Help!! Texan Moving To Yakima!

[M3 Mitch]

You might want to consider living outside the city limits, with gas prices as they are, I would not recommend setting yourself up for a long commute, but, for whatever reason, it seems the Yakima County Sherriff does a much better job than the Yakima City Police. Friends who live in Yakima proper tell me the city is not very well run.

If you live beyond comfortable walking distance from "urban yoots" you should have less trouble.

With most crime, you just have to avoid being an attractive target, these guys are looking for a victim, not a fight, so if you take some reasonable precautions they will bother somebody else who didn't.

All that said, I do enjoy visiting Yakima occaionally and have never had any problems.

[sweetsommertime]

For rentals: Yakima Homes and Real Estate for Sale & Rent and Yakima Herald-Republic Online - Yakima, Washington News, Classifieds, Information, Advertising. Also, there's some property management places that have online pictures of rentals. They would be homesource, daybreak and Graf Investments of Selah, WA. I would google them and you'll get their websites.

Yakima is actually a great place to live. All the crime, literally, comes from a 10 block radius on the east side. Yakima is such a large area and incorporates such a large area; it shouldn't be stereotyped from such a small area. IMO, Yakima is beautiful. If you drive up to Look-Out point (on the surrouding hillside) to get a view of the valley, it's gorgeous! Also, Wenatchee National Forest is a hop away. There's so many walking and hiking trails in town and just outside of town as well.

It is a very safe place to live; conservative, family oriented and has a lot of large companies to work for. Some of the greatest developments in R&D and agriculture come from this area. If possible, I would get on at Memorial Hospital, it's one of the best places to work. You can find a job here if you know where to look. Check the Yakima County website, the City of Yakima website, Yakima Memorial website, Yakima Regional website as well as Yakima Herald-Republic Online - Yakima, Washington News, Classifieds, Information, Advertising. I'm sure you'll find something.

Hope this helps.

Oh ya, just to mention, the economy here is strong and the population is growing. When everyone else is having a housing crisis, Yakima is making record real estate marks!