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It depends on how close you'd like to be to the water. We used to live in Denver, then Glenwood Springs. We loved FoCo and cities that size (lived near Asheville, NC for a long time- which I loved and may be of interest to you, if you opened your search to the east coast). Anyway we loved CO but wanted to be away from the Front Range. Grand Junction never did it for us, so our list of possible destinations in the west included Flagstaff, Santa Fe, Missoula, Bend, Bozeman, Corvallis, Eugene, Olympia, and Bellingham.
If you're looking for more temperate conditions closer to water, it narrows down the selection of the cities I listed to Corvallis, Eugene, Olympia, and Bellingham. Of those, Olympia and Bham are actually on the water (Puget Sound/Salish Sea), and between those we felt like Olympia is too close to Seattle's metro and traffic. We chose Bellingham with mountains and sea in the same place, and we love it. When the border opens, we're the next train stop from Vancouver, BC (50 miles). And we're alway 1.5 hours from Seattle (traffic pending).
The local natives hate when I post this kind of stuff because we've been off the radar until recently (and they somewhat understandably dislike growth, though you'll find this sentiment anywhere people are flocking, same as CO), but we chose Bham and it was exactly what we wanted. Anyway, any of the places people here have been discussing are worth investigating, just keep in mind that they are popular and pricey- and with COVID, many remote workers are looking for cities with the same criteria, so there's more competition than ever!
Thanks!
That's pretty helpful.
Honestly, I do want to be close to water, but am also wary of things like high cost of living, state income tax, etc. I don't think I can do California. That leaves Oregon and WA state. Oregon seems to have a fairly high state income tax... AND a decently high property tax. Sure, they have no sales tax, though... but that'd be a worse situation for me then the reverse.
I have not looked in Bellingham much. Will do. Tax items aside, though, I think I'd probably prefer the Oregon cities. We would be coming from central Texas, and while we definitely want to get away from the heat, not sure i want to go straight to as far north as possible!
I have not looked in Bellingham much. Will do. Tax items aside, though, I think I'd probably prefer the Oregon cities. We would be coming from central Texas, and while we definitely want to get away from the heat, not sure i want to go straight to as far north as possible!
Bellingham, being so far north, has long summer days and very short winter ones, coupled with heavy cloud cover. The lack of daylight in winter would be a big change.
Bellingham, being so far north, has long summer days and very short winter ones, coupled with heavy cloud cover. The lack of daylight in winter would be a big change.
True, but any of the cities in OR and WA are going to have substantially longer summer days and shorter winter days than the OP is used to in Central TX. And Bellingham actually gets significantly less rainfall than Olympia and any of the Willamette Valley cities, is much less susceptible to heat waves, and depending where you're located in town it's actually generally less socked in due to its location actually on the water (though the others are substantially closer to the actual Pacific Coast). And WA has no income tax, but the cost of housing is high due to demand and lack of inventory.
I mention these things because of a) the specific criteria mentioned by the OP- coastal location, mountains and sea access, lack of heat, taxes, etc. and b) a move to anywhere in the PacNW will be a big change, not just Bellingham- though it sounds like the concept of being in the very NW corner may sound a little extreme to them!
Thanks .. .we will just have to check it out and see how we like it!
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