Help us find a town that we'd love! (Seattle, Vancouver: rental, co-op)

[guavagirl]

Me, husband, and our toddler currently live in Oregon and we're looking to move somewhere new. Help us pick out a town that we'd love!


Here are some things we'd like:

- To be close to the ocean. Either a beach town or something no more than an hour a away. (we both grew up in beach towns, so they feel like home)

- Any areas that are warmer or less rainy?

- A cute walkable downtown.

- A college town would be nice.

- Other than that we're into art, saturday markets, natural food stores, coffee shops, camping, going to the beach, eating out (seafood, thai, indian, japanese, other ethnic foods), a good hospital with a nice birthing center in it, within a couple hours from the airport, good schools, maybe a montessori preschool.

- We have a 13 month old son, (and plan to have more), so anything good for kids.

- More liberal than conservative.

- Not a crazy amount of traffic.

- Dh is a Programmer/Analyst/IT guy....but possibly wanting to get into the Earth Science field. I am an artist.

- Decent home & rental prices.



I know there's no perfect place with all of our preferences, but I thought it would be helpful.


Thanks so much!

[StealthRabbit]

Probably best options for your requirements is to stay in OR (Eugene, Corvallis, Newport)

WA might work, but only Olympia, Bellingham, and Fairhaven. (all on inland waters, not really a 'beach').

Beach / we_side of Cascades = 200+ days / yr of rain. (Except for Olympic rain Shadow (Sequim, WA)), so MAYBE you can tolerate Port Angeles, but it may still be too 'Right'.

[guavagirl]

Well, that's kind of a bummer, but the fact that you said "eugene, corvallis, newport" tells me that you do know what I like. Those are the 3 towns on my "Oregon" list.

Still open to other comments though.

[Ira500]

How about Edmonds?
Not a college town, but artsy. On the water ( Puget Sound). Good schools. More liberal than conservative. Nice, walkable downtown. Home prices are a little high, rental prices are easier. Good restaurants. Natural food store. Farmers Market.

[Sobefobik]

Those are hard requirements to meet, and I can't really think of anything right on the ocean.

Closer to the beach: Olympia, Port Townsend, Port Angeles, Anacortes, Bellingham. Downtown Vancouver (everything else is sprawl), but it is more conservative than its neighbor, Portland.

Not so close: Ellensburg, Bend (OR), Hood River. I agree with some of the other towns mentioned, too.

[sean98125]

This is the Pacific Northwest, so out of "warmer", "less rainy", and "beach town" you may pick two out of three, but not all three. The coast range and the Olympics force the clouds to dump tons of rain on the coast. The ocean also moderates the temperature on the coast, so you rarely have really cold temperatures but then you rarely have temperatures higher than the mid 70's in the Summer. The inland areas like Puget Sound and the Willamette Valley are warmer and drier than the coast, but it isn't really the beach. There are some beach-like towns, though, if you can be happy with salt water without the pounding surf.

Mount Vernon isn't a bad area, and they have a really good organic co-op there. You're really close to Admiralty Inlet and the San Juans, as well as camping and hiking in the North Cascades and the Barlow Pass area. You're also close to summer hiking and camping in the Okanogan. Housing is more reasonable than Anacortes, too. Anacortes has a better downtown, though. Bellingham and Fairhaven are also great choices.

Jobs are the issue, though. Most of the jobs are centered around Seattle and Bellevue, particularly in IT or Earth Sciences. Edmonds would be a good choice in that case, and you might also look down around the waterfront in Des Moines or Redondo. But then you'll be dealing with traffic.

Take a few trips up here and look around. Find some communities that you like and start looking for jobs. Move to the place where you have work. You can always move in a couple of years if you get a better opportunity or find a better place to live.

[riknapora]

realistically, your ideal place sounds like San Luis Obispo, CA...all except for the home prices! Go to Moderator cut: link removed, competitor site
and take the test, and I think all the places will be CA (Santa Cruz/SLO/Carpinteria/SB). I just moved to Sequim from San Diego. San Diego is awesome, but the traffic sucks and it is crazy expensive. Also, the "best" schools serve only folks who can afford to live in certain districts.

[riknapora]

it seems that my web address didn't work out...I'll spell it out... **** dot com . Take the test, and don't bother putting in real info like your e-mail, address, etc...otherwise it will SPAM you. You can still get results even with fake identifying info! It is the site I used to find Sequim.

[riknapora]

sheesh! Again denied...now I will spell it phoenetically to thwart the censor... fined yoar spot (then put a period) com