Voted Washingon.
1. Income
Washington state has the highest minimum wage in the country, with more tech jobs than a lot of places it's pretty easy to get on your feet here. Amazon, Google, Nintendo, Microsoft, Boeing and a metric ******** ton of start ups.
2. Taxes
Property taxes in King Country are not that great, but Snohomish's are a lot better and it doesn't really matter if you don't own property. Sales tax is pretty high, 10% now I think? But overall miiiiiles better than anywhere in Cali.
3, Weather
The weather in western Washington where Seattle is is awful. The temperature never really gets too bad, but be prepared for constant grey skies and drizzle. I have definitely gotten seasonal depression living here. Eastern Washington is a bit more crazy. Crazy cold in the winter, crazy hot in the summer. Very extreme over there.
4. (Un) employment rate
Washing State is sitting at 6.1% and the Seattle area is sitting at 4.0%
5. Housing prices
On the rise currently, my boyfriend bought his 3 bedroom house for about 150k
6. Popularity of the place, largest cities
Bellevue was voted the 13th best place to live in the country, though it can be pretty expensive there you can live in Redmond or Kirkland and still have easy access to that city and it's all only 15 mins away from Seattle. I live in Edmonds up north, which is much cheaper.
7. Crime rates
Of course the safest places are the small towns, but Kenmore, Mountlake Terrace and lake Forrest park are relatively safe without sacrificing city access or price. If you're rich try mercer Island or Medina.
8. Culture
The Gorge is a seriously MINDBLOWING venue. With events like Freaknight, Paradiso, Hempfest, Folklife, Bumbershoot, Capitol hill Block party, Pride, there's a lot going on
9. Lakes, rivers and seas (oceans)
No sandy beaches unless you want to live in the boonies. The Puget Sound is rocky and cold, but gorgeous for kayaking etc. There's Greenlake in north Seattle, Skagit River, Snohomish River...with a rainforest on the peninsula there is no shortage of water here.
10. People
I love the people here but if you're the type of person who likes to make small talk with strangers, look elsewhere. The Seattle freeze is real and people like to keep to themselves unless they have an obvious thing in common or are participating in something together first. People here can be known for being passive aggressive, but as a bonus they will almost never be actually aggressive. You don't need to worry about getting a brick through your window like in some east coast cities. People here are open minded and in the Seattle area, wont really yell at you just for looking weird. very live and let live
11. Politics (Republican, Democratic)
Heavily liberal in western washington, more conservative in eastern washington. You've probably heard the news of weed legalization, and people here reflect that point of view. Seattle was recently voted as the most safe and friendly city to LGBT people.
12. Nature and landscape
Coniferous trees, moss, greenery somewhere all the time. Even in really populated areas there are trees everywhere. There's the Hoh rainforest on the peninsula which you should definitely Google. It's not hard to find a place to live near a little trail that runs by some creek or river, or out to a lake or the sounds. Really just a gorgeous as ******** place to live.
300
250
200
