Want to Move to Washington but I don't know where to move (Seattle: bankrupt, university)

[huruta]

Consider looking at Bellingham, Olympia, Vancouver and even the Wenatchee area. Bellingham is a university town N of Seattle but out of the sprawl. It's in a beautiful setting and about an hour from Canada. Olympia is far enough away from Seattle (though now still part of the sprawl; about 1 1/4 hours from downtown Seattle). It's also very scenic & slower paced. Wenatchee on the Eastside of the mountains if 2 3/4 hours from Seattle. It's smaller at around 100k pop total for the area but boasts a high quality of life and a lot of compute outsourcing from the puget sound area ends up here. Vancouver is really part of the Portland area in my opinion. Don't know much about it other than decent location & size.

[Sean_Harrington]

Originally Posted by elliefrechette

Never ever move to Aberdeen. Montesano is alright if you like the real small town feel but Aberdeen, no matter how hard they try to spruce it up, is rundown and in no hopes of actually getting better. The people are not down-to-earth and you will either have people who think they are better than everyone else or the drug users.

I assume you want to live in Western Washington as eastern Washington is all deserty and farmlands. I would suggest Silverdale or Port Orchard. If you can, Bainbridge Island is beautiful and just a ferry ride over to Seattle.

Well, I did it, bought a house in Aberdeen! It's a 1920's 4 bedroom, with fireplace and lots of original detail in the Broadway Hill area for 150k. The neighborhood is very nice, older homes, trees, green grass. I can walk to the bank, nice coffee place, etc. The ocean is 20 minutes away!

While attempting to buy a house, there were several that went to multiple bids, and I lost out! I was thinking of getting a place somewhere up Wishkah, but there was nothing available in my range.

(the rain is NOT constant. it drizzles heavily in the Winter, with occasional sunny days, the Summers ARE heavenly perfect and mostly dry and sunny.)

[Kathleenh54]

[mod cut]

Chocobot, do you know much about the San Juan Islands? I read they are less rainy than the Seattle area. If you were thinking about living there, where would you look? Thanks for letting me pick your brains.

[deang]

San Juans- I used to work for the Washington State Ferry system...be prepared to learn the very convulated ferry schedule. Once you got to the areas there were beautiful small towns but the getting there was the hard part though I imagine one would get used to it after awhile.

Aberdeen-are you kidding me? [mod cut] Downtown has some quaint shops and some great shady places that probably violate many a fire code. In the hill area its nice but it's not heavenly in the summer as Sean says. It was an unusual summer this year. You get some good days, you get some bad days. Don't give me crap that I haven't lived there in awhile. A lot of my family does and I have to go back and visit often. I'm very up with the weather in the summer because I prefer to ride my motorcycle then. [mod cut] There will be times when it's great in Olympia and raining in Aberdeen.
The place is far from an economic juggernaut and not some vacation paradise. They've painted some buildings downtown and completed some ill-conceived sidewalk expansion project. Why would you spend money on improved sidewalks without improved downtown attractions? There are old buildings with charm there but most need some sort of improvement and renovation done. There's one decent place to stay if you're visiting which is about 2 blocks from the Wal-Mart(can anyone say "location, location, location"? The Red Lion, Olympic Inn are truck stop quality and the others well I'm not sure they are into the "book by the hour" stage quite yet. If you have children consider taking a secong-look at the weather. I absolutely hated it. I always wanted to go outside and it was constantly raining for 8mo of the year. Fishing is ok depending on where you go and how many people are there. My uncle is an avid fisherman and has stopped going to certain spots because of the influx of people. Who wants to stand 3 feet from someone while they are trying to "get in touch with nature". Kind of blows the whole idea.
The views from Ryan and Sean are very limited. It's from the top. The majority of Aberdeen is far from the "Bob Newhart, New England bed and breakfast" . It's a small town with some big problems (drugs, low-graduation rate, high suicide and alcoholism rates, limited economic opportunity, etc...) It can be nice in spots but there are better choices out there. Aberdeen has limited charms but can be good for the right person...it's not some recently discovered paradise. I'd only consider it because it was cheap but it's cheap for a reason.

[klpeake]

Originally Posted by Ryan

Aberdeen, WA is 45 min. from Olympia and is the business hub of the WA coast. Nicer homes start at $135k.

Lots of people from Seattle and CA cashing out and moving to Aberdeen

But, what happens to Aberdeen if the Cascadia Subduction Zone blows? Tsunami that wipes out that whole bay?

[diggitydot]

Originally Posted by klpeake

But, what happens to Aberdeen if the Cascadia Subduction Zone blows? Tsunami that wipes out that whole bay?

There are natural disaster possibilities everywhere you look. Whether it's yearly hurricane or tornado seasons, flooding, blizzards, droughts, or an occasional volcanic eruption. It happens. But I'd rather deal with a volcanic eruption every couple hundred years instead of annual "seasons" of disasters.

The likelihood of a major eruption in the area is a distinct possibility, but you have to remember that a million years is a blink, geologically speaking. The last major issue along Cascadia was back in 1980 when Mt. St. Helens blew her top. I wouldn't consider 27 years as being a significant gap in time to allow for sufficient build up of the forces involved to have a reasonable daily fear.

But that's just me. Maybe I like living dangerously or something.

[chocobot18]

Originally Posted by Kathleenh54

[mod cut]

Chocobot, do you know much about the San Juan Islands? I read they are less rainy than the Seattle area. If you were thinking about living there, where would you look? Thanks for letting me pick your brains.

I don't know a ton about the San Juans. Sorry

[rima007]

Check out Olympia. You'll be about 30min from Tacoma or downtown olympia if you live in the country. I live in Beachcrest a neighborhood that feels country but your only 10min away from all the popular food chains.

[homework]

Thanks to you, I'm now thinking Aberdeen for retirement - few questions, though, which hills (neighborhoods) are best for a single woman and her dog? and how is the resale value in the Aberdeen area?

[shadow42]

Chocobot, do you have any comments on Maple Valley? It seems more affordable than, say Issaquah, but has some good schools there. Any comments would be helpful. Thanks.