You must be looking in specific areas or have specific rare or numerous requirements because the entire state of WA is not completely full with every single house at a million. You need to widen your search.

Just updated the post. It's mainly in Seattle and the surrounding areas

Definitely a pricey region. Your dollar doesn’t go as far as other metros. Condos? HOAs will get ya though. Renton, Kent, White Center, Shoreline, Lynnwood, etc all have homes for definitely less than 1m… not sure what more you want out of this post. DINK here and we own but know if anything were to happen and we split I probably wouldn’t live in this metro to buy a home on my own. Doable, outside of Seattle +Bellevue just wouldn’t want to.

Wife and I moved out of the Seattle metro area due to COL. We stayed in Washington but the price to live in the city just isn't worth the squeeze.

I love my Washington but let's be real here, paying California prices had better get you California weather.

California weather? You say that like it’s a good thing.

California weather? So you wanna die of heat exhaustion during a record drought? Sounds like you need to rethink your life.

You’d also be paying California taxes

Because California is a small state and the climate is the same everywhere

I live in the NW corner of the state. Housing prices are ridiculous here too, and very few are making 150k.

San Diego has objectively better weather than Seattle. If you don't believe that then you are delusional.

Yup, not worth it either.

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First time home buyer assistance, or FHA loans where you don’t need 20% down. Then having no other debt so you can afford the monthly payment lol

COL matters. Bought my first home on the east side of the state with $5000 due to grants, then sold for a profit to buy on the west side.

Olympia used to be pretty affordable, but even being in a dual software dev household is making it hard to buy now. A buddy bought his house about 5 years back and is getting offered 200k more than is reasonable. It’s a mess.

I've been scouring seattle for about 5 months now, and there are lots of good houses that are completely remodeled and can be had for around $650k-$750k in the 1400-2200sqft range. All within 20 minutes of downtown (Shoreline and Northgate being the farthest areas I searched.)

You aren't looking hard enough.

I was born and raised in San Diego, lived there nearly 30 years, love to visit, but I’d never live there again…

IMO the weather isn’t better unless you prefer hot and dry… and you can find that elsewhere for a lot less money.

I love how you’re getting downvotes. ALL of California is in drought rn…

Also what qualifies as good weather is totally subjective, I personally would hate SD.

No, but it is all in drought… and has been for 2 decades

https://www.drought.gov/states/california

In other news, water is wet.

Oregon is all in drought too, but the climate variations are vast. The same is true of California.

Yes it is. And California barely has any of it most of the time.

Most folks don’t even realize how utterly screwed California is.

Since the 1920s the Central Valley has subsided almost 30 feet because people have been pumping too much water out of the ground.

The recent droughts and population growth have only made things worse.

I think a lot of folks still perceive California as the ideal place to live due to the states massive advertising budget and all the movies that picture it as such.

As somebody who grew up there who has spent time in both Southern California and the Bay Area I can say with 100% certainly that California is t what most folks think it is.

Sure, it seems all bright and shiny from afar, but get up close and you start to see it for what it really is.

…small state? Compared to what, Texas, Alaska? Are we talking land mass, population?

Or is it “small” because you’re looking at it on the grand global scale?

House prices have been nuts around here for a long time. I pretty much gave up on buying a house around here around 2001-02…when I was still in high school.

In looking around the north SnoCo, Skagit area, for a 4+ bedroom house (I have 4 kids) on some land, I would be paying around $500k for a ramshackle POS, and $800k for something nice, at minimum. Or, $120k-ish for a mobile.

I make $80k a year, so those higher prices are out my range. Renting is almost out of my range. Yeah, housing costs are crazy across the entire region.

They’re being facetious. They’re just trying to minimize the fact CA is in a massive drought

Yup. Like I’m not even 30, closer to 20 really, and lake Mead is at 1/4 capacity compared to when I was born.

I sincerely don’t get the people who want to bury their heads in the sand and pretend like CA is fine. It is going to be even more severely fucking in the coming decades…

I guess permanent drought and no water is “objectively better” weather to the ill informed.

Or… if you don’t believe that you have a perfectly respectable difference of opinion…

Uh, serious. If you make 150K, you can afford to buy a home in surrounding areas of Seattle.

Are you pre approved and/or have a real estate agent? Because Zillow has a bunch of homes under 600 and you’ve just got to comb through for what you want.

Be flexible on area or wants/needs. First house we settled for one bathroom bc we knew we wouldn’t stay forever. It was fine. This second house we “settled” to be farther outside our desired area and I LOVE where we purchased. But it was on the “No” list bc of location until we physically drove around. Beautiful.

Speak for yourself, please.

I’m pointing out that California is not a monolith either in terms of climate or of weather. Making sweeping generalizations about a geographically diverse area is ridiculous. Blatantly lying about another person’s comments is gaslighting, or, sadly, typical social media behavior.

You were literally being facetious, unless you think CA is actually small…

I’m not gaslighting anyone hun.

Just don't buy. Let these businesses and investors keep buying off each other until the bubble pops. Then buy.

Getting a loan is not the problem. Paying off the loan is.

You'd need 10 homes on the east to match one home on the west lol

Yeah, this gloomy overcast weather is sooo much better...

Either you have two people making six figure incomes buying the house or you start out buying a condo, there's very few people on a single income who can afford a house in the Seattle area

That’s why most get a 30yr mortgage and/or find a “good enough” house vs dream house. Or you get down the line and it appreciates in value and you pay off when you sell. Only about 1/3 of people have no mortgage.

As for 10 to 1 - not always. But I hear you. It’s why I relocated for 5 years. Needed capital!

I was referring to

“As a result, almost all of California has received between 400 and 600 percent above-average rainfall totals over the past few weeks, according to the NWS.”

.https://thehill.com/changing-america/sustainability/climate-change/3807298-90-percent-of-california-under-flood-watches/amp/90% of California under flood watch

We just sold a two bedroom one bath house, that had been our home for 39 yrs. You live where you can afford to. We decided we’d rather live in the city and put our money toward travel and education for our kids rather than live in the suburbs where I grew up.

You’ve got to decide on your own priorities

Obviously house prices are very high here, but with 150k a year you really ought to be able to save up for a down payment and afford a place in Seattle in a couple years unless you've got crazy expenses.

I mean its literally the same as people that say all of washington is rainy and gloomy lol.

That only happens if there is a shortage of housing units, there is a deficit of a few hundred thousand housing units in washington right now....

Unironically yes

I am still looking. There are a few that fit the budget and requirements but very rare. A decent 3-4 bedroom house is not less than 750-900k.

By then prices would've probably skyrocket again

sal is being sarcastic

How much can you save? With various assistance programs you can probably get a downpayment in for about 10% -- maybe youd' need the full 20% but let's say it's 10% for funsies. Even if you're insisting on living in Seattle, you should really be able to get 125k together in 5 years, twice that if you're frugal, and you'll be able to find something for a million and a quarter. Prices may very well keep rising, but you're making enough money that unless you refuse to make cutbacks this is a fixable problem.

I had only visited California a handful of times before moving to the west coast. I don't remember it being nearly as dry as it is now...it was a bit depressing when I visited for the first time in a while.

When I was a kid it rained regularly in San Diego. We had toads in our yard during the monsoon season, there were endless groves of avocado and citrus as far as the eye could see, and it was easy to find natural springs and creeks in the hills while out hiking. The highways all has beautiful green plants, much of it flowering all summer.

Not any more… Makes me sad to think about what we’ve lost in just a few decades.

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I don’t know, but I’m stressing over the same thing. I honestly don’t feel ready for home-ownership yet, but I have a disabled parent who can’t afford any housing in the state at all without sacrificing her remaining health and other needs in the process.

And the odds of us finding a rental that’s accessible for her and doesn’t force either of us to give up our pets, while also providing enough space so we don’t drive each other insane, is slim to none.

“Live where you can afford to” gets a lot more complicated when you’re disabled and have to depend entirely on public transit…

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I mean you can just move 😅.

I only pull in about 38-50k annually and you're doing a hell of a lot better than me. Keeping in mind about 30-40% of my income goes towards bills/mortgage. I was sick of paying rent so I just swapped my rent for a mortgage. If you can't pay 100% of the mortgage just pay the interest to not accrue more. You could easily save about 30-50% of your income and have enough for a house in <10 yrs.

Correct. Houses range any where from 250k-1billion easily. They must be restricting them selves to 600k+ homes. Sorry but they'll need to take out a mortgage at that point. I send my payments off monthly using bill pay. Really not all that difficult. Hell they could afford 2k in rent every month. Though a mortgage would be roughly the same as long as it's a set rate.

80k and you can't pay rent? Seriously... You must be bad with bills because I could manage a 1.5k apartment on a 32k income. Things were tight but doable. Occasionally picked up temp work to get some additional income. Good lord I managed to buy a 350k house with a 200k loan and paid it off in <10 yrs due to working 55 hr work weeks.

Cool.

Where’d you get $150k to put towards that house? Save for it, family help, down payment assistance?

I’m supporting 5 other people on my single income. So yeah, money doesn’t go far, especially nowadays. 4 of them are 5 and under, 3 are still in diapers, so there’s a lot of expenses that aren’t just bills.

No two situations are alike.

So disability is a choice now?!

You can buy my house for $680k in Monroe. Quiet neighborhood, on a cul de sac. 4 bed, 3 bath, park behind.

I’ll even attempt for you to assume my VA loan at 2.85%

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That doesn’t answer my question:

Is disability a choice?

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Haven't looked into Monroe, as it's a bit far from where I work. I think I have been there once or twice though, since you live there don't you feel isolated being far from Seattle/Bellevue?

Exactly, you need 2 incomes to afford a decent house. And with a family relying on one income it feels that it's getting tougher and tougher.