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We are coming to Sequim in May,2015 in our RV and wanting to see if Sequim or Port Angeles would be better to settle in. Also may consider other areas of WA., but desire mild and low rainfall as a must really. Need a modestly priced place with peace and quiet, room for gardening and animals. Want a safe clean community with friendly folks and good mild weather, plus reliable good water source. Sick of AZ/NM heat extremes of 90-100 plus, drought, poor water wells, and the problems associated with poverty in NM ie. drugs,crimes,in general the poor economy where we had lived.Reading on the forum that these problems may be high in these areas, I guess we are wanting to know if they are quite high or just standard for the USA in smaller communities? There are so many pluses for the areas that we hope they outweigh the bad.
Overall both towns sound good, but hearing more kudos for Sequim. Different posters make me a bit confused as to how things really are. Anymore input? Also how is the water situation in P.A.?, hearing that it's a big issue in some Sequim areas. Any advice is appreciated, especially about specific areas to shop for a affordable home in that are not too drug-crime riddled.
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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Sequim if you are retired / don't need a job (or your career caters to retirees), and you have some extra dough (spendier housing). more 'transplants'
PA has some less than desirable areas, but also has more of an older downtown, the college, hospital, water front / commercial harbor, and a tall hill! (tsunami rescue?). More locals
Gardening will be very soil / altitude / cold air pocket related. Check with County Extension service for where the best growing soils and season is (probably where the most veggie / flower farms are). They will have a very detailed soil and temp map of the county.
It is all.gray.and misty with short.dim days.at 48/degrees latitude.
If mild for you is.always 45/degrees.then it is mild.
Sequim.and PA are right.next.to.each other. Not like their is a.commute or anything. Water.issue is just one small.area.
This is a rural isolated area at.the.end.of.the.continent. Drug crime.could.be.some meth heads stealing a extension cord from your garage to.sell.the.copper.
Low rainfall or not it is a big mud puddle from October to may. (45/degrees, dark, misty and foggy.) Moss will grow on you.if you.stand.still.
Thanks StealthRabbit and TrueTimbers for your input.Will keep reading the forum for more input as well as more internet searching. Look forward to visiting and checking out the areas. I am retired for now, may work later on. Hubby is retired military. More inclined to check out Sequim. Is it better to be on city water in the long run? Wells sound so iffy in area, is P.A. better for water?
Hi, there, please note that the prior posters, while they are fonts of information, do not live in or near PA/Sequim. Also, probably because of growth, Sequim & PA sort of merge into each other. If you live in one, you will most likely go to the other for shopping, medical care, recreation, etc.
Re your concerns, IMO the crime is average for small towns. There is meth here, and users will steal from homes & cars to have stuff to sell to buy their drugs. So, you protect your stuff. Overall, it has a safe feeling. However, it is not a welcoming place, people do not go out of their way to befriend you. Sequim has many churches, so if you affiliate yourself with one, that is probably a good way to meet people. There are many transplants here who try to blend in. There are also many lifers...they have their social set & don't need newbies. However, once you have been here for a couple of years and Know Someone, life gets easier.
Port Angeles is a little scruffy because, after all, its economy was/is, logging, mills, fishing. That also gives it character, cool, old buildings. Sequim is more...generic. You will find big box stores there...Costco, Home Depot. The nearest major shopping area would be Silverdale/Bremerton, 60 miles from here, but you can find what you need locally. There are 2 Walmarts here also.
Medical care...not enough good doctors to go around. There is a small hospital. For specialized care, take the ferry to Seattle, I have already done that, it is doable.
The best thing here? OMG, it is so beautiful! The mountains, the rain forests, the water. Summers are magical. It never gets too hot. If you love the outdoors, as we do, you will never be bored. Also, the beautiful city of Victoria & all of Vancouver Island are a ferry ride away from downtown PA.
The downside...winter. Very gray, dark & oppressive from Nov-March. We came from constant heat & sun & were glad to leave it but winter (like right now)...yikes. Some are not effected by this; some are. IMO,you really should visit at this time of year, & spend some time, not just in summer.
I don't know what the water issues are that you are speaking of. We, & everyone around us, are on wells & have no water shortage.
That is my take, I am sure others will have their opinions. Feel free to ask any other questions. Good luck!
Thanks StealthRabbit and TrueTimbers for your input.Will keep reading the forum for more input as well as more internet searching. Look forward to visiting and checking out the areas. I am retired for now, may work later on. Hubby is retired military. More inclined to check out Sequim. Is it better to be on city water in the long run? Wells sound so iffy in area, is P.A. better for water?
Don't get too worked up on the water issue, just be aware and educted if you buy land and build. It is not a crisis or anything, simply preemptive management of the resource. (Calm, orderly and fair.) WaterRule
I by no means would have it impact which community I like better.
"For the record" I am in the next town east, Port Townsend just 25 miles away less as the crow flies. (From a rural persons perspective, that's "nearby"
Plenty of poverty here too on the Olympic peninsula, but it is poverty with dignity. A way of life. (If that makes sense)
The climate is conducive to living in your RV year-round. (We do, on our land, while we devolope it and build one day.).
Gardening is great. World class soils north of Sequim.. If not plenty of horse farms around to amend your soil.
Last edited by TrueTimbers; 01-13-2015 at 05:36 AM..
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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There are many micro-climates in the area, due to the influence of the water and the mountains. Where my parents live in unincorporated Port Angeles (Blue Mountain area) they see sun almost every day, usually afternoon for a couple of hours when it's raining elsewhere, and they get an average of only 9"/year. At about 500' elevation they also get frost earlier, and a bit more snow. I go up in May to plant their gardens, probably 1/3 acre plus two large greenhouses and they get enough produce to freeze and last all winter. By late summer their well does start to take longer to replenish, if they run the hose full force for more than a couple of hours, but it's never gone dry in 12 years there. That area is zoned for 5+ acres per home, and depending on the house can go for as little as $250k or as much as several million up the mountain. They have not had any crime issues, and the neighbors all look out for each other.
s it better to be on city water in the long run? Wells sound so iffy in area, is P.A. better for water?
It depend on what you want. If you're "in town" or within city limits, often you'll be on city water. If you're out of town on acreage, often you'll have a well. Wells are fine in the area. The hot potato for Sequim is the Dungeness Water Rule (DWR) affecting water resource area 18 (WRIA) of Clallam County which happens to include most of the Sequim/Dungeness area. A simple Google search will provide you with lots of argument regarding this legislation.
Basically, it only affects new wells being drilled within WRIA 18. If you're on city water, you'll pay a water bill based upon usage just like you would anywhere else. The point of contention with DWR is should people who drill new wells have them metered so that they pay for water usage just like the people on city water?
Is PA better for water? Well it's in a different state water resource area (WRIA) than Sequim, so the DWR doesn't apply to new wells drilled there. But again, if you bought a home within WRIA 18 that is on city water or a home/property that already has an existing well (which is grandfathered in), the rule doesn't (seem to) apply.
The ruling has polarized the WA state dept. of ecology and builders/developers/real estate agents in Sequim and it is now being challenged in court.
Anyway, back to your original question. I'll add another consideration. Since you'll have an RV and are scouting, you might enjoy enlarging your search of rain shadow territory a bit. After checking out the PA/Sequim area, you could then drive over to Port Townsend (mentioned by timbers above). Nice little historical Victorian seaport town. After that hop on the WSF there and ride the ferry over to Whidbey Island. Much of the island would meet your requirements and Whidbey has a large retired military presence given the NAS there. As your husband is retired military, he might like that. Last drive up Whidbey to Anacortes (taking time to be awed by Deception Pass) and scope it out also. If you have time to do this trip, you'll have a nice overview of the most popular towns in and around the rain-shadow territory of western WA.
You're coming in May. Keep in mind it's easy to love western WA during the summer months ( month? ) but as timbers and this place mentioned above, I do think you need to honestly consider the possible mental impact of prolonged gray winter weather in a maritime climate. Particularly when considering a move from a SW desert locale where you are used to having year round to near year round sunshine.
Thanks all for taking the time to reply to me, much appreciated. Heard of the Dungeness water rule for the greater Sequim area, so was a bit concerned, but perhaps things are not so bad, as it appears to be a proactive, water management plan, and that is a smart approach for the long term. We just had water issues in the previous area we lived in in SE NM., so want to have our new future home less impacted by issues such as aquifers going fry, sludging up with heavy iron, other hard minerals and sediments ruining wellheads, plants being scorched by at times very brutal sun. I went through well problems that were frightening and costly. When I left however I had gotten them resolved and the monsoons came to save the day for my home sale this past July. Once a few years back, I even had to haul up water by hand in multiple trips of(2) 5 gallon pails from creek that luckily was below me, (150ft)for about a month one time when well crapped out, during peak of drought, (had been 5-6 months w/o a drop of rain, was 2008 I think). Then the monsoons hit, and got well fixed at same time coincidently. Was a struggle to save the trees/garden/water the rescue animals I had, but got it done. I and my hubby are survivors, and others out there may be the same way it seems.
Poverty with dignity I can understand as have seen this before and to some degree suffered some with low wages myself,in NM.However it made me a lot more resourceful, frugal, recycling-minded, simplifying of my lifestyle,etc., all good skills to acquire, so don't regret this period of struggle I had been through, and respect others in this circumstance. Many of my fellow animal rescuer friends were living a very Spartan life but overall were happy and satisfied with the choices they made to help animals live a better life/or simply to have lived because of their efforts. On this note, are there animal rescue groups/shelters there that I can volunteer at? NM had way too many neglected/abused/stray animals sadly, like other depressed areas. Anyone know about this area ,how much of a stray problem there is?
Amberywolf,
I spent many months combing this forum and the web for information on OP. I got very valuable advices from many regular posters before visiting the area last December. Before coming, I thought Sequim was the most suited place. After our visit when we could not find even a single house in Sequim fitting our criteria and liking (price, location etc) and that Sequim was blander, PA was much nicer and PT was much more charming than what we learned and thought, our preference list reversed its order!
It's great that you have scheduled a visit in May with your RV to see and experience a bit of the living condition in these places. Based on our experience, I'd strongly suggest to make good use of Google map satellite, street view images as well as Google Earth topographic feature to investigate a specific location or property that you are interested in before scheduling an appointment. For example, if we had seen the satellite/topographic images of some of the very nice houses located on a bluff, we would have known that the only 1/4 or less of the advertised acreage was usable. There are also many great government sites for information on erosion, flood/land slide history/potential etc. which we will utilize in our next relocation home searches such as this one:
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Thanks folks for input on Sequim, P.A.
