Our electricity is almost all hydro, and so very green. Our only vehicle is a Tesla which we charge at home.
Our home is relatively close to the Puget sound but we're nearly 100 feet above it, which will make us proof against 21st century sea level rise, hurricanes (currently impossible here) and tsunamis. At the same time, the very large amount of water near us strongly moderates our temperature fluctuations, similar to but stronger than the same effect on the peninsula in the SF Bay Area.
There's no state income taxes. Property tax is slightly higher than in the SF Bay Area. Sales tax is about the same.
Finally, this is my current view: https://www.realms.org/pics/woods-outside.jpg
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001_Nisqually_earthquake [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_earthquakes_in_Washing...
That could cause a large to very large tsunami.
The place we selected is proof against any Tsunami, and massively over-built to handle large earthquakes.
https://www.climate.washington.edu/stormking/mainindex.html
On the other hand, we're planning on the 70 year time horizon, which is basically reasonable MAX_AGE for our teenage son, so looking many decades back was appropriate for us as well.
Further, as more and more energy ends up captured in the atmosphere, we expect rare atmospheric events to become a lot less rare.
> it's fairly isolated from inclement weather phenomenon.
Indeed, we're loving it, especially given that we generally like cool, wet weather as a baseline.
Above, I specifically called out something you can't generally build for, which is flooding. Flooding comes either from water running down hill or from below, due to rising bodies of water. Our house is at the top of a very shallow rise/'hill', so we don't have to worry about the former. That we're more than 100 feet above any relevant body of water protects us from the latter.
The other items are generally about high winds, and this house is pretty much proof against that. It was massively over-built.
The only thing it could not withstand is a direct hit from a powerful tornado.
This is such a huge thing when it comes to quality of life. The traffic in the bay area is completely absurd. There is no rush hour. There's a small window around 10:00am-11:30am where you can just get in the car and run somewhere real quick without sitting in it. Otherwise it turns a quick trip to the grocery store into an hour long affair. I can remember working in Oakland, and living in Pleasant Hill, and if there was an accident at the tunnel, you're literally just sitting at the office until 8-9pm because the entire route is a parking lot. It's the number one thing I am thankful for since moving away.
Bicycling around takes time, but I considered it worth while since it doubled as good, low impact cardio.
We also stayed primarily in Mountain View because of the schools.
But yeah, from 2009-2020, traffic went from somewhat manageable to batshit crazy.
I'll keep working remote from flyover country, thanks (lots of beautiful places here too if you don't mind the snow!)
The 11 minute drive from our house into town (capital of Washington state) is ironically shorter than a drive to the nearest Safeway in Mountain View at certain times of the day.
My wife and I daily appreciate the fortune of having the luxury of working full time remote. Most people don't have that.
We very much enjoyed our time in the SF Bay Area. It's a beautiful place full of excellent people. "things" just got too out of balance over the past decade plus.