Camas Or Washougal???? (Seattle, Vancouver: leases, credit card, house prices)

[diggitydot]

Originally Posted by ulsterscot

Wow. You might want to consult an ENT doctor. There is a reason they call it the "smell of money" in Camas. The paper mill reeks. You can't help but smell it for miles.

Washougal is ok, but kind of run down and white trash. I would suggest Vancouver or Battle Ground, or at least one of the new in between areas between Camas and Vancouver.

Hmmm...I would venture to guess you've not been to either Camas or Washougal in close to 25 years. While both towns might have been like that many years ago, thing have drastically changed.

The EPA cracked down on the mill's output a LONG time ago and rarely do you notice any odor, even very close to the mill. Most of any smell from the mill (when there is any) actually is blown over towards Gresham. Gotta love those gorge winds.

As for Washougal being "run down and white trash", eh...not so much. Every community has their scuzzier areas, Washougal being no exception. But it also has some exceedingly nice areas and many neighborhoods falling somewhere between the two extremes. But with the very active city council and mayor, tiny little Washougal has been making progress by leaps and bounds over the last decade.

Also, doing a quick search on realtor.com shows over 200 homes priced over $400K in Washougal (zip code 98671). You don't normally see that in "run down and white trash" communities.

[ulsterscot]

I lived out that way about four years ago. I'm sure they have built up expensive houses in Washougal since then; they are building everywhere. Overall, Washougal was fairly run down at that time, ala Tanya Harding trailer types. It was a nice place, just fairly poor. Perhaps it has improved.

I was visiting last summer, and the paper mill still smelled the same. I'm sure the realtors conduct their showings of new expensive homes when the wind is just right. Camas is ok otherwise, but not worth it to me with all the great areas around Battle Ground, Vancouver etc. To each his own.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by ulsterscot

.... Overall, Washougal was fairly run down at that time, ala Tanya Harding trailer types. It was a nice place, just fairly poor. Perhaps it has improved. ...

Oh I wish you would tell that to my property tax assessor who values my 13 yr old Washougal home such that my tax bill is $33/ day ... 10 times what I pay for food, and more than double my highest house payment ...ever... (Yes... $12,000 / per yr in property taxes...)

I do keep a few wrecked cars laying around in my front yard and have a trashed trailer next door for a rental (tax valued at $300k+...) just to help keep the area look 'local'; but the tenants love the Gorge view and found the 65 mph winds @ 22F quite refreshing last week, as well as the 8" of snow this AM (12" more expected by tomorrow AM). Now to get those pipes thawed out.

[watkins911]

Thanks you all for your input. We will be making a trip in the next month or so to see in person the towns we are looking into. Does it really take 30 minutes to get to Portland from Washougal? Are all property taxes that outrageous? Is it the county or the whole state? You guys are scaring me a little. Like I said he will be working in Portland and after doing extensive research I decided on WA for numerous different reasons and the schools being a top deciding factor. I also read alot on this forum under OR and WA and to be honest they have posts that say Californians go home, quit ruining our state. I had tried to talk to them about my move and they started in on me and told me Im going to just come to there state and raise there housing prices because Im bringing my riches from CA and will be building a McMansion as they call it, after getting into a heavy discussion with some of the people I definately decided I would never live there. I was just on the OR one the other day to just see if anything changed and it is way worse, there is another CA one and not very nice what so ever. I stay out of the conversations since they removed my reply and it was not even as bad as what others have said. Well thank you for your assistance and will take all into consideration.

[Topaz]

The people who have the time and energy to be nasty to you on these boards are not representative of everyone here. I have lived all over the U.S. and the Camas/Vancouver area is one of the nicest, most welcoming places I've ever been. Just find people with similar interests and you will make friends. I am originally from California but have lived in other states after that and when people ask where I am from, they seem curious and interested but not hostile about the answer.

[watkins911]

Topaz,

I have'nt run into any nasty people on the WA forum just the OR. WA seems to have alot nicer people atleast on the forums anyway and seem to welcome whoever wants to move there unlike OR. Thnx

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by watkins911

... Does it really take 30 minutes to get to Portland from Washougal?
...Are all property taxes that outrageous? Is it the county or the whole state? ...I was just on the OR one the other day to just see if anything changed and it is way worse,

Without much traffic you can get to Downtown Portland in 30 min from Washougal. Commute traffic can be worse. Today at 7:30 AM it took me 48 min to get from Washougal to Janzen Beach (just across I-5 bridge)... I got held up in traffic heading to I-205 Bridge AND I-5 Traffic & missed breakfast at the Conference I was attending , . If I was commuting to downtown Portland at peak hours, I would allow an hour. (That is why I prefer to work 'off-shift', gives me extra time / day).

OR forum can be a bit harsh, I wouldn't worry about it, (some of our best and highly recommended posters have been axed due to getting into a rift on OR forum) but I wouldn't cruise around either state with CA plates, just to keep tensions down. We are none to happy about RE equity flowing from CA either, as that is ONE reason why our valuations and taxes are so high. 30 Yrs ago...CA should have restricted exodus of RE capital to the limit of average price of US home, and force extra RE capital to stay in CA in the form of investment props (CA and the rest of us would be better off today as far as home prices go). That would have saved me a move from CO 26 yrs ago when we got taxed out of our farm due to the influx of values from a Bay area company that transferred a bunch of people into our nice little mountain town... Excessive RE values have now ruined NV, ID, AZ, MT, OR, WA, WY, & CO so if you like the west, you will have to pay for it. It is very unfortunate to those of us (many) who don't consider our primary home an investment, it's just a place to lay our head. It would be fine if it only was worth $100k, as any excess just ratchets our costs (insurance, taxes, payments...). We watched the homes on LaCamas Shores (Camas) that had been setting empty for $350k get bought for $500k when CA folks came with $$ in the late '80's. Two of my co-workers showed up and the realtor convinced them to pay more for these homes to shelter their CA gains. (Pre-$500,000 exemption). They offered them all kinds of upgrades to make it look worth more, and this ended up being followed by locals who would sell and 'move-up', but in the end game it is just inflation and a BIG burden once you get to a 'fixed-income'. The Infrastructure (schools, fire departments, libraries, planning and building depts...) gets used to the tax base, and thus everything gets more expensive, then people will leave do to job losses, and retirement, but no one in gov gets laid off, so... taxes go higher, it happens everywhere.

Life in the big city... If you do move Be Sure to get your Auto License Plates transferred quickly, I saw 2 OR plate cars get pulled over during the commute today. They will check to see if you have utilities hooked up, and if you have records of utilities and NOT transferred cars in a timely fashion you will get a very expense ticket. It is most popular to target OR plates, as folks keep them licensed there to avoid 8.2% sales tax. I think you can bring in two cars, but I know they forced me to pay sales tax on my extra cars and motorcycles, (boats too) even tho I had done so in CO.

[michaelcindy]

I have friends that live in a very nice home in Washougal. They moved from Hayden Island in Portland to out there and they hate it. They do not like Camas or Washougal. They feel they have to drive a ways to get to any decent shopping or restaurants. I have visited several times and I do not like the wind, smell, traffic, and lack of entertainment options out there. If I were you I would look at other areas before settling out there. (Sorry Camas/Washougal residents, I just wanted to let to OP to know my experiences!!)

[diggitydot]

Originally Posted by michaelcindy

I have friends that live in a very nice home in Washougal. They moved from Hayden Island in Portland to out there and they hate it. They do not like Camas or Washougal. They feel they have to drive a ways to get to any decent shopping or restaurants. I have visited several times and I do not like the wind, smell, traffic, and lack of entertainment options out there. If I were you I would look at other areas before settling out there. (Sorry Camas/Washougal residents, I just wanted to let to OP to know my experiences!!)

I think this underscores the need for potential residents to visit a prospective new home community and to really make sure they do their homework on it. Not everyone will be blissfully ecstatic in each community. What some of us adore, others may find irritating and vice versa. If the positives outweigh the negatives, great! If not, though, it's best to know before the move than after.

[scottsostuff]

Originally Posted by watkins911

HELLO ALL,

WE WERE JUST INFORMED ABOUT A MONTH AGO THAT MY HUSBANDS JOB IS RELOCATING HIM TO PORTLAND. I HAVE BEEN SPEDING NUMEROUS HOURS ON THE INTERNET RESEARCHING SCHOOLS, JOBS, HOUSING, TAXES BOTH PROPERTY AND SALES. I HAVE PRETTY MUCH NARROWED MY DECISIONS TO WA (95%) BUT I HAVE BEEN WAVERING BETWEEN TWO DIFFERENT ONES WHICH ARE CAMAS AND WASHOUGAL. IF ANYBODY HAS ANY ADVICE ON EITHER ONE OF THESE I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE AND INFO ON MY CONCERNS ABOVE. ALSO IF THERE ARE CERTAIN AREAS IN EITHER OF THESE TOWNS THAT WOULD NOT BE SAFE TO LIVE IN WOULD APPRECIATE THE HEADS UP.

LISA

Camas schools are well known for being some of the top ranked and so home
prices there reflect the demand. It has a quaint downtown with a tree lined main street. There are boutique retail stores, restaurants and more. We liken it to a "Norman Rockwell" community.

Washougal has been redeveloping the downtown area and it is looking great. There are quite a lot of newer housing developments. Based on our current market conditons you may get more home for the money in Washougal. A trade off will be that it is a bit further to the major shopping and business areas in our county.

People in both areas are very friendly!