Seattle inflation forces Microsoft family to sell home and downsize

Even one family with ties to one of America’s largest tech companies now says the numbers don’t work. Faced with rising food, fuel, insurance and housing costs, a Seattle-area family is selling their home and downsizing as inflation continues to strain household budgets.

“There was definitely an absolute tightening in our spending last year,” Liesl Gatcheco said. he told the Seattle Times in an article by business reporter Jessica Fu published Tuesday.

“This is very stressful,” Gatcheco said. “I feel like I’m living in emotional survival mode.”

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Inflation in the Seattle area “remained high” in June and continues to outpace the rest of the country, Fu wrote. Consumer prices in the Seattle-Tacoma-Bellevue area rose 4.5% last year, down from 4.9% in April but still higher than the 3.5% inflation rate in the United States.

According to The Seattle Times, Gatcheco is a self-employed esthetician whose “revenue has dropped as fewer clients are booking.”

Her husband works at Microsoft.

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The cost of living in Seattle is causing some residents to move from the expensive city. (Reuters/Chris Helgren)

“This meant stability and even upward mobility,” Fu wrote. “It’s now constantly worried about layoffs. Just last week, the company laid off 4,800 workers across its Xbox division and sales teams, with another 15,000 laid off in 2025. This year, the tech giant also offered voluntary buyouts to 7% of U.S.-based employees.”

“Working in technology used to be a given, but it definitely isn’t anymore,” Gatcheco said.

Gatcheco and her husband, who have twin children, said they would sell their home in Crown Hill, a Seattle neighborhood, to downsize and “take control.”

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Business owners in Seattle and Washington state say the new socialist “millionaire tax” is the latest in a series of economic policies that are pushing corporations and small businesses out of the state. (Fox News Digital/Nikolas Lanum)

Dusty Wilson, a math teacher at Highline College in Des Moines, about 20 minutes from Seattle, said he and his wife, Charlene, are driving less and taking the light rail because gasoline is so expensive.

“We were always just drivers, and then gas got to $6 a gallon,” Wilson said.

Fu also reported that food at restaurants increased by 6.2% in the year ending in June.

“Obviously ordinary expenses like takeout and eating out are starting to feel more like indulgences, even for people who never expected to downsize,” Fu wrote.

Veronica Brown, 36, who works in technology, told Fu: “I’m not breaking the bank in any way.”

But Fu wrote that Brown no longer ordered takeout after the total cost of his usual pad thai exceeded $40 when taxes, fees and tip were added. He had previously ordered delivery once or twice a month.

Brown said he is concerned about his ability to make larger purchases, such as buying a home.

“Our money doesn’t go that far,” Brown told Fu.

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Some Seattle residents say food costs at restaurants have increased significantly. (iStock)

“Fu’s story shows why affordability and inequality remain among the most pressing challenges facing Seattle and why it is a priority for this Administration. Mayor Katie Wilson is fighting for housing, child care and good jobs while expanding access to public benefits for Seattle residents,” a spokesperson for Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson told Fox News Digital.

The spokesperson went on to emphasize that over the past six months Wilson’s office has “communicated”: legislation banning certain “junk fees” He said landlords, especially big ones, are charging tenants, dropping unexpected tenant fees, speeding up the construction of new shelters to help “bring people into homes and transition into long-term housing” and “freeing up homes.” Seattle Public Transportation Measure Proposal “We’re providing a low-cost way to bring more and better public transportation to people over the next 10 years, the cheapest possible option.”

His office also emphasized that it “recommends strengthening access to public libraries by offering more physical books and e-books and keeping facilities safe, clean and well-maintained.” Seattle Library Tax, legislation passed for universal school mealsincludes both breakfast and lunch so students don’t learn while hungry,” and “supported the City Council changing eligibility for the City’s utility discount program, which qualifies lower-income residents and seniors.”

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“We look forward to the next six months and look forward to coming together with our neighbors, families, immigrants, and workers to meet the challenges and keep Seattle a place everyone can call home,” the spokesperson said.