Cowlitz County? Lewis County? (Seattle, Olympia: real estate, attorneys, house)

[vmt1280]

We're another one of those sick of the extreme heat in the central part of the country. We've looked at the Oregon forums and liked the Roseburg area as far as climate, accessibility to the coast. However, it seems that Oregon has LOTS of government intrusion as far as what you can do on your own land...

We are country people - not interested in living in town. We want a small place 2-10 acres, where we can garden, have chickens and maybe raise a couple of pigs. We are older (59/61), no kids. We currently heat with wood, we don't need malls, etc. We do need internet access.

We currently live on 183 acres and realize that it is time to downsize. I'm a teacher, my husband is a computer geek. We plan to move in two years. We plan to pay cash for the place. We've discussed buying a in-town fixer-upper, move in, work on it and scout for the "dream" place.

What I want to know about is pros/cons of these two counties as far as government restrictions, livability, computer consulting opportunities.

I have seen how very helpful people are on this forum - you've provided lots of information, which is why I don't think Clark County would be a fit (property taxes). SO... advice, info, thoughts, random sputterings would all be appreciated!!!

[Hemlock140]

That area is mostly conservative compared to the Seattle area and Oregon. The state iteslf has a fairly liberal government currently
but the counties you mentioned do leave people alone for the most
part when it comes to what they do with their land. Of the two, I'd expect Lewis to have less government restrictions but Cowlitz to have more need rfor your services.

If you asked for a recommendation, I would suggest the unincorporated area between Sequim and Port Angeles in Clallam County, where my parents live. They have a llama on 5 acres, but the neighbor next door has highland cattle, pigs, sheep and turkeys on 10 acres. People target/varming shoot on their property. The weather is better too, cooler but much less rain than Seattle, and while it may be somewhat cloudy often they do see the sun for a while in the afternoon nearly every day.

[Count David]

OP, have you looked into North Idaho?

[NW Crow]

The two are similar in lots of ways but there are some differences.


Seems like more places away and further away from the interstate in Lewis, including options in eastern Lewis County. I'd say far more open / farmed land in Lewis but you can find some parcels especially small parcels in Cowlitz. Cowlitz has about 3 times the population density as Lewis and the fewer pockets on open land are pretty urbanized and even more dense, pulling up the overall average.

I'd guess bisjoe is right that Lewis County has less government restrictions / protections in general than Cowlitz (but I haven't looked at the details) given that registered Republicans have about a 20% edge in Lewis while Democrats have a 10% edge in Cowlitz, probably because of union households in the Longview area and commuters to Portland in the south end of the county. Still, Cowlitz might have more restrictions than Lewis but probably less than Clark.

(There is a huge billboard that has been spouting fierce anti-regulation, anti-government, anti-Democratic party slogans between Centralia-Chehalis for decades. One man's opinion and maybe more extreme than most but probably more against regulation than for it.

People will vary of course in which specific restrictions or protections they don't want or care the most about. Sometimes a person doesn't want one restriction on something they want to do, then end up with somebody else doing something they didn't expect, don't want and don't think should be allowed. But nothing new about that.)


If you are talking about computer consulting where you go to the client, being 20 miles or less from Portland in the south end of Cowlitz would have a greater volume of possibilities than say being within 20 miles of Olympia in the north end of Lewis or anywhere in between. If you are talking about computer consulting locally, whether one goes out or they come to you, it might be kind of thin due to fairly low population and maybe lower quantity of highly technical businesses (not totally sure about that, these days, but there are few big companies in the area) but I don't know the ratio of consultants to clients in these counties relative to other places to gauge the quality of prospects to get work there. Off hand, I have heard of this firm in Longview Apple Mac Store in Longview, WA, Computer Support Services It would be a possible employer or competitor. I assume there are others. I've heard of these folks on the radio (nothing more) and offer them only as an example that they exist out there (and in Centralia / Chehalis but probably nothing more than 1 person shops in the rural areas).
Consulting mostly or entirely via the web the issue would mainly be about broadband availability and speed.

It should be possible to find out about broadband options and speeds in different locations with some internet digging, here State of Washington Broadband and / or on the major provider sites and local government / chamber of commerce sites which might also list local companies. Real estate agents or sellers should have that info too and be able to confirm it for a specific house though they might not want to bring it up if the service is slow or not available or might not always get it exactly right. Most places save for fairly remote ones will probably have some broadband but if one has high speed requirements your choices may narrow considerably to being real near a city.

For what you want, I think you have chosen a pretty good overall target zone to explore further and try to find the right balance for you. Of course there are probably other decent or good spots too if you want to widen the search. Good luck.

[vmt1280]

Thanks for the information!

David: We're not interested in N. Idaho because we want a more moderate climate (weather wise) AND we want to take advantage of crabbing/clamming on the coast.

BisJoe: As far as liberal/conservative, our views tend to be fiscally conservative/socially liberal. We're basically live/let live sorts. We do occasionally target shoot (maybe once a year), so we would like an area where people don't flip out if you own guns (not talking about AK-47 assault rifles - just a couple of shotguns, a .22 and a deer rifle).

I looked at Clallam County - looks like their land prices are higher than Cowlitz or Lewis, but when we put boots on the ground, we will check it out.

N W Crow: Thank you for the broadband info. Right now, we have one-way satellite which is about all we have available where we live. As far as consulting, it could go either way. We can do hardware/software/networking/web design. At this time, my husband does on-site consulting for several attorneys, but we've had higher ed, hoa, construction and even a cinema company as clients.

As far as restrictions I specifically didn't like about Oregon, one was that if you owned 1 acre or less, you are required to have city utilities. Another was that you could only camp on your own land for 3 months. It would probably take us longer than that to build a house (we would build most of it ourselves - another talent!)

Again, thanks for the information. It is amazing how valuable this forum is!