Retiring in Southern Washington?

[Khuselid]

Thanks all. The maps are super helpful! I guess we are fortunate that the market is starting to soften. We aren't some of those who sold a house for millions and are coming to undercut others. We are retiring and hoping to find a nice home and become part of the community.

Will definitely give all of these areas a look-see. Hope to get to Camas when we are there over the holidays. Also thinking renting will make sense for awhile.

Kind regards, Kim

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Lots of info! Thank you (on behalf of anyone interested in the area). But could you tell us, if the summers are really as cool, relatively, as the climate charts indicate? Is the summer weather in the 70's much of the time, with some periods in the low-to-mid 80's? No 90's, except just now and then? Or have there been long hot spells, in the last couple of years?

NO, not here (SWWA / Clark County centric)!!!

Check the daily historical temp charts! (not 'averages')
https://projects.oregonlive.com/weather/temps/
https://www.timeanddate.com/weather/...ouver/historic


It is plenty HOT in SWWA, like OVER 100F a few times /yr and a lot of days with highs over 90F, nothing like my TX location, and PNW cool evenings are a plus. I have never had a car or a house with AC. (basements help!, whole house fans are very effective in PNW cool nights). 1.2 hrs to OR coast helps too (where it may be foggy and cool on days that are over 100F days inland.

for cool summers... BC Canada, Coastal, AK, and northern mtns of ID and MT

[NW4me]

Originally Posted by StealthRabbit

for cool summers... BC Canada, Coastal, AK, and northern mtns of ID and MT

Also Port Townsend / Sequim / Port Angeles, as well as coastal Humboldt County CA.

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by NW4me

Also Port Townsend / Sequim / Port Angeles, as well as coastal Humboldt County CA.

I think its almost the entire west coast from central CA north in the summer months. Here in Monterey we have cool summers. Average temp in the ~60s with cool fog for part of that time, same with SF, etc... When we went to the Big Island this past summer and it was in the 90s with VOG we couldn't wait to get back to Monterey.




Derek

[silibran]

Originally Posted by texasdiver

The most "Portlandish" neighborhood in Vancouver is probably the Uptown neighborhood which is along Main street just north of downtown Vancouver. It's where you'll find the most breweries, food truck pods, restaurants and amenities most like the typical east side Portland neighborhood: Here's the google street view: https://www.google.com/maps/@45.6388...7i13312!8i6656

We have friends who live down there a block or two off main in an old historic bungalow much like you find in Portland and they love it. Houses down there go for serious coin because it is the most Portland-feeling neighborhood in Vancouver. You are a couple of years too late if you want to get into this area cheap:

https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal...89508810_zpid/
https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sal.../23232893_zpid

We have been in Uptown once, and forcsome reason, we never made it back. You are right. I liked that neighborhood.

[Searching-01]

Originally Posted by Jane917

I read an article this morning on the worst states to retire to. Oregon was on the list. Conversely, Washington is one of the best states to retire to. I am sure the reasons have to do with the tax structure. We moved to Ridgefield, WA almost 4 years ago to be closer to the kids and grandkids in Portland. Ridgefield has been good to us, but is exploding in population. We don’t mind the drive, about 20 minutes, to the grocery store, movie theater, various restaurants. Within a year all this will be closer, as 2 fairly large strip malls are building closer to us. If we could have found the right house for us in Camas, we probably would have settled there. Depending on the time of day, downtown Portland is less than 30 minutes away. PDX is about 25 minutes away. Because we are retired, we can be flexible about what time we chose to be on the roads. Good luck on your search.

That's interesting, how would you compare Ridgefield to Camas?

TexasDiver's message above has me wanting to compare the two.

Both look far enough out of the hustle and bustle of downtown for me. (I prefer a range of suburban to non-agricultural rural to live in, if I can't have ocean, lake or something like intracoastal in Fla. I'm essentially tropical in spirit, but not wealthy enough to live in Hawaii, LOL!)

So, I'm very interested in your comparison.

The Vancouver-Portland area seems to provide most of the amenities anyone could want. But staying out of the way of "urban" would be the goal for me.

I do like the "California style McMansion" type of homes... to be sure, but they always seem to be on lots that are about 12" a side bigger than the house, LOL! Never have liked that.

For me, having the Ca style house, on the farm sized lot... but near "civilization" in an area without high crime is the holly grail.

Not hard to do... if you are rich... buy a lot of ground in SoCal or Hawaii and have the home you want built... But... I'm not in that demographic... I'm in the "champagne taste, beer budget, working class" demographic, LOL!

Just from Youtube vids, looks like Camas has more of the classic PNW trees and mountains sort of view, and Ridgefield looks flatter and more like prarie, or do am I misled?

What difference between OR and WA did you find regarding retirement?

Oh, and where are those strip malls going in?

I'm using google maps, census data, and youtube to try to scout locations.... but census data is 10 years old now, and google maps is never 100% current... and youtube suffers from folks framing things to make something look however they want... movie makers can be like that.

[182pilot]

If you are looking for a large house on a large lot, you can find some nice things in Ridgefield but the prices will be high. If you don't care about schools, you'll find some amazing houses in Battle Ground. That will also keep you away from the dense suburban growth going on in Ridgefield.

[Jane917]

You will find prices high in Ridgefield for what you are looking for. The house that texasdiver posted in another thread is very similar to the houses going up in Ridgefield. There seem to be several townhomes available at lower prices. Newer homes in Ridgefield are not known for large lots. When we bought our Ridgefield home we thought we were buying a postage stamp lot, but 4 years later it is seemingly too big to keep up to the standard we want. We are in the process of enlarging patio and decreasing grass in the backyard. I imagine much is the same with newer homes in Camas. If you want a larger home on a larger lot in Clark County, I would think you would be looking at least in the 800K range, though less if you found a tear down home to start over. If you go further north into Kalama/Longview/Kelso/Castle Rock you can find larger lots and houses for less money. If you don't have to commute to work you might find those areas suitable.

Soon Ridgefield will even have a major grocery store (Rosauer's) and some strip mall services at the 45th St Roundabout. We have lovely limited local services downtown, but most services (medical/food/restaurants/etc is 15 minutes away in Salmon Creek. Downtown Vancouver isn't really far and is easily accessible from Ridgefield via I5 or backroads.

Ridgefield is suffering a bit from rapid population growth, crowded schools, etc. I keep the faith that things will slow down and even out soon. We still find Ridgefield a pleasant quiet place to live, at least in our little corner. People seem to keep buying all the new homes, so a lot of people are still seeing good reasons to move here.

The truth is that we chose the home, not the city. We love Camas, but the right home was just not available to us when we needed it, and we did not have a lot of time to wait. The kids and grandkids all live in N Portland or SW Portland, so I5 is actually an easier route for us than 205 for our Portland visits. Getting on 205 is very easy from here when we need to go in that direction. Jane

[StealthRabbit]

Hawaii can be affordable (SWWA is not gonna check your 'tropical' box.)

I prefer the varied terrain of Hockinson / Camas / Washougal (and not having to pass through 'suburbia' on my way to recreation)

Plenty of homes to your taste in all rural regions.
Focus on a few areas and do some digging (I never buy a home that is already listed "for sale", I prefer to dig up my own treasures. And to buy without the hassle of agents.)

County GIS sites have all the info you need to contact owners. (and also have tax data, but be careful if property is under a senior or disabled person exemption. )