Helpful Hints submitted by Contestants

Here are our major data sources:

Seattle:

Puget Sound Regional Council [206.464.7532] 1011 Weston Ave., Suite 500, Seattle, WA 98104-1035. The best thing we got from them was Other Sources of Economic and Demographic Information for Puget Sound Region and Washington State.

Seattle Public Library, 4th Ave. Ask for the Business and Technology desk. From them we got the ACCRA Cost of Living Index, which gives a cost of living index with weighting factors for 8 WA cities. Also we got the 1999 Geographic Reference Report, which gives cost and wages and much, much more for 8 WA cities, some of the same as the ACCRA, but some different.

Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the old Federal Building on 1st Ave. From them we got Median Home Prices for all WA counties, but the sources below gave us that and more.

Pullman:

WA Center for the Real Estate Research, director: Glen Crellin at WSU (800.835.9683). Upon request, he can provide 10 years of county data on median home sales prices.

Olympia:

Labor Market and Economic Analysis (LMEA) Branch of the Employment Security Department, Lacey, WA (800.215.1617). From them we got Relative Importance of Components in the Consumer Price Indexes for all Urban Consumers, Dec. 1997 More importantly, we got a good Web site: Bureau of Labor Statistics (http://www.bls.gov/)

Kirk Oquistorff
13930 Silven Ave NE
Bainbridge Island, WA 98110
(206) 842-3127
quistorff@bainbridge.net