Relocated Boise Couple Can't Hack It, Whines to P-I

I disagree about job applications- it's not just Seattle. A few years ago I was looking for a job in the Boston area (talk about your overpriced housing market!!) and sent letters, emails, and phone calls to dozens of companies, about jobs both advertised and unadvertised. I never received a single response from anyone other than recruiters trying to bulk up their client lists. Maybe it was a hot market, maybe I was just underqualified- whatever the case, no response is not that uncommon.

This woman is just whining because she expected the same standard of living in Seattle as she had in Boise for the same price. No great surprise that it didn't happen. Accept it and move on.

Hm. I guess I find these kinds of rants irritating, but she has a point about responses to job apps. Pretty much anywhere outside Seattle, your job application or resume submission will usually be responded to, even if it's a "We don't want you" kind of auto-response. I've lived up and down both coasts, and this is the only place I've lived wheree people simply don't feel the need to answer emails or phone messages. These things are just considered common courtesy elsewhere.

However, a $300,000 condo is easy enough to come by.

"trying not to think about the fact that, at less than half the size of our last house, it cost more than our 15-year mortgage. We told ourselves: "Well, this is a bigger city. We'll adjust the budget a bit and make it work."

IN YOUR OWN WORDS- YOUR GIVING UP!YOU WERE "TRYING NOT TO THINK ABOUT IT"

The people in this article were identified as "empty nesters" which I assume means they dont need tons of room for kids and whatever, so a condo should suffice for them. I was able to find a good sized one bd condo downtown seattle for less than $200K and I found a way to afford it without earning six figures. This whining and bitching and moaning is lame. "Oh poor me I dont have a mansion in seattle boo hoo hoo"

The per capita income figure you use is a little misleading. King County ranks #51 of all counties in the US in per capita income, which includes the total population (babies, children, retirees, everyone).

Median household income in King County is over $53,000. Ada County, Idaho (where Boise is) isn't too far behind at $46,000.

The December 2006 median home sales price in King County was over $400,000 while in Ada County it was $256,000. Income is only 15% higher but homes are 56% more expensive.

To afford the median home in Queen Anne, you would need annual income of over $135,000. In Green Lake it's over $107,000. I don't know how to define "rich," but a household income of $107,000 puts you solidly in the top 20% of all households in the US.

At $53,000 per year, houses in Auburn and Enumclaw are about all you can afford. Good luck with anything in the city. That's not to say that real estate agents and mortgage brokers won't sell their souls to get you into a house you can't afford.

It's getting less affordable here but it's not SF or NYC quite yet.

I also have to add that I consider myself lucky that I can do okay, though, and I can't imagine doing it with kids on my salary. It's this "empty nest" thing I don't care for--I think people trying to raise a family deserve more concern on my part than older people who just want a more exciting life and then complain about costs.

These are all good points--I agree that it's easy to mistake how easy it will be to afford a new city, and I too found the heating bill absurd, and finally I appreciate that older people may find it harder to abjust to expensive city life and the extremely competitive job market that may just plain ignore them.

But what I have a real problem with is that she seems to be complaining that this is all someone else's fault. If you want a big city life, you've got to be willing to roll with the punches. Job and housing markets are competitive. But I take a lot of personal umbrage at the suggestion that because she can't find what she wants in her price range, the city is only for rich people. The very fact they managed to pay that heating bill is a sign that they're a hell of a lot better off than a lot of people living in Seattle. She might have some sympathy for the fact that the dinners she can't afford to buy in restaurants regularly are being cooked and served by people who simply could not pay $300+ a month for heating costs, and who are living in small apartments.

In short, they seem to be in the same boat as a lot of people who move to city and want all the amenities without any of the downsides, and I have no sympathy for that. If you want a big house, move an hour outside the city; to afford it in the city, you do have to be rich. But I'm not rich, and I get along fine, so the harping and "Oh woe is me!" act get zero sympathy.

I think part of it is an age thing. By the time your kids are grown up, you aren't in any mood to hustle. I've got a two-year-old and can already feel my hustle juice waning. So that'd something we should all feel a little sympathetic about, I guess. Death of hustle comes for us all.

That said I just moved to Wallingford from 22 miles outside of Boston and was able to buy a nice house for a lot more than my house in Massachusetts was worth. It was hard, and is a big financial stretch, but we wanted more time with our daughter and less on the road. If I can't land a good job within a few months, there are a lot of things we'll need to reconsider, but writing a whiny column is not one them.

It's not unusual that anyone moving from a smaller city/town to Seattle might not have their perspectivometer dialed in correctly. And the simple fact is, yes, Seattle is mainly for rich people.

But I'm flummoxed by the $375/mo. heating bill. How is *that* normal? They do realize they can turn the thermostat down, right?

She really seems like she has this sense of entitlement. What's this "Few employers, including this newspaper, have bothered to respond to my queries, even for job descriptions that perfectly match my skills and experience..." crap? Firstly, publishing's a field where you have to know people and pay your dues--there's no shortage of writers waiting for gigs, so simply applying is never going to get you anywhere. Secondly, on the job front as whole, welcome to the club, lady. It took me three years to find a good job, and that was one I got moved into after nine months of temping at the company. My partner, an economist, commutes to Lacy every day, where she gets paid below-market wages for working for the state, but likes what she does and feels like she's accomplished something when she gets home at night, at the apartment we've wanted for years but couldn't afford until last month.

In short, both my partner and I worked our asses off for three years to get some place we actually liked in life, with jobs we enjoy and a good apartment. This self-satisfied, I-should-get-what-I-want attitude is BS, and if life in Boise was so much easier, please, by all means, return, and spare us the whining.

>I gotta ask, though--didn't they price it before they moved?

Seriously, why is this a surprise? Did they think they alone had the unique idea of moving to Seattle? "Honey, I found our diamond in the rough: Seattle!"

It is bullshit that Seattle prices out certain income levels, but if that housing were available I'd much rather see it go to a guy who spends half the year on a fishing boat or some immigrant family than to an empty nest couple scrapping for that Seattle opera subscription.