How is Poulsbo for retirees? Good & bad points?

[Townandcountrygal]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

I make the trip back from Port Angeles about 4-5 times a year, through Poulsbo. To the Bainbridge island ferry is only about 20 minutes, then 10-15 to load, and 35 on the water. Just don't do it in a car on Sunday afternoon-evening in the summer, when there are many tourists/weekenders going back from the weekend. Holiday weekends are even worse. I have seen 2-3 hour waits to get onto the ferry. You do have options, because it's not much farther to the Bremerton Ferry, which is a longer sail but never as busy. If you can find a place to park, or take a bus, you can walk on any time without waiting.

Home rentals are much less expensive than the Seattle/eastside area, but there are not that many. I would guess that any given time there are less than 20 houses for rent in Poulsbo.

The ferry situation sounds like the one with Mukilteo--Clinton. Being retired, however, one can usually work around the rush hours. Sounds like an awfully low number of rental properties and there'd probably be a fair amount of competition for them. Good to know.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by Townandcountrygal

Building a house can be such a pain. Building our house in Seattle went smoothly and stayed within budget thanks to 2 great contractors building the house. Here, in NM, the experience did not go well. We left the Seattle area due to high property taxes and we are being taxed the same amount down here!

Thanks for mentioning Zillow as an option for finding rentals. Know anyone who wants to buy a house in sunny, dry, New Mexico?

Originally Posted by Townandcountrygal

The ferry situation sounds like the one with Mukilteo--Clinton. Being retired, however, one can usually work around the rush hours. Sounds like an awfully low number of rental properties and there'd probably be a fair amount of competition for them. Good to know.

I was taxed off my Colorado farm in 1980 and escaped to WA. It took WA until 2008 to clearly tax me out of my WA place.

There are options... Buy a JUNKER house and keep it a junker, and hope your neighbors are junkers too.


I value my copy of "Building your Low Cost Dream House" Out of print for 20 yrs or so, I build my own so that I can't complain about the costs or the contractors. My last one was completed for $56/sf including lots of custom stone and woodwork and 100% wood trim + solar. I buy many supplies at rebuilding center / Habitat. As a retiree you will have plenty of time to build your own house too!! We did so as homeschool projects for family fun and $$ for kids college (and their retirement IRA's).

I like to buy trashed mobile homes on prime acreage. I can get rid of the mobile home in 2-4 hrs and have 5 acres spiffed and ready for re-sell in a weekend. If I want to keep the lot for investment returns, I build a shop and add a VERY nice apartment inside, well out of view of the tax man. I can then rent it out for 10% cap rate, and later sell property to someone who plans to build their dream house.

You can find MANY cheap rentals out in the woods as you get a little ways from town. (10 minutes will do)
You can then do your reconnaissance and find your 'perfect abode'. I buy properties between Oct and April, and then wait till the following Oct to make offers.

[Townandcountrygal]

Are people in poulsbo clannish and unwelcoming toward newcomers?

[StealthRabbit]

SOME can be (typical of 'german heritage' communities in USA), but... there arfe Far more 'Immigrants' than settlers, so you will have no problem fitting in and being accepted.

(Unless you exclaim "this is how we did it in CA"... or you refer to I-5 as 'the Five')

[prosin]

The presence of Naval Base Kitsap locally means people come and go all the time in the community. I have found this transiency keeps this area from becoming too clannish and insular compared to other locations in western WA. I don't live in Poulsbo proper, but I do live in North Kitsap, and folks here have been very welcoming--and I'm a Californian! It is somewhat rare to find a true NK native--most of us have relocated here from somewhere else. Lots of folks from the Midwest here (Michigan, Wisconsin, etc.).

StealthR. gave some great advice. Don't act like the place you come from is all that and a bag of chips, and you'll be fine.

[Townandcountrygal]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

SOME can be (typical of 'german heritage' communities in USA), but... there arfe Far more 'Immigrants' than settlers, so you will have no problem fitting in and being accepted.

(Unless you exclaim "this is how we did it in CA"... or you refer to I-5 as 'the Five')

Having lived in the greater Seattle area for 30 years, I'm aware of the attitude toward folks from CA (although many of my neighbors were from CA). I asked about clannishness as that's what we're experiencing here in rural NM. No neighbors of German or Scandinavian heritage here, most have English ancestry with occasional Mexican genes thrown into to the mix. These locals have lived here for generations and all are related to each other.

[Tiger108]

Budget is usually a bigger issue than being near Scandinavian activities for people looking for someplace to retire (including us), but you seem to want to move to Poulsbo. Nice area. Not cheap (too expensive for us), but if you can afford it, why not? We're looking more at Gig Harbor, Port Orchard and Sequim, but being near Scandinavian activities isn't a priority for us (though if I heard that Sweden's women's volleyball team was setting up a training camp near one of these cities, it could be a plus-- but it would also attract tall, muscular Viking-like men).