Aberdeen or Hoquiam for Retirement? (Seattle, Vancouver: real estate, trip , rental)

[DennisL]

I retired and moved from the San Francisco Bay area to Pahrump, Nevada (75 minutes NW of Las Vegas) eight months ago. I hate Pahrump and want to move to a cooler, less crowded, and less busy area. I was born in Seattle, still have many relatives there, and like the Pacific Northwest, but realize that the greater Puget Sound area is way out of my price range.

I'm looking for a city in the 10 - 20K population range that offers affordable housing and peace and quiet. Even an age 55 and up mobile/manufactured home park would be all right.

A couple of my relatives in the Seattle area told me to take a look at the Aberdeen and Hoquiam areas. I know that it rains a lot there, which is OK, so you don't have to mention that.

Any other input from you folks?

Thanks.

[KidBlue]

You might want to check over some of the e-mails from Ryan. He's become an expert on Aberdeen and the Grays Harbor area. He has provided lots of great information.

[geon]

I would check out Montesano, WA, between Olympia and Hoquiam. It's a bit small, but it's only 25 min. away from Olympia and Aberdeen/Hoquiam and much nicer, imo. It's peace & quiet too. Very nice.

[chris]

you've found the right area. Anywhere between Hoquiam and Shelton area areas you want to look at.

Hoquiam though, do your research. You get what you pay for.

[rdukes412]

Just curious how the rental market is in Aberdeen or Montesano? We would be looking to rent a 4 bd house before we decided where exactly to buy a house. How much would we be looking at? Compared to here in So Cal, it has to be better!!! Is there any particular website that is good to find rentals? I've found some for another area in WA we were looking at on their local newspaper's website but I can't seem to find anything for Aberdeen. Thanks!!!

[geon]

The main local newspaper in Grays Harbor is Thedailyworld.com good luck with it.

[DennisL]

To all who have replied so far, thank you. I'll keep watching this thread for input from others. Using the search function available on these boards, I pulled up and read all of Ryan's posts, as KidBlue suggested. Ryan is indeed very upbeat about Aberdeen. Most of what I have found about Aberdeen on these boards is positive, so I am thinking about a trip up there in the very near future to look around and see for myself.

[KidBlue]

I've been doing lots of research on WA (still deciding between Montesano/Elma and Rainier/Tenino areas). I'm not sure where you are in SoCal (I grew up in Temple City), but your property values are probably more similar to our's in western El Dorado Co that in WA except for Seattle.

I've found that Ryan was correct and property is more affordable in Aberdeen (around $200K or less) and seems to go up the closer you get to Olympia. The Vancouver area is higher (around $300-$400 K) and gets more expensive the closer to you get to Portland and downtown Vancouver. Rainier/Tenino/Yelm/Eastonville, etc. are more than the Aberdeen area (around $250-$350K), but way less than you are probably used to. It's bad when you call the listing real estate agent to verify that the lot down the street (no home, just dirt) is advertised for $450K and learn that it is correct!!!!

One of the people on this site (sorry, can't remember her name right now) suggested the Web site: www.realtor.com. It's been a great tool and I noticed that they also have a tab for rentals.

Good luck. I'll be up in WA the second week of August. Finally get to see how wonderful it is first hand.

[Ryan]

Hi Dennis. Let me know if you need any more info.

Kid, let me know if I can help you out with anything when you get here.

[geon]

My wife & I have been looking for a new house for about a year now, we prefer johnlscott.com. I don't believe they have a rental sect. though.