Long Beach Area (Ocean Shores, Westport, Grayland: real estate, mortgage, house)

[caltoad]

Hello, I am just retired and am looking into maybe the long beach area. I currently live in Santa Cruz, California. I dont particularly want to leave here but the cost of living here is horrendous and with the majority of my pension going to mortgage payments is now making me consider if i may have a better quality and more freedom to enjoy whats left of my life by leaving. But I do cherish the ocean and have been here over 30 years and it looks without actually knowing that there may be sort of a likeness to that area.any input would be greatly appreciated because if i do leave here for anywhere theres no coming back with real estate averages here over 800k,,thanks,,susan

[scirocco22]

Hi susan. I haven't been to either Santa Cruz or Long Beach for quite some time but I can almost be certain that Long Beach WA has no resemblance to Santa Cruz other than being on the ocean.

From what I remember of Santa Cruz, it's highly developed, rather upscale, almost a congested feeling and presents itself almost as a big city. Long Beach WA, on the other hand, is still pretty rural in comparison. Remember, Long Beach has only a couple of thousand population where Santa Cruz, I'm assuming, could be getting close to 100k?

If you're looking for a simpler lifestyle possibly without the amenities you're used to, Long Beach may be a place to look further.

Hopefully others who are more familiar with each place will chime in.

Thanks for dropping by.

[caltoad]

hi scirocco22 ,thanks for your reply,,actually santa cruz has only about 42,000 people and it looks like that long beach peninsula has about half that. our population density is allmost four times that up there, and the average house hold age is 36 here vs 55 there , but we are a college town so the herd of teenagers up there affects us. we average 2.5 people per household vs 2.1 up there. the weather just about equals except a bit cooler ,but just checked web cams and both sc and lb are the exact temp right now...mostly concerned about the issue that are the californians that have moved up there happy they moved or would they not have done it looking back now,,,sk

[delin]

Hi. My husband and I (recently retired) are also looking at Long Beach, after we fell in love with Astoria, OR but saw how high property taxes are there. We are currently in Eureka. We liked the look and feel of the Long Beach peninsula, especially up toward Oysterville, but are going to investigate a little further north first. We were thinking Ocean Shores, but read some stuff about how dirty the beaches are there, so are looking in Westport, Grayland, those areas. Check out postings by bmsea. Best of luck to you!