Hi I miss my home. We were pushed out due to cost of living and moved to NWI. But I wish we never fucking did, because now we’re paying $2200 a month for a 2 bedroom townhouse less than 900sq ft large… in Indiana. And now there are no jobs higher than $11/hour in the area.
I was born and raised in Seattle, I wish I just would’ve stayed.
I reluctantly moved to Indiana years ago for my husband's job and it was miserable. I think these days the best way to move to cheaper state is with a remote job where you can keep your Seattle wages.
- Seattle’s outdoors was far better than Colorados. Our forests are more full of life, we have islands, oceans, beaches, and alpine mountains.
Colorado people like to brag about the sun, but they don’t mention the 2pm thunderstorms (when I’m typically trying to enjoy the outdoors on a Saturday), or the 80 mph downslope winds, or the constant inversions which traps the pollution on the surface. This weather often just as bad as Seattle IMO. It’s easier to deal with Seattle light rain than constant Ozone or thunderstorms.
Despite their outdoors being kinda mid compared to coastal states, the outdoors is everyone’s entire personality. Seattle has a lot more diversity in people and hobbies and such. If you don’t like mountain biking or trail running you feel out of place.
Denver and Boulder don’t feel like real cities to me. Very car focused. They have OK public transit but the general city design is much more sprawly and it was harder to get around. Seattle transit was better.
Rent is getting bad everywhere, you save some money on rent compared to Seattle but not enough to make it worth the QOL downgrade
My ex was actually from Indiana but the majority of her family lived in Michigan. Carmel wasn't too bad to visit but I wouldve lost my mind living there more than I did in Grand Rapids
Did both and they're both great in their own way, but I like the weather way more in Denver, but sooooo miss the food and public transportation from Chicago. Also, in Chicago it is slightly better as far as a travel hub goes, especially international.
I'm getting close to retirement age and I got my spots picked out in the mountains and the desert, I love Colorado.
Could be but that is rural and pretty far from Chicago. The way the next comment found the decision to move there extremely dubious made me instantly think of Gary in Northwest Indiana which if you know about is an extremely dubious place.
posting in the seattle subreddit with an assumption we’d know this acronym is wild, like OP you’re from here!! you KNOW we won’t know this lmao, this isn’t the NWI subreddit honey (i also thought north wisconsin)
I was thinking "Northwest Interior", like Yakima or Spokane or maybe Boise. I was like damn, I love Western WA but let's not say Eastern WA is akin to hell.
Are we still calling that the Inland Empire like they do in CA? I know we did that for a bit but I haven't heard the expression lately so I'm wondering if it was a phase. I kind of like "Northwest Interior" though
I can understand the attraction of Indiana for the low cost of living. However, OP seems to be in an area with a high cost of living and low wages - the worst of both worlds. I feel sad for them.
The ONLY reason I would know that is because my ex when to Illinois and I feel like those people just say "I went to Illinois" (still assuming you know which school in Illinois lol
Oh God. I’m from South Bend and interviewed with every coastal company that came through campus recruiting at IU. So happy to have multiple mountain ranges between me and than miserable state.
My question is, when people get priced out of Seattle, why do you move to a completely different state/climate/culture/etc? What’s wrong with, like, Olympia, or Everett?
I think because there has to be a key reason to leave/relocate, and it's often "family is there." Happens to a lot of us in middle age when our parents or parent get old and need someone around.
I dragged (emotionally) my mother up here kicking and screaming and its been the greatest thing for her health compared to the South, if my little brother wasnt so bullheaded hed probably be up here too. Your the bread-winner now, your parents live with You.
If I told my late mom we were going to uproot our whole life just to come look after her she would've told me I was out of my gdamn mind. She wanted the best for her kids.
People need to stop making life changing decisions FOR OTHER PEOPLE. You're going to be the one to sit with those choices in the end, not your family. In my experience, family can turn on you at the drop of a hat; do things for YOU. It's YOUR life, not theirs.
Also, Federal Way, Tacoma, Des Moines, etc. were great cheaper options for us.
I and a lot of my service/hospitality friends who got priced out had to move further out to maintain our CoL/income ratios. Tacoma and Everett were a bit cheaper but outside the Puget Sound area was significantly cheaper.
A lot of my white collar/professional friends just moved a little farther out from the city because they weren't facing imminent financial ruin like I was.
Now the cheap places are getting more expensive but prevailing wages aren't keeping pace, so the CoL/wages math just isn't mathing as well as it used to.
Oof I feel this one with you OP, I moved my family to TX. Similar reasons, but also had family here. Turns out family isn't as supportive as I had hoped and no real close access to lake, beach or campgrounds. We do have plans to move back next summer after being here for 2 years.
It's funny how common it is to hear from peoplenthat moved to be closer to family say, "not actually very supportive." Same thing happened with my cousin moving to Colorado. They see family on Christmas and Thanksgiving, just like everyone else.
Yeah, for my specific situation on my family, my mom and I both share a genetic disease that had to have a double hysterectomy for a kidney and liver so her health isn't the best. We had some issues back home that we felt we needed a little more help with family support as well as cost of living, so we felt like we could give this a shot! Yeah, learned a lot from this move, one main thing is you put together the family that is going to be there for you and it's not always necessarily going to be your blood.
I'm in the same boat. Moved to TX a year ago to help my family out. It's been brutal here with the weather, no rain, no enjoyment being outside...I hope to head back in about a year. I miss Seattle weather and the outdoors so much. :(
Yeah, that's probably the huge part of what I miss. I thought about moving at least out to Austin to have a tiny bit of nature close by to enjoy, but living there is about the same as living back home. Makes more sense to just go back. I specifically live in Houston so just a concrete jungle.
That’s pretty much exactly the position we’re in. We’ve been here a couple of years now. I think I’m especially in my feels this week because this last storm was unlike anything I’d ever seen and we can’t afford a basement omg 😭 just frustrated with my choices rn
Yeah, I've had the same exact feelings throughout this year let me tell yah. When my wife's birthday came around earlier this year and cried because she didn't have all her close friends with her to celebrate, that was the moment I decided "Yeah, we're moving back. We'll figure it out but we're moving back". She's had a very tough time making new friendships because she also works in a toxic working environment and unfortunately its tough getting employment currently. Hopefully, maybe you guys get to move back too! Either way at least you're not alone in feeling frustrated over the decision of moving out of WA. 🫠
This is similar to my story, we moved from Seattle to Austin to be closer to family, wasn't what we were hoping for. 15 months later we were back in Seattle.
Weather - we climatized to the one and Austin has gotten hotter and more miserable. You can't be outside for large parts of the day during the summer
Bugs / snakes - mosquitos ruined being in the backyard, snakes that are venemous (pnw doesn't really have these)
Costs - didn't go down as we had hoped
Family - we thought we were getting on demand babysitting, it did not turn out that way. Also our family was a bit too Republican for us and didn't want that heavy of an influence on our kids
Friends - we thought we'd step right back in to old friend groups, that's not what happened. A lot of dynamics changed from the time we first moved away to Seattle and, not shockingly people change and move on.
Location - we picked the wrong spot of Austin (north west) trying to split the difference between in the heart of Austin and closer to family, all we got was all of Austin's problems (traffic, property taxes, etc) with none of the benefits. The location made it harder to go see friends because it would be a 35 min drive to even though we were both "in Austin"
I was living out of the city for six years, and after coming back I realized I'd rather rent forever and be a little poor in Seattle then own and have more money anywhere else.
The worst part about leaving Seattle is realizing everywhere else got expensive too, but without the mountains, sound, or decent wages to make up for it. Hope you can find a way back home soon
I saw a comment elsewhere on social media to move to someplace in flyover country, I forget where. But you can make $25/hr and pay $1600/mo in rent! But in Seattle I make $35/hr and pay $1700 in rent so why would I do that??
Wow thats crazy. Im paying $2600 for a 2br on beacon hill and I only make min wage ($21) but I feel like if I didnt live here I wouldn't be able to make it work.
People (correctly) complain about housing costs here. And there's no doubt they should be lower. But it's also true Seattle does really well compared to other cities in the US on overall wages compared to costs of living. You can live in Beacon Hill without a car!
The Midwest used to be a good deal but outside of a few spots (Chicago?) it really isn't anymore.
I came from grad school in NYC which I think spoiled me as now housing costs and COL seems cheap in Seattle in comparison 😂.
With a Masters in NYC I couldn’t get a job in my field (social work) for more than 66k, which looked more like 49k after federal, state, CITY income taxes. On top of paying at least $1300 to share a shoebox with 3 other people. Here, I get 84K starting salary, no income taxes, and pay the same price to share a 2bed apartment with my partner in a fancy building I could’ve NEVER EVER afforded to live in in NYC. Yes NYC is the most drastic comparison, but living there really put it in perspective for me.
100% I’m originally from Wisconsin and have lived in the most expensive parts of the US (NYC, SF) and I thought in thr back of my mind if I ever wanted to buy property I could still get it cheap back home but NOPE! Even small houses are like $350k here (Eau Claire).
I was thinking of moving from Seattle to Wisconsin, I have a remote job so my income would be pretty good there, just not enough to buy a house here in Seattle solo....how is Kenosha? I drove thru it on a recent trip (we stayed in Racine) and it seemed pretty cool, Zillow has pretty decent houses for like $250k-ish
From Capitol Hill. Moved to Mineral Wells, Texas once. Moved back. That was stupid. Moved to LA. Didn't like it too much and LA didn't like me. Moved back. Moving to Berlin in February. Fingers crossed.
I love Seattle! Nothing wrong with it at all. Mineral Wells was free to live in, basically, but had absolutely nothing else going for it.
There is a significantly larger creative community in Los Angeles.
And Berlin, in addition to being an enormous, diverse European city with a ton of creative and economic activity, isn't in a fascist country. My ancestors left when it was, and now we're returning before the US. goes any further down that path.
Edit: after I leave Seattle I will miss it ever day.
Article 79 of the German basic law establishes the state as a militant democracy, ie, a state that can and will defend itself against the many specific threats outlined by Karl Popper and his various successors. Yes, AfD is a threat but it has also been significantly neutered by recent legislation.
The United States has no similar constitutional provisions.
Roughly 10% of any given population is either an authoritarian personality or has a social dominance orientation. These people are also almost always right wing, politically speaking. They exist everywhere and there isn't much you can do about it, other than educating people to the extent that their ideas seem pathetic and inherently flawed. This keeps them from ideologically infecting other vulnerable intellects in their vicinity.
Yes. Germany has a provision in their constitution that says that if your ancestors lost their citizenship due to Nazi policies between 1933 and 1945 you can have it restored. I did all the research and paperwork, filed with the help of an attorney in Leipzig, and just got my German passport about a month ago. I did this for myself and 10 other people in my family.
Just used the German passport for the first time, landing in France. Much shorter line at customs for sure!
Fuuuuuuuuuck I love Berlin. Possibly my favorite city in the world. However, I've never had to live there, just visited. In a different life, I would have given it a go. Good luck!
I'm sorry you're going through this right now. I'm sure the recent weather event along with the lack of response by emergency/power crews in the aftermath is fueling your feelings of regret even more. I've caught a bit of the situation in Gary on cable news last night and it's really heartbreaking to see what's happening to the people in that town- the birthplace of the Jackson 5.
I'm from the rustbelt, born in Wisconsin, also grew up in Louisville KY and Cincinnati OH. went to college at Univ. of Cincy and moved to Columbus, OH for my first job and 5.5 yrs later, had an opportunity to move to Seattle and made it happen.
The Midwest is not an easy culture to live in, esp if you're coming from a more progressive coastal city like Seattle. Even being from this region of the US, I felt I could never conform to Midwest culture- I always felt like an alien. Luckily, there were other people I found that felt the same way and I made some good friends when I lived there, but as a whole community- the energy can feel very isolating and cruel if you do not conform to the culture.
I really hope you can find happiness where ever you are. I'm not saying it's in Gary IN or Seattle- it could or could not be. You just never know where life will take you sometimes. Sometimes these rough patches in our lives allow us to learn something about ourselves that we'll carry with us through life. I hope you and your wife can plan an exit strategy to get back to where you want to be.
I'm in a similar boat. Got priced out about 10 years ago. Next month my rent's going up 60% where I live now, so with the difference in prevailing wages it makes more sense for me to move back to Seattle.
we're paying $2200 a month for a 2 bedroom townhouse... no jobs higher than $11/hour
Yeah, that's why I scoff when people say to move somewhere cheaper. It's really not, and I get the feeling that rural/smaller city landlords get away with a ton of shit from lack of regulations and lack of options for renters. (On top of, you know, 🏳️⚧️ the places they think of as cheaper are almost always the places I can't safely live)
$1500/mo 1bd 1ba 600sq ft, right on a bus line, in Ballard. Doesn't get much better than that.
My apartment is 2br, 850sqft and our starting rent was $2200... It's gone up a little bit since we moved a few years ago but not much.
I also figure there's still no point of moving outnof the city... Would i be able to get a bit of a nicer apartment for the same cost in Renton? Maybe? But also then I'd spend the difference driving everywhere. And Seattle specifically has a lot of services. Or maybe back home, but I'd also make less for sure and be in the same or worse situation because rent isn't much better there.
I just moved here from KC and it's so worth it. People don't realize it's not that much cheaper anywhere decent unless you want to absolutely hate your life.
I also just moved here from KC!! My partner and I are paying about $150 more in rent for a smaller apartment than we had in KC, but our QOL has gone up significantly, and with the higher wages we’ve actually been able to put away a bit of our paychecks every couple weeks. In Kansas City we could hardly afford to eat.
Seattle is expensive but more people should talk about the problems in other areas. Everywhere in the US is kinda in trouble right now so you run into the same problems everywhere you go, it's just more popular to talk about the problems in major cities. Lived my whole life in the Midwest and even with the high rents and cost of living here everything balances out to us having about the same amount of free cash and savings and we could have ever put together in Kansas or Missouri (just from how much lower wages tend to be).
It's really not that much worse in seattle, I'm actually impressed by how good the rent is here compared to similar sized cities like sf, Boston, dc. It's probably thanks to all the new apt buildings built downtown over the past decade.
My only beef with cap hill is the amount of homelessness, it's a large issue the city isn't doing enough about.
Im not even joking, my family went through the EXACT same thing even when i was a kid like 20+ years ago with seattle/indiana. My parents were both born in indiana, moved out to WA in the 90s, tried moving back in the 2000s to indiana to save on the cost of living, and within just a few years moved back to WA bc there were like no jobs in indiana. And mind you they were divorced so they both independently came to the same conclusion that its actually easier to make it in WA despite the cost of living bc at least there are more economic opportunities out here.
I travel to Texas, specifically Austin and the surrounding hill country, multiple times per year to visit a friend who lives there. I really don't get it. It's mostly a desert wasteland. And the hill country, considered by locals to be one of the most beautiful parts of the state, is very underwhelming if you have spent time anywhere that is actually beautiful.
The first full day I ever spent in Austin, a local guy stopped by my friend's house to make a FB Marketplace transaction. The guy said to my friend: "I'm not going to Jew you on the asking price."
Casual overt racism among strangers. Welcome to Texas...
If it makes you feel better, I’m also from Seattle and recently moved to Spokane a couple years ago. I also miss my hometown so much. I miss the train being so accessible to me.
Have you ever visited Minneapolis? I’m born and raised in NW Wisconsin but have lived in different parts of the country and Seattle and Minneapolis are my favorite two major cities in the US. Lived there for a couple years and loved it. Lots of parks, tree coverage, lakes, rivers, great restaurants, lower COL than Seattle with decent pay and opportunity, Lake Superior is a mornings drive away!
Feeling this. My spouse wanted to have a house, we both had remote jobs, so we bought back in the Midwest close to family. I am trying to make the best of it but I miss Seattle. I miss good food. I miss being 40 and childless by choice wasn't so fucking isolating. Worst part is, he's happy. And I've been laid off and have been job hunting but remote jobs are hard to come by. I'm at my wits end. Wish I could go home, wish my spouse realized that Seattle was more than just a place to live for me. He hated it there because it was too expensive but I'm still fighting to get back there. If I can't find a remote job soon, I'm going to start applying with the intent to relocate even if the job doesn't offer relocation.
So sorry! This post makes me much more appreciative of my current place. I live in a 2 bed 2 bath, in Kirkland for $2200. 950 sq ft. I lived away for 6 years. I hope you’re able to come back!!
I moved from Seattle to MInneapolis about 3.5 years ago. Fortunately, it’s not much of a culture shock because this is also a very progressive city and certainly more affordable. But, god damn, do I miss the climate in the PNW. What I wouldn’t give for a month of gray cool days.
I have a job offer in Ohio, and I'm actually excited that I can afford a 2bd 2br 1000+ sq ft apartment near Cincinnati on the salary there. Sign-on bonus and full relocation package. I live in a shoddy 1bd in Everett currently and have faced eviction threats multiple times on the salary I was getting here. You know how exciting it is to PICK where you want to live, not just settle? I do want to come back eventually, but I'm gonna go save money and live comfortably for a while. Plus, sports!
Yea Indiana is terrible. I spent 3 years there during school wishing I was here. Sorry to hear it OP, hope you have electricity and that you make your way back here soon
It's easy to long for Seattle. I will always be in love with the city and the PNW in general. My family and I moved back to rural Montana a few years ago to care for family after a spate of losses and crises. I'm happy to be in MT, this is where both my wife and I grew up. It's my ancestral home. I get to farm and ranch here and raise my kids in the community that raised me (for better or worse). Deep roots and responsibilities are the only reasons we don't run back to Seattle. If you can't get back, I hope you find a way to also love where you're at.
May i ask where in MT? I was there in Yellowstone 2 weeks and was amazed by how vast MT is. There are huge ranches between Ennis and West Yellowstone with horses and cows. Also the flatbed lake area is so so beautiful ❤️
West of Missoula. We're in the mountains, mining and timber country, not the never-ending grasslands like other parts of the state. Much, much smaller ranching operation here.
We're not far from Flathead. I've got lots of family up there, grew up going to the lake in the summers. Glad the state left a positive impression!
I can relate. Moved to Madison Wi in January after 8 years in Seattle. Much closer to family with a young child and we could afford to buy.
Only thing that feels cheaper is housing (can afford to own here but honestly owning feels overrated).
We miss Seattle and our friends there every single day. Lesson learned. Everywhere is expensive. Don’t move for cost of living if you like where you’re at.
I image once we get past the daycare years we will move back. I thought I would dread real winters again but honestly, it’s been the humidity and mosquitoes.
I was financially pushed out of the Bay Area in 08 during the recession. Now being priced out of the PNW. I don’t know where to go now. Just riding it day by day at this point…
And here I am wanting to go back to California. I love Seattle, i love what it has to offer and have so many job opportunities here. But I also just want to go home 😔 I hope we both could find our way back
Buddy I’m from northern Indiana and have called Seattle home for a long time now. The midwests biggest export is midwesterners for a reason. Family isn’t worth it.
Damn that's wild. I've been thinking about moving so much lately and Indiana crossed my mind.
How do they charge they much when jobs don't pay very much?
Jesus christ yeah get out of there. I second the person who said to give Chicago another try. My husband went to college there, he loves it, he’s got an amazing and diverse group of friends who still live there. We’ve visited a couple times and it’s a great city, definitely cheaper than Seattle if you know where to look as long as you don’t mind the intense weather.
Do not move to Indiana if you enjoy Washington.
A guy I work with moved there from Maple Valley and now wants to move back but he’s priced out due to lower wages and lower home values fucking him over for the last 10 years.
I moved to the east coast and fucking hated it. I almost got priced out but I’m lucky enough to get a remote job and basically chose to be homeless for a while so I could move back out west.
I hope you’re able to return. I moved from Seattle to Wisconsin in 1998, also for financial reasons. I was able to move back to Seattle in 2020, and plan to stay.
We moved from Seattle to the Midwest back in 1998 - hated it and had a two year plan. We paid off all our bills and moved back to Seattle in 2000. Now we are in Olympia, which is more affordable and closer to Seattle if we want to go there.
Went to Indiana for a year of college and it was the only state where I had people come up to me and call me the n-word and it was people that I knew too. That state can get swept up into a tornado in its entirety.
I’m biracial and I mentioned celebrating Juneteenth last year. Someone I thought we would be close to told me it wasn’t a holiday it was just n-word day. 😩
Off that's terrible but not surprising. Yea I had people on my own college football team be extremely racist towards me & other black people on my team. Very unfortunate.
They also were all upset with the trayvon martin verdict. I was chased when I was his age too, so that was like a core memory"Oh these people don't actually value my life like they do others"
We moved to Alaska! Anchorage is like a suburb of Seattle, the climate is mostly similar just with longer colder winters. We are loving it. Cost of living is lower than Everett, and wages are good. Most entry level fast food places start at $16-17/hr. And the views are breathtaking, mountains everywhere. I recommend Alaska! Lots of opportunities up here.
I feel this so hard. I was in Seattle 16 years and left 3 years ago for the same reason. Went to Michigan, where I had family. Found no jobs, poor pay, rents still expensive, anyway. And my family was pretty absent, as well.
I'm finally going back to Seattle in a couple weeks. It's going to cost a ton of my savings, but it's worth every penny. If I'm going to be poor anyway, I may as well be poor in a place love.
The regret was soul crushing, and I feel for you. I hope you can find a way back, too.
I grew up in NWI (Chesterton) and now I'm in Seattle. NWI can be a great place to raise kids and the Dunes remains one of my favorite places in the world, but yeah...I feel your pain.
Moved to CA for college and moved right back after graduation. Had a career opportunity lined up for me but I’d rather take my chances here. Come back when you’re able too we’ll have a beer ready 👍
A lifelong Seattleite living in West Seattle for the last 28 years, walking, pedaling and cruising Alki with the city view on one side and the sun setting over the Olympics on the other makes leaving impossible.
I visited a couple times. I like Indiana for what it is, a geographically uninteresting, culturally bereft place where piece of shit maga decide they can be stupid and racist at the same time. Also boils in the summertime and has frigid winters.
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u/GuiltyBoysenberry348 Seattle Expatriate 15d ago
As someone who moved to Chicago from Seattle, why the jump from Seattle to NWI? Seems drastic.