Coastal arts communities in Puget Sound area?

[texasdiver]

Originally Posted by coastal58

I recently moved to WA from a coastal CT suburb of New York. I came out in May of 2017 and could only afford 6 weeks at an Air BnB in Hansville, and not Port Townsend, my original destination. So I ended up arranging a rental in Suquamish to return to 4 months later just to have a place to live. The rental market here is squeaky tight and new properties that become available go fast. More about Suquamish later in this post.

Despite loving the Upper Kitsap peninsula as well and briefly considering buying property in the Poulsbo/Silverdale/Bainbridge microplex, I’m am back to Port Townsend.

Property values are high there, understandably. Regardless, I’m undeterred in my goal of buying a lot and building with the intent of creating passive income by having an ADU or guest cottage since the demand in the rental market there supports that.

My question is: what areas of town (within the city limits) would I be advised to steer clear of (besides the area around the paper mill. I don’t know how anybody could live with that stench)? Are any areas of town susceptible to flooding or landslides? How tolerant of disruptions like house construction are neighbors in areas where the streets can be narrow and windy? Any political issues at City Hall going on that might impact property valuations or taxes? Zoning people or processes that might hinder plans?

Having just moved here from the retentively manicured suburbs of Connecticut’s Gold coast, I’m still getting used to considering living in a rural/semi-rural area where million-dollar houses might be built next door to a run-down house with furniture and car parts in the yard.

At the moment I’m renting a house in Suquamish, and the local Facebook community really opened my eyes to a recent minor crime wave of break-ins. There’s also talk of a meth lab operating in town. But the neighborhood can be really trashy on some streets here, I mean literally, there’s one house that looks like a private junkyard collection with stuff spilling out into the street.

But houses on the market are still getting snapped up by buyers in no time. I would consider buying here, since Seattle commuters are looking more and more for affordable properties outside the city since it’s become as expensive a place to live as Fairfield County, where I moved from. But I don’t want to live in a place where people don’t look after or have any pride of ownership, as attractive as the property prices here may be. I still have to wonder if it would be a worthwhile investment, though.

WA has plenty of counterparts to the tony CT gold coast suburbs you came from. Port Townsend is not one of them because it is so much more remote and rural as you are discovering. If you want neighbors with manicured lawns and views like in CT you should be looking at places like Bainbridge Island, Gig Harbor, etc.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by coastal58

”In that case, there may not be much you can do, or much advice we can give you. You'll just have to do the best you can with what you have to work with. Have you taken a look at Port Hadlock?”

You’re making an awful lot of assumptions based on little information about me or what my objectives are, or what I already know about the area. I apologize If I caused offense by anything I said.

OP, you must have misunderstood my post. Not making any assumptions; just trying to understand why you were talking about the periphery of town, when there are so many buildable properties for sale well within town. Hopefully, you have a broad range of options. I think you'll enjoy Pt T. I hope you find a property you'll be happy with.

[CrazyDonkey]

Anacortes: Anacortes Arts Festival | Celebrating arts, culture and community for 55th years.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by coastal58

Wow, thanks for all the suggestions. You have given me a bunch of stuff to research as starting points. Port Townsend sounds like a really cool community. At the moment I am divorcing, selling a 3300 square foot house on Long Island Sound in Fairfield County, CT, which is basically a bedroom community for New York CIty.

The vibe here is stressed, and the cost of living is insanely expensive, and I no longer want to be a slave to that lifestyle. The flooding I experienced from Hurricane Sandy a couple of years ago, on top of the winters, is an additional factor.

I realize there are few areas in this country that are immune from natural calamities (including the Pacific Northwest), but this Texas boy wants to spend the rest of his life in the West, where I can watch the sun set every night over the Pacific.

Pt Townsend is, indeed, a cool community (no big box stores allowed, for example). Politically active. And compared to the greater NYC area, it's cheap. But compared to Pt Townsend in the past, it's going through a RE boom, with hordes of people like yourself, and retirees, moving in, sending RE prices and rent rates skyrocketing (in a relative, Olympic-Peninsula way).

Your best bet is to buy, if you can. The once-plentiful rental properties vanished about 3 years ago. A lot of LL's decided they could make a lot more money renting their 2- or 3-br. rental properties via Air B & B, leaving newly-relocated people to the area stranded for housing.

Pt T gets a lot of tourism, but the galleries are affected by the general US economy, so when things go down (think: post 2008, as just one example), galleries struggle or go out of business. NYC is the best location, other than Santa Fe, NM, for a gallery scene, So bear that in mind. You won't find anything remotely like the gallery scene you're used to anywhere outside of those two cities, and San Francisco & the Bay Area, which is too expensive for you, unless you look at Vallejo, where a number of SF artists have relocated as the last bastion of affordability bayside.

Based in Pt Townsend, aside from local galleries, such as they are, you'd be wise to scope out galleries in downtown Seattle. Getting there involves driving, and taking a ferry.

If you're already established with some galleries in NYC, definitely hang onto those; you can ship art to them. You'll need all the outlets you can muster, but you probably don't need me to tell you that. Good luck, and let us know what you decide, and how things work out for you!

P.S. Did anyone mention the pulp mill on the edge of town (Pt T)? Most of the time, the fumes blow away from town, but every once in a while, the wind shifts....

[Ruth4Truth]

Oops! I didn't realize this is a resurrected/updated thread. Too late to delete my recent contribution. Don't you already have a thread going about this, OP? Oh well.

[noah]

I second the Langley suggestion. Just came back from a weekend there, lots of art studios and a rush of Seattle tourists from the Victoria Clipper running trips from Seattle on the weekends.