Looking for best areas for seniors in TC (Seattle, Yakima: for sale, apartment complex)

[StealthRabbit]

I'm looking at moving some investment $ to the east side (Since I plan to retire that direction).

I'm looking for the best locations to buy / or build senior housing (TC and other eastern 'retirement' mecca's; cheaper to buy at the moment).

I like to be near; (walking distance preferred)

• a senior center,
• a bus line (if available)
• medical
• shopping
• college
• library
• park or area to walk

In a quiet area vs. one bulging w/ kids and commerce

my tastes=

• single level apartments preferred?
• towns with lower / reasonable property taxes and assessments (That would NOT be mine... 2x high on assessments)
• within 1 hr of international airport (not a biggie for investment props, except for my own home)

[M3 Mitch]

Your question is not extremely clear to me, but, offhand, parts of Richland would work for you. I'm going to talk mainly about Richland because I know it better, and it's the least "busy" of the 3 cities, IMHO.

The Tri-City airport is not "international" really, but Delta does fly regional jets and at least one of those "baby 737" planes in several times a day, these go to Salt Lake, from there you can go about anywhere. You can get to Seattle on Horizon pretty quick too. This is in Pasco, but you can take a cab there for about $20 from Richland, if you don't want to drive yourself.

Ben Franklin buses run around all 3 of the Tri Cities, the service is fine but not real frequent, usually you get no more than 2 buses per hour going to a given stop. That said, it's cheap and the buses are clean, no riff-raff.

The Tri-City area is not a medical Mecca. Yakima would work better for you in that respect.

There is a branch campus of WSU in north Richland. There is Columia Basin College near the airport in Pasco.

Several parks in Richland, some bike trails.

The older parts of Richland tend to be a more mature crowd, not so many families with small kids.

[StealthRabbit]

Thx, I aim to buy an apartment complex that is suitable to seniors and EZ to keep full.

I will look into your suggestions and will be coming east for a scouting trip in Feb if not sooner. I like to buy between Jan 1 and April 30. (folks are more willing to deal to get 'tax-money')

[M3 Mitch]

OK, I would say you ought to at least look at the block between George Washington Way and Jadwin, just north of Van Giesen. I don't know if any of these apt. buildings are actively for sale, but, I guess everything is for sale at some price. The old part of Richland has a lot of duplex houses, I don't know if that would interest you, some are better than others - I do know that one is for sale on Van Giesen.

The downtown Kennewick area might be worth a look too - the older part of town. That said, I know Richland better than Kennewick, and don't know Richland all that well...

DM me when you head this way if you want, we could have a cup of Joe and talk VWs anyway.

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

Thx, I aim to buy an apartment complex that is suitable to seniors and EZ to keep full.

I will look into your suggestions and will be coming east for a scouting trip in Feb if not sooner. I like to buy between Jan 1 and April 30. (folks are more willing to deal to get 'tax-money')

It's hard to address everything you asked about, but let's focus on one part: medical. There's a significant medical concentration in east Kennewick near KGH, which is down the hill from where I live. That would be the Washington St. area, not far from downtown Kennewick which Mitch was describing. The other significant concentration of medical services (chemo and dialysis, for example) is on the west side of Kennewick just south of the mall. In Richland, the main medical concentration is near Kadlec/along Jadwin, kind of in the midst of town and a few blocks west of G Way, the city's main drag. So if proximity to varied medical services is a factor, one of those three areas is most promising.

I can also address libraries. There's a branch library in east Kennewick fairly near the hospital. The main MCL branch is just about equidistant from both sides of town, in the middle and to the south. While it is not near other things that would be priorities, it is the area with the most growth potential in Kennewick. Local growth here in Kennewick is mainly aimed south in the US 395 area, to which the MCL is very convenient.

Like Mitch, I'd be glad to show you around a bit.

[StealthRabbit]

Thanks for all your help and info, I will get a map and grid out those areas.

I have not spent anymore time than passing through on 395, so may be asking rudimentary questions on certain areas, but I appreciate your understanding through this forum structure. (and no 'flaming' !, yet...)

I have found some decent apartment bargains, but until one 'sees' with his own eyes, the reality is masked. (like forums )

BTW, how would Walla Walla compare in senior clientele?

I think either area would work. I have found vibrant senior populations around National Labs, and universities. They may not be my likely renters, but they attract a good active, healthy, and engaged senior culture. I would eventually like to bring 'senior co-op housing' to the PNW, as it has attractive ownership options to the residents. It helps communities avoid 'sprawl', and is good for the city infrastructure and commerce base.

[j_k_k]

Frankly, I think you're on the right track. This area has two nearly untapped areas of long-term potential: a four-year university (not merely a branch campus held on a tight tether and located about as far from everything in the Dry Cities as it is possible to be) and a retirement mecca.

The reason it is ripe for a four-year public university is that admissions are getting tighter all over the state, it has a population now over 200,000 (rare for an area of this size not to have its own school), it would produce a more stable long-term educated primary employment base than Hanford, it would bring local collegiate sports to the area, the school systems are relatively good, and we are two hours at least from other options. Unless they come back to feed at the Hanford trough or get on with PNNL, the brighter locals shake the dust from their feet at 18 and they don't come back. Land is available because this is a desert. Want 300 acres to build a university? Sure we can't interest you in 600? Southern Washington University. It fits. It would fit even better if an out-of-state tuition exception were made for residents of eastern Oregon.

It is ripe to be a retirement mecca because it already has:

• Low crime
• Three hospitals
• Bus system
• Inexpensive housing
• Generally quiet, slow-paced way of life
• Lots of flat topography
• Ice and snow are uncommon
• Lots of sunshine
• What has to be the world's biggest fricking horseshoe pits
• Access to low-end and middle-end shopping
• Conservative, somewhat churchy culture
• Continuing education, community and community college
• A number of retirement living communities already
• More golf courses, and better, than you'd imagine
• A fair bit of hobby/crafty stuff
• Spacious parking
• Population tolerant of oblivious and slow-moving people, because they are that themselves already
• Overbuilt rentals
• Lots of parks, with a mix of developed and serene areas

In short, the TC would be a good retirement area because its general majority culture already behaves like elderly people--with all the positives and negatives that tends to bring. What it needs to be a better retirement mecca:

• More GPs and geriatric specialists; we have a bit of a doctor shortage here
• More local stuff in residential areas. (If I want to go have a beer, and would rather not drive, I have about a mile to walk there and back. And that's to a crappy bowling alley.) A lot of people here live a relatively long way from anything interesting to do.
• Develop Finley and Burbank, as plenty of elderly people would like small-town living and land isn't expensive.

We'd probably have trouble passing school levies, but in my view they have had a virtual rubber stamp for too long and have exploited it and misused it anyway.

[j_k_k]

Oh, and WW. Wally is much smaller, the main employment is in education and the pokey, quainter, more historical (you probably know that at one time WW was a contender for most important city in the state, before Seattle really took off), and scaled down. Walla Walla is kind of like an oversized Prosser with higher education and a big jail. And that's not a putdown. If I had to live in any town in the Valley it would definitely be Prosser. My point is that WW resembles Prosser more than it resembles Richland, Kennewick or Pasco. And like Prosser, for a lot of needs people have to go to Tri-Cities.

[socadje]

Great info here...you mentioned the area is dessert, but with the rivers there seems water is abundant. Is there a problem with water available there?
Here in calif. with drought going on rates have gone up and they're practically spying on us for usage. I can see that will be a problem here that will only get worse....and we were a dessert also.

What is the outlook there?
thanks

[Bellen]

Sun Willows is by the Pasco airport and is pretty much a retirment community, there is property near there that is across from CBC that I believe is for sale from the county. There is a senior center 5 minutes away by the Franklin County courthouse, medical is pretty far away though. I can attest that there are very few kids in the community, but traffic is somewhat bad from CBC. However, many of the seniors in the Sun Willows community take advantage of the services at CBC. They benefit from discounted membership to the gym there and many of them are there in the morning. Just an idea