Well my career in the military is about to change and I might be heading your way. Most of the questions are about living in the state itself , I will be there for about 3 yrs. Any info you guys can help me out with will be appreciated.

1- Cost of rent for avg 3 br houses in decent neigborhoods.
2- Vehicle rules and regulations, out of state vehicles requirements?
3- Weather in your area?
4- Number of High schools in your city or town that you know of?

 

1. Depends on which area your going to be in.

2. To register your car from out of state in a emission required WA county requires you to get emissions base test at the appropriate testing center for $15 (no visual exam). Most cars past 96 and 5 years old will be tested via OBD-II port only. Then you may go to the Dpt of Licencing with your current registration and ID and get new plates and tabs.
We have exhaust laws and noise ordnance laws, but most of the time they are hardly enforced unless your purposely acting retarded. For the most part Modded cars are an accepted part of WA.

3. From Jan-March we get cold wet weather mostly, Occasionally we get some snow storms but its unpredictable even during winter months. Spring and Summer are very dry, and our heat waves are short term. We get heavy showers occasionally between breaks. It starts to get cold towards end of october, but doesnt rain as much doing the fall seasons.

4. The greater seattle area has to many to count off the top of my head, when you get closer to any military bases, expect to see roughly 3-5 local high schools around the larger populated towns.

 

1. Here in oly 3 Bedroom houses goes any where from 900 to 1500 most nicer houses about 1300 range
2. In thurston county we dont have to be tested for emission so a big + for RX owners
3. It rains.... and rains.... will barely get over 100
4. In oly there are like 5 or 6 with in like 20 minute drives from here, I know fort lewis is about 20 minute drive from here

 

Awsome 1300 for a house,hell I am paying 1100 for a small 2 br apt with a small garage.

I should of mentioned that I am a marine, I will be doing recruiting so I dont have to be near a base but it will be nice.

Do they enforce the front license plate law over there?
And how does the cars hold up with the snow/salt in your state. I know jersey when I lived there wasnt that bad.

 

They do enforce it, I have been pulled over for it luckily It was when I just purchased the car

 

What county is Olympia Thurston or pierce

 

pierce county is the tacoma, puyallup, lakewood area.

 

puyallup and olympia are nice places

 

lookin for a girl friend? age of consent in WA is 16

 

I will be a Marine Corp Recruiter bro and my wife will be pissed

 

1. If you want to be in a nicer area a 3br will put you back 1500+
2. They are actually pretty laid back here, emissions every other year. Just don't drive like a jackass and you won't be pulled over.
3. Pretty mild winters with tons of rain, but the summer and fall here is awesome.
4. Tons of high schools you'll be fine.

 

front plate isn't really an issue there is a RCW to the front plate law it mentions that you aren't required to have one if it decreases the the value of the car. something along those lines. so if you don't have holes predrilled your in the clear. but i would find that RCW and print it out incase you ever get pulled over.

 

We don't use salt in winter, just sand No rust worries here.

Front plates are required by state law but there are loopholes as mentioned above. I was pulled over 4 times for it and never got a ticket. Installed a FMIC and have never been pulled over for it since.

There are resources online that will tell you the quality of the school district in whatever area you decide you would like to be. What will be your recruiting region? If you decide to live in Pierce County near Fort Lewis be sure to research the school districts if you want your girlfriend, er children, to get a quality education. There are some terrible school districts down there and some regions of high crime rates. It's hit and miss down there

 

Awsome, yes if you guys know the good areas let me know, dont want no ghetto.

As far as my car goes I dont know if I should leave it registered in Cali because my credentials will go like this.

Florida drivers license
California Registration
Washington Insurance

I am gonna try to register it in Florida so id ont have to deal with anything in the future. Great thing about the military we have a clause that doesnt require us to register or get the states drivers license

 

unfortunately you may get a little more attention with a cali license plate than any other one. i leaned that from experience.

 

Alex, which post are you PCS'ing to? Shoot me a PM. Stryker Infantryman at Ft. Lewis aka JABLAM! for the past 5 years. I can answer just about any question you got about a PCS move.

 

this article will 100% answer every one of your questions, and then more

http://www.seattlemet.com/real-estat...y-the-numbers/

 

reading what your looking for and to be honest with places to live, imo!
stay away from: burien, tukwila, renton, renton highlands, rainer valley, holly park, everette, anything tacoma, white center, south seattle, belltown, international dist. sea-tac, kent, lakewood, shoreline, fed way, south hill, overlake, lynwood, east hill, lacey and Auburn.

look into: the Sammamish Plat, Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Mercer Island, west seattle, alki, ballard, greenlake, bothell, woodenville, issaquah, medina, clyde hill, kingsgate, mill creek, mukilteo, kenmore

 

I love how your stay away list is almost every major suburb in the seattle area. But hes right, the areas he listed that are on his good list are whats known as the "eastside" and are much nicer to live in. But keep in mind, these areas are usually more expensive (not always).

 

honestly, almost every car related thing that is illegal in CA, is also illegal in WA. they just don't enforce nearly any of it. and when they do, it's usually to punk ricers.

 

Where is this RCW? When I google'd it this is what came up and I don't read anything about the "if it lowers the value" clause.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=46.16.240

 

not to say each place on the stay away list is 100% bad or crap, their is always a nice area and bad area to each city, even on the east side.
I have lived here 24 years and have experience in those places listed and that is my opinion on them given to a complete stranger who knows little about the area.
Good sound advice.
and yes when I mention clyde hill I do realize that the average house price is close to $1,500,000 and out of the budget of the OP, the more you know