Olympia, Thurston County - Advice Urgently Needed (Seattle, Aberdeen: real estate, crime)

[aliteratebabe]

As an expatriate Northeasterner, who has been residing in Orange County, CA for the last 5 years, I am ready to call it quits in superficial, pretentious, crowded and overpriced SoCal.

A friend in the Northwest suggested I fly up to look at the Summit Lake area of Thurston County, outside of Olympia. She claims that it would be a good investment ("land is running out up here too"), and that I would find the culture there a welcome antidote to SoCal.

If anyone could provide me with insight into this area I would be very much obliged. I am particularly interested in the quality of life (I am a 48 year old divorced woman with grown children living back East), ease of assimilation, local job market, convenience of location and real estate appreciation.

Thanks in advance for your valued help!

[Mark S.]

The Summit Lake area outside of Olympia is absolutely gorgeous. Really stunning.

It's very pricey, though compared to Orange County it might be very affordable.

Crime is also higher than I'd like, but again, probably nothing compared to So. Cal.

If you want a bit cheaper real estate, you might check farther out on the peninsula. More affordable, but maybe not as good investment-wise.

[Ryan]

This is to elaborate on what Mark mentioned about "further out on the peninsula". BTW, I'm also an expatriate northeasterner (E. Dennis, MA) who moved to NorCal when I was younger and have now settled here in W. WA. I've said it before, but If I was looking at buying a place to live and invest in, I'd look at settling down in or around Aberdeen. As mentioned before, it's further out on the peninsula and much less expensive. I always jokingly describe it to my family back east as "the poor man's Cape Cod" . They have very similar atmospheres, minus the money and retirees on the Cape. (Some of this is from another post I wrote) Aberdeen is still the best value in W. WA. It's less than 45 min. from Olympia and is the business hub of the WA coast. Nicer homes start at $135k. The huge homes, mansions and estates start at $250. The homes are appreciating at 20% and have the most room for continued growth as well; most of the rest of WA is considered overpriced. Half the homes here are in the hills and have great views. It's just down the way from the state salmon hatchery, so fishing is the best. It's bordered by a bunch of state forests, wildlife preserves, recreation areas, the Oympic Nat. Forest is just north and the beach is a 20 min. drive. There's lots of outdoor recreational activities. Best seafood in WA. Quiet and charming; very suburban country. Lots of parks and shopping (a mall and a few large shopping centers), but also small country town feel. Has a nice little old town area, a community college, a large hospital, a good abount of other businesses and more moving in every day. Schools are average, but improving. 3/4 blue collar population, very down to earth and friendly people. Summer runs from Apr. to Nov. and it's winter the rest of the time. About 12" of snow total this last winter. Very long summer, and long winter; nothing in between. (and we do get quite a bit of rain during the winter). The summers are the best. We get a ocean breeze because we're on the coast and lots of sun. The temp. usually stays around 80 and never gets over 85 (that's hot for here). Each month I've been here, the city's gotten nicer and nicer. It's feeling more and more like Monterey/Carmel. Lots of folks from the Seattle cashing out and have been moving and investing in Aberdeen as of late. Another nice city in this area but 10 miles closer to Olympia is Montesano. Less features than Aberdeen and quite a bit more expensive, but nicer overall community (still can't beat the Aberdeen Hills IMO). Shelton is similar to Aberdeen but it's only 15 miles out of Olympia and the homes are slightly more expensive. The pictures they have posted on the Aberdeen City-Data page are probably the worst pictures anybody could have taken, but I've sent some good ones in and they should be up soon. We've got over a year in up here, and everybody we've met have "adopted" us in. It's a small town so you run into people repeatedly and develop familiarity quick around here. It's really nice compared to the fake SoCal social climate. Most of the people you run into up here are genuine and friendly. "Down home" is a description that comes to mind. The homes in the city part of Aberdeen and on the hill have lots usually falling between 1/3 acre and 1.5 acres. Montesano and Shelton generally have larger inner city lots (up to 5 acres), but the cities themself are also inherently more rural. We live on a hill very conveniently between the inner an outer city limits on a large managable parcel. If you like the country living more than the suburban living, there is an area between Monte and Aberdeen called Central Park and another between Montesano and Olympia named Elma (a lot of the rich folks in this area live on giant parcels on the skirts of Elma (Satsop etc.)). Lots of huge houses on huge parcels there, more so than Montesano or Aberdeen. Central Park is nice because it's close to shopping in Aberdeen, but also in the country. It's also a little more expensive and, in my opinion, has less character than Aberdeen itself. If I was building on acreage, I'd look into the Wishkah area of Aberdeen. The land is cheaper, gets more snow and has better fishing, hunting and privacy without being out in the total boondocks; it starts only about 5 miles north of central Aberdeen. The further out you go from Aberdeen in any direction (except west), the more snow you'll get. We just love it over here. So many different terrains, people and things to do crammed into this cool little area bearly anybody knows about. Can't beat it.