Does Anyone Know About Shelton, WA?

[mamafour]

Shelton=depressing and known for meth labs. Elma and Montesao not much better. But still better than Shelton! they have meeth labs too, but more choices, sorta.

[kanhawk]

I'd avoid living inside Shelton city limits if you have the choice. It is a poorly run town, terrible streets, ugly neighborhoods and as someone mention in a previous post, few places with sidewalks, even in the few nicer parts of town. For a town this size, the traffic is terrible and congested. Outside of town in the rest of Mason County there are some nice areas if you can afford them, especially along the waterfront on Oakland Bay which has some really nice homes including some with nice views of the Olympics.

[chris]

Yep I wouldn't live in most of the downtown areas personally but the city has made an honest effort to clean things up... During the day it's a nice little bustling area. There's a new BBQ place that opened up last year and is quite excellent.

Traffic is bad because of excessive growth in the area. I've noticed it also.

The town has changed quite a bit just in the time I've lived here, some ways good, some ways bad.

[sjk_bellevue]

it might be filled w/ hicks, but I think the people are nice. I am from Seattle & grew up in Shelton too, so there was some shock at first. I don't live there, but if I were to go back. I'd live in Olympia-better schools, more diverse, like a city, but not as pricey or big as Seattle. But just take your to Brehmers/Mason Co. Collision. He will rip you off!

[jertheber]

I have looked at a lot of real estate in the Shelton area, overall it's become a commuter town with the huge housing developments off hwy 101 west of town. The downtown business district has been cleaned up over the last ten years and presents it self as a kind of historical area. The only thing I didn't like about the housing was that most of the newer homes were in and around the "new" part of town, that's to say the strip malls, with fast food outlets. I was looking for real small town life and Shelton was just getting too strung out to think of it as small. In spite of all that I would have to say it is very well situated to some of the best western Washington scenery, snow capped hills that drop to the misty waterways of Hood Canal. I think you'll find a common thread among the posts that attempt to describe this beautiful but confounding area. Most of Washington is rural, and time does have a way of slowing down some for these towns, that said, there is an overt poverty in these rural areas that the "quaint" cutesy towns painted over and thus garnered the tourist business. Shelton is definitly working class, the majority of it's citizens are not well off. Like all small towns the locals love their high school sports, and family life is different in these towns when compared to Seattle or Portland, people don't need much from the local culture, they seem satisfied with things the way they are, newcomers sometimes propose to gentrify the town at the expense of those who earn just enough to live their life but have no extra cash for 'cultural" endeavors. Life is very predictable for these people, go to work, come home, eat, tv, and bed time. There is no night life whatsoever, you would need to go to Olympia to have anything resembling a night on the town, and even Oly isn't exactly a metropolis. Elma is smaller yet but is not overun with strip malls or fast food. Elma is a valley town so it's more agricultural, it's on a par with Shelton insofar as the local populace is concerned with primary home life and local sports. It's a clean town, you'll find farm towns are a little less edgy than timber towns, I'm guessing it has to do with the local economy being local and not "owned" by the timber companies. Montesano is the Grays Harbor county seat and it is a truly nice example of what small towns could be and should be. "Monte", as it's called by the locals has been a farm town also, it is where the farmers of the nearby Wynoochee valley come to get their supplies and socialize with the townies, they have some good eateries in town, it's small town USA no doubt about it. If you have the time you should visit in the different seasons (2) lol, the winters in the Grays Harbor area can be daunting to the hardiest of souls, the wind can blow straight through your clothing and chill you to the bone. Summers are beautiful and make the winter seem like the dues for all this wonderful scenery. Each of the three towns has something to offer, you'll just have to size up the housing to fit your needs. Monte is the most expensive for housing followed by Elma and Shelton. All three areas have a wide spread in home prices.