Questions about Ocean Shores, WA (Long Beach: to rent, insurance, houses)

[yobo2735]

I am looking to buy a home (in a couple of years) on the Washington Coast. I was looking at Ocean Shores and do not mind the busy summer of all the tourists and all.

I am in love with the idea of all the rain and high winds!! no problem there.

The thing that scares me most is the flooding and the thought of a lot of property damage. I do not want to buy a home where it floods all the time.

I know that in December 2007, Ocean Shores experienced a humongous storm surge and the only information and videos I could find was property right off the beach.

What I would like to know is if this occurs frequently?

Did anyone personally go thru that storm or anything like it?

Was there a lot of property damage?

How about living three-five blocks off the coast?

Thank you so much for any information that you could provide.

[Mopar440thunder]

Big storms like that dont occur very often. Just your normal winter rain and wind storms. I would suggest living a little further away from the coast, Just in case a tsunami decides to pay a visit

[yobo2735]

Could someone give me an estimate of what they pay for Flood Inurance in Ocean Shores?

I am looking at buying a small home (1000 sq ft) lets go with wood siding and wood roof.

I just want an idea (scared of a $5000 to $10,000 a year insurance).

If it is that high then.... I will not be able to afford it.

I have never bought flood insurance and am thinking that living anywhere in the State of Washington .. it would be a good idea to purchase.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

donna

[Fat Freddy]

We live in Ocean Shores.

Our house is four years old, two bedroom, single story, wood construction, appraised at about $150,000.

Homeowner's Insurance is about $300 a year.
Flood Insurance is about $300 a year.

We don't have Earthquake Insurance but it would be a good idea for this area.

[yobo2735]

For the wonderful answers. I really appreciate it.

[Old_Warhorse]

Ocean Shores is a great place to rent, but I would recommend that you avoid the south end of the peninsula along the harbor and North Jetty. That area regularly gets water up over the road in rainy years and floods into the houses every 7 to 10 years or so, whenever particularly rainy storms and very high tides coincide. The rest of the town doesn't have much in the way of flooding, even along the waterways and lake, thanks to spillways that control the level.

However: If you want to buy, I would very highly recommend that you consider buying in an unincorporated area of Grays Harbor County, as the city council of Ocean Shores is an unmitigated disaster and has been for longer than I've lived here (over 8 years). The city of Ocean Shores is currently well over $80 million in debt and skirts bankruptcy every fiscal year. This debt came about some years ago through mismanagement and corruption on the part of a former city manager and his cronies on the council and we've yet to elect a city council who can competently manage the city's budget and employees. I wish I had known things were this bad before I bought and I'm giving you the heads up so you can come in with your eyes open. Consider hitting the North Coast News and searching Ocean Shores city council and reading some of the old posts: [url=http://www.northcoastnews.com/]The newspaper of Ocean Shores and the North Beach :: The North Coast News[/url]

Edited to second FatFreddy's recommendation for earthquake insurance, which I also need to get. And even though you might not live in an area prone to flooding, Ocean Shores is a tsunami hazard zone and flood insurance is a really good idea (I made sure my flood policy would cover tsunami damage; it does).

[lady fern]

You might consider looking into Long Beach as well. I've only visited Washington's beaches so I am not intimately familiar with them as the other posters, but I have always preferred visiting Long Beach. The community seemed a little more quaint to me and it has nice sandy beaches (something that is hard to find in Washington).

[mjob]

I have heard that Ocean Shores is getting smaller because of the tide taking up more of the beach...Is there any truth to this? Thanks for the feed back if I get any!

[Fat Freddy]

Ocean Shores gets smaller on weekends when the sun shines.

But it's not caused by the tides.

It's because of the hordes of tourists.

[sean98125]

Ocean Shores is a geologically active area, as are all sand spits that are part of river deltas. It is also extremely vulnerable to tsunamis not only because 100% of the community is low enough to be inundated, but because there is natural bottleneck to get off the peninsula to high ground.

Great info from Gray's Harbor County Emergency Management about tsunami risk in Ocean Shores: http://www.co.grays-harbor.wa.us/inf...ceanShores.pdf

Good information about erosion and shoreline changes: Washington's Coast: Hazards - Erosion: Ocean Shores