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- A millennial and her husband moved from a suburb of Atlanta to a Seattle suburb.
- She makes nearly twice as much in her new union job as she did in a similar role in Georgia.
- She loves the weather and nature, and she said her cost of living excluding rent is lower.
Caroline, 29, was tired of making $40,000 a year as an academic librarian in a suburb of Atlanta. After attending state schools in Georgia and working for a state university in the Cartersville area, she decided to move to the complete opposite side of the country in a suburb of Seattle.
Caroline, whose last name is known to Business Insider but requested partial anonymity for privacy reasons, knew the cost of living in Seattle would be pricier, though she knew that an equivalent position in Washington would come with a much higher paycheck and more benefits. The people are younger and quieter in Bremerton, the Seattle suburb in which she lives with her husband, and the weather is an improvement, she said.
"Even with the huge jump in rent, it is still a better situation here," Caroline said. "Rent is literally double, but I also make almost double what I made, and our utility costs are a lot lower."
From 2021 to 2022, over 253,000 people left Georgia for states including Florida, Texas, and North Carolina, according to US Census data. Nearly 5,600 made the move from Georgia to Washington, a particularly popular destination for California movers.
Many have moved to Washington for professional opportunities in sectors such as tech — especially considering workers who relocated to Seattle received an average 15% pay jump in the third quarter of 2023. From 2022 to 2023, Washington had 28,403 new residents, according to the Census Bureau. Some movers to Washington have cited a lower cost of living than in California.
Leaving the Peach State
Caroline had a master's degree in library science and an education specialist degree but only made about $43,000 a year at her job in Georgia. Finances were tight for the first few years out of school, and she knew she could apply her skills elsewhere for much more money.
She bought her home in 2017 with a monthly mortgage payment of $1,200, which she said is now "unheard of" in her part of Georgia. The mortgage payment was manageable, though she said she only got a raise once in the three years at her library position as part of a statewide cost of living adjustment.
Cartersville was predominantly Gen X, she said, and she often didn't meet younger people outside going further toward Atlanta. Caroline added that part of the move was political — she felt that being a librarian in Georgia was becoming harder and "thankless," where the "atmosphere wasn't super friendly toward literacy."
She also said the climate crisis was another factor influencing her move, as she noticed summer temperatures rising and tornado watches occurring more frequently. She wanted to move to a colder, more temperate city closer to water.
Earlier in the pandemic, Caroline and her husband flew out to the Pacific Northwest on a vacation and immediately fell in love with the 70-degree weather in the summer and the opportunities for younger people. She saw more people her age, and she felt that Washington's state laws and politics were more in line with her beliefs.
"When I kept not getting raises at work, and my job kept getting harder for the same amount of money and prices of everything started to increase, we were like, well if everyone says the West Coast is so expensive, and it's getting more expensive here, maybe we should just live somewhere we actually want to be," Caroline said.
Seattle pros and cons
Whereas there were no buses in her part of Georgia, there was ample public transit in Seattle across the city and into the suburbs. The couple no longer needed to rely on a car, which drove up expenses in Georgia.
In Seattle, she makes $72,000 a year doing similar library work. Her rent is $2,400 a month in her suburb of Bremerton, a city with double the population of Cartersville located about 45 minutes via ferry or an hour's drive from downtown.
Both Caroline and her husband landed union jobs, which she said were very rare in her part of Georgia. In Georgia, her university contract required her to work year-round, whereas in Washington, she only works nine months out of the year. She also works seven hours a day instead of eight or nine.
She and her husband both received raises of 9% last year which factored in the cost of living adjustment for inflation, as well as other protections and benefits she never encountered down South.
"It's a totally different work mindset out here, which is really nice because everybody has that kind of mindset of you don't live to work, you work to live," Caroline said.
She said she paid less than $50 between May and August for electricity, as she rarely used air conditioning. This compared to over $300 each month in Georgia during the summer.
Caroline said the cost of going out to eat is similar between the two states, though, in Seattle, she noticed groceries are slightly cheaper and fresher.
The weather was a huge plus for the couple, as she now spends lots of time in the mountains, forests, and Pacific Ocean waterfront. Everyone is more outdoorsy in Washington, she said, noting there are four public parks within five miles of her — the closest park in Georgia was 10 miles away.
She said it wasn't too difficult making new friends in Seattle, where most people she's met are quieter but kind. It's helped them not feel too down about being distant from their family, though that still remains the biggest con for them.
"Coming from Georgia, I was usually the most introverted person in every room, whereas out here, that's not true," Caroline said. "Coming from the South, most people are very extroverted down there and very talkative."
Caroline said she and her husband have no intention of moving away, especially as her sister also moved out west for school.
"The only way we would move from here is if we moved internationally, but I don't really see that happening," Caroline said.
Have you recently moved to a new state? Reach out to this reporter at nsheidlower@businessinsider.com.