What is the expected monthly expense in Seattle for a family of 4 based on the following parameters: - A 3 bedroom house / Apt. Fine with commuting for 45 mins to an hour one side, if I can get a spacious place. Prefer safe neighbourhoods. - Two school going kids, both in junior classes. Would prefer to live closer to good schools. - Outings, eating out etc twice a week on average. - Other regular stuff - insurance, groceries, gas, internet, other utilities included. - Would prefer to keep a car for the family but may not use it for daily office commute. Please do add any other important cost parameters which I might be missing.
At least six thousand. Seven will be comfortable
I'm a married couple (no kid) in Seattle (Fremont) and spend ~5k USD a month. If you live further away and cook, you probably save more money.
I’m currently paying about 7-8. Family of 4. 1 preschooler.
I'm in the exact same situation you describe and we spend 10k a month. We could easily cut to 8k if we stopped going to restaurants and co but below would be really hard
Scanning comments and I read your 'co but below' as 'cut out blow.' Ok time for bed.
$5k-$6K barebones, add to it your social and personal expenses.
3 bedroom house in a good school neighborhood will cost you about 800K for a starter home nothing fancy so that translates to 3.5K mortgage. If you have the cash for downpayment you should buy. For family of four expect to spend about 4K per month for food, daycare or classes for your kids and other utilities expenses.
Depends on the area you live (ie there are good schools on eastside and north but housing is more expensive on east side - better schools) if you look at top schools, expect to pay a much higher rent. Eating out vary based on where you go / what type and if you drink out (beers 6-7, wine 8-14 so it adds up quickly) my husband and I usually have a check w drinks between 40-100 for two of us before tips. (Ie grab a ramen / burger vs a nice meal in a restaurant) If your kids are doing any extracurricular activities, prepare to pay for those as well.
Plan for 6-7K a month to have an above average lifestyle.
“Good school” is relative. Nobody knows what your expectations are. Garfield high school is public and may seem “ghetto”, but they send people to Harvard. It’s all subjective.
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Mortgage/Rental/Utilities - around 3-4k School - free unless you go private Other stuff - Not much difference from elsewhere
Thanks! I am relocating from outside of US, so am not aware of how much the other stuff costs :). Any ballpark estimate?
The other expenses have huge fluctuations and you could either live very frugally or very lavishly. I would think another about 2-3k should be sufficient excluding the car. For the car, it would come up to a few thousand dollars (4-7k) per year on average over the lifetime of the car.