the high real estate and moved back to North Carolina (they had transferred to Washington from there, from the UK originally) They were renting and just couldn't find any homes below $400 to $500k. On the plus side, I've heard that Bellevue schools are very good. They have a lot of money to spend on their kids.

cathang

Thanks for your reply.
I am thinking of looking for a place to rent for 6 months before buying a house.Is it better to rent a 3 bedroom house or a three bedroom unit/apartment? Is there a big difference in rental rate? Are there places or areas that I should avoid ?(which are not safe or suitable for families).
You mentioned that the schools in Bellevue are very good, are they public or private schools? What about university ? Does anyone know any other good university or college aside from University of Washington ?

Irn-bru

Hi, I am currently renting in redmond - lionsgate apartments - they are townhomes ours is 2bed. Real estate is ridiculous here and everywhere around. We can't afford to buy here so will probably be moving a bit south. I don't have any children so don't know about schools or universities for that matter. If you rent a house you will be very hard pressed to find anything shorter than a 12 month lease - standard in US. Traffic here is bad (I lived in north VA 3 years ago and find this worse than going into DC!) We just moved here a month ago so we are still finding our feet.

AmerLisa

I agree, finding a 6 month lease might be a bit hard. We initially rented a 3 bedroom house (much better in our opinion) they wanted a year's lease, but we negotiated a 8 month lease and ended up staying a bit over a year because we decided to stay until our house was finished. I can't tell you the absolute best or worse places to live. I think you have to get the feel, etc. We lived in Kent (closer to Maple Valley and Covington) it wasn't the best of places, but it certainly wasn't the worst.

Schools are generally public. They do have private schools, probably pretty good ones, and the closer you get to Seattle/Bellevue, the more expensive they probably will be. They do have a lot of Montessori schools, which I particularly like. And of course christian private schools, if that's what you're interested in.

Best of luck.

Englishmum

You might be interested to know that there is a British school in Washington DC:

http://www.britishschool.org

(I think you will find housing in Washington DC much cheaper than Sydney....).

Where is your eldest planning to go for university education? The US or Oz?

fatbrit

Wrong Washington, I believe.

Englishmum

LOL! Silly me!

fatbrit

Like me before my fourth cup o' joe!

Bob

University...obviously that'll depend on what he wants to study..as for cost, well that'll depend on what visa status you have, where abouts you live and where he goes to study...it's all very different, even between states....

and renting a place, you'll be hard pressed to find anything for less than a years rent unless it's a dungeon type hole.

cathang

We heard that University of Washington is tough to get in and my son wants to study psychology. We are looking at E3 or L1 visa. But most probably it will be E3 .

Geee, I think I should be looking for a good place to rent for a year then.
Is it possible to rent a 3 bedroom house or townhouse in Bellevue/Redmond area for less than $1500 a month?

I am trying to get information comparing the cost of living between Sydney and Seattle on the web but no such luck.

Can anyone give me some ideas on the following:
Housing(rent and buy), food, cars, gas,education ,medical and health, beer, people , outdoor activities, family life, Bbq etc. pleas feel free to add more if anyone can think of other things that I should be considering.

Bob

all depends on your lifestyle...food can be cheap if you eat regular shite food, if you want stuff that's healthy and not contain corn syrup, it's expensive...same with fruit and veg.

car...depends on what you get for insurance, but around here, registering a car is $125 a year, $25 for a new title, and $25 for a standard license plate....insurance, you won't have any credit history or driving experience in the US to count so first couple years will be more expensive...I'm paying $725 a year for insurance and that's cheap.

Electric, can't help you there as I live in maine, and we don't need A/C on all the time, and also living in a tiny apartment, but it's about $35 a month.

Gas, there isnt' any gas here unless you get propane tanks, so can't help you there.

Education for uni, $$$...go to a private uni, about $30K a year quite easily for anything decent, but if you have a greencard you should be entitled to some kind of scholarships etc....if it's a state uni, probably closer to $10K a year roughly

medical...heavily depends on household size, any pre conditions, what your work is paying...but expect it to be high and expensive for decent cover...and that's on top of paying taxes equivalent to the national insurance jobby....
thing to watch out for is how much the annual deductible is, if things like scans are included...dental care is insanely expensive too.

AmerLisa

To buy in Bellevue/Redmond would be about 400 to 500k for starters. Have no idea about rents. If you go to www.seattletimes.com you'll probably find a general idea of rents and purchase prices. Food is pretty typical of anywhere else. The nice thing about Bellevue is that they have a Whole Foods which is great for buying organics or just anything you wouldn't find in a regular grocery store. I love it, but its quite pricey and just as well its not close by. Plenty of Costcos around and of course a Starbucks on every half corner. Cars, well depends on what you want to buy.....there all about average in price for the rest of the nation I would imagine. Beer....I'm sure you'll find whatever you want. Education - again, its what you're looking for, Bellevue has a good school district. Outdoor activities - plenty of walking places, Mt. Rainier is practically a stone throw away if you like to ski, etc. Family life - I think its a good place for families. BBQ? Have no idea. Medical is fine as long as you have medical insurance.