Port Angeles (Seattle, Silverdale, Port Townsend: real estate, how much, living)

[boatguy]

What are the differences in Port Angeles-Port Townsend? Which would be better for a younger couple, no kids, NOT rich, but like outdoors.

[maiden.jade]

Originally Posted by boatguy

What are the differences in Port Angeles-Port Townsend? Which would be better for a younger couple, no kids, NOT rich, but like outdoors.

Port Townsend is within the rain shadow zone while Port Angeles is outside so PT probably receives lesser rain than PA.

Both have easy access to the outdoors.

I think both have affordable housing from what I see from some real estate websites but that depends on what you really want.

PT is probably closer to Seattle in terms of driving distance in case you need to fly out of a bigger airport.

[boatguy]

How about jobs in both? And how much more rain does PA get? Thanks

[maiden.jade]

Originally Posted by boatguy

How about jobs in both? And how much more rain does PA get? Thanks

I don't know about jobs but if you search for newspapers in both towns, you'll probably get an answer from the classified ads.

As for the rain, do a search on city-data for both towns and you'll find the rainfall for each month in a year. Even if I say 25 inches of rainfall a year in PT, that probably won't make much sense to you.

[mayfair]

Port Angleles gets more rain- often you drive into rain leaving Sequim and heading into PA. West of PA is even wetter.

Housing is expensive in PT. PA is more affordable. However, PA has a very different vibe than PT. PA is a working town with some tourism and PT is an artsy, touristy town. Both towns have paper mills. PT is at the end of a peninsula and PA has the highway running right through downtown. Neither place has many jobs so it would be wise to have something lined up before you move.

PA is closer to the Olympic National Park.

[swsha4]

I agree with Mayfair. If you are looking for work in the Nat. Park or Nat Forest, perhaps PA would be best but if you are more into a small town with a city flavor and more night life for the young, PT would be more of a choice. But anywhere on the Olympic is going to be "close to nature" as it were.

I also agree with Mayfair that you really should have a job lined up before moving there. PA is less expensive to live in than PT, and both are cheaper than Seattle, but neither of them are free and having lower populations means less jobs in the paper. In most big cities, you can go in cold and make it, taking any old job for a time, but it's not so easy in smaller towns.

And speaking of papers, you may want to start your job search with the classified ads here:

http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/ Peninsula Daily News
http://www.sequimgazette.com/ Sequim Gazette

[boatguy]

Thanks for the info. What is the weather like in PA? How often does it rain, or better yet, how often cloudy?

[beauty4ashes]

Hey boatguy,

I wouldn't live in either place, they're both kinda...strange. Been to both, but if you're determined for one or the other, I'd definately say Port Townsend. It's closer to other cute cities like Silverdale and Poulsbo. Gig Harbor would be my pick.

Good luck!

[swsha4]

Originally Posted by boatguy

Thanks for the info. What is the weather like in PA? How often does it rain, or better yet, how often cloudy?

PA is still within the Rain Shadow although on the western edge. But still at 17 inches of rain per year average it is a pretty dry area. When you leave PA driving west, you can figure and inch per mile in increased rainfall per year. PT is on the other side of the rain shadow and well within it and has about the same rainfall, so they are similar.

As for sunshine, keep in mind, however, that this is the PNW and there are a lot of cloudy days. Even though the rainfall is low in the rain shadow, very often you will see misty conditions where you will have it damp all morning but it will only measure a fraction of an inch, so that rain is spread out the rainy days into more days than it would appear just looking at the rainfall figures.

I think both towns are quite sunny and nice in the summer but then I spent 30 years living along the soggy coast of Southcentral Alaska so most weather where it isn't raining sideways looks good to me. Everything is relative!

[citydatauser]

Originally Posted by maiden.jade

I don't know about jobs but if you search for newspapers in both towns, you'll probably get an answer from the classified ads.

Peninsula Daily News is the local news paper in Port Angeles. They have two editions of the paper- one for Clallam County, PA and Sequim; and one for Jefferson County, PT. :: Peninsula Daily News ::

Originally Posted by boatguy

What is the weather like in PA? How often does it rain, or better yet, how often cloudy?

During the winter it is pretty cloudy, but during the summer there are usually sunny clear blue skies. PA gets much less rain than the Seattle area because it is on the edges of the rain shadow.

Last year there was a contest between the mayors of Sequim and Forks was to see which city had more sunny days than the other. Forks did win, but that just means they had less cloudy or rainy days, NOT less rain. Forks receives an average of 120 inches of rain a year. Raifall totals for 2007: Forks received 129.86", Port Angeles received 17.24", and sequim only received 9.27". That means Forks got nearly 5 times the amount of rain Port Angeles and Sequim did- put together! Now, thats a lot of rain, and quite the variety of weather! https://www.cityofpa.us/weather.htm#Rainfall