SoCal vs Bellingham (Ferndale: rent, house, buying)

[ceddie80]

Hi there, sorry I posted this in one of the ongoing thread but think it's better to start a new one... same message below:

Has any one lived in southern california (more specifically San Diego) in the past and currently in Bellingham? If so, how does living in Bellingham compare to socal? Was sunshine ever a factor? Got job offers in both San Diego and Bellingham, need to make decision real soon... love both places for different reasons, but SD is SSOOO expensive - the so called "sunshine tax" is SOOO expensive. Thanks for the input in advance

[Rickers]

If it were my choice and had to pick between those two, I would choose Bellingham, I grew up in San Diego too. I have strong opinions on both those places and they are not entirely good but I'll keep them to myself for now.

[ceddie80]

Can I PM you?

[BacktoBlue]

SD is awesome, born and raised. feel free to PM me if you want to know more

[koor]

I grew up in So Cal, moved to Bellingham 15 years ago to raise the kids in a better environment. We live just N of B'ham in Ferndale, great place but the weather here sucks. I'm so tired of the cold, rainy days. The summer here is beautiful but it does not get very hot and they are short. You will find a wide variety of people here, hippies all the way to redneck good ole boys. Personally I've had enough of the weather, time to move on to warmer climates. I'll miss Whatcom county and the great people here but I gotta go.

[Lamplight]

Originally Posted by koor

I grew up in So Cal, moved to Bellingham 15 years ago to raise the kids in a better environment. We live just N of B'ham in Ferndale, great place but the weather here sucks. I'm so tired of the cold, rainy days. The summer here is beautiful but it does not get very hot and they are short. You will find a wide variety of people here, hippies all the way to redneck good ole boys. Personally I've had enough of the weather, time to move on to warmer climates. I'll miss Whatcom county and the great people here but I gotta go.

I've actually been toying with the idea of moving to Bellingham because of the weather. We have hot, miserably humid summers that last 7-8 months and it seems like it's almost always sunny here, and I'm sick of it. And the sun is incredibly hot, even in winter. It's gotten so that I'm almost constantly trying to avoid the sun, and whenever there's a rare cloudy day it's a huge relief. My favorite weather is a cloudy day with perhaps a light drizzle, with temperatures not topping 55ish. So from what I've read (and experienced when I visited), I'm thinking/hoping it would be a good town for me.

[koor]

Well you'll find exactly what your looking for in B'ham. The sunshine is limited, a lot of overcast days. Some people love it and others tolerate it. There is definitely plenty of cloudy days with drizzle. They don't call it the Evergreen State for nothing! Keep in mind that the west coast is very overpriced when it comes to housing. Even after the housing bubble popped things stayed pretty expensive in Whatcom County.

[Lamplight]

Yeah that's what I keep reading. I own a house currently and it's paid for, but I'll probably rent when I move, at least for a while. I wouldn't mind buying a small fixer-upper there eventually, but I'd like to get settled first before attempting that.

[mizzile]

Bellingham is EXTREMELY overpriced and the weather is very bad. The traffic is miserable every single day of the week. I suppose if you honestly like rain and clouds and cold, you might like it, but be prepared for a busy place with tons of traffic and tons of Generica-type places. The Canadian invasion every weekend is frustrating - the drivers are bad and they clean the shelves off of pretty much everything.

It's tucked WAY out of the way from the rest of the country and travel to and from is inconvenient.

Still, when the sun is out (one month out of the year, maybe?) there's little that Bellingham doesn't have besides access to places without a ton of people.

Personally I feel that Bellingham had LOTS of potential but overpopulation and development have squandered it completely.

[Lamplight]

Traffic didn't seem too bad when I was there. Maybe it's worse in my current town than I realized? As far as the sheer number of people, it struck me as just a smaller version of my town (which it kind of is), except here EVERYONE is in a car, whereas in Bellingham I was amazed at how many people were walking or on bicycles. But I didn't drive when I was there, so perhaps the traffic seemed different to me being on foot instead of in a car in the middle of it.