Small, safe, and warm dream town in washington :) (Seattle, Vancouver: renting, low crime)

[praiseincolor]

My family is considering to relocate to Washington state. I want a smaller populated town/small city. 1,000 - 13,000 max. Must be safe and great for families. I love warmth and sunshine but don't mind rain, can handle a little snow but not for a whole long winter. I don't want to be in eastern washington nor do I want to live to close to the coast. Mountains are fine as long as winters are not harsh. Being close to seattle is not important but I would like to be within an 1 hour or so to the puget sound area. We will be renting for a few years but will still be looking for a rural, out of town, country-ish home.

I love parks and culture and want my kids to have plenty of extra curricular opportunities. Am I dreaming?

[Hemlock140]

Yes, I think you are dreaming.

There are a lot of safe, small towns, but there are none with sunshine within an hour of Puget Sound. Basically, all areas of WA east of the Cascade Mountains, to the water, will get 40-100" of rain annually, with consecutive sunny days only in July and August,


You would need to go two hours east to get more sun, and then you would have a lot of winter snow. More than two hours and you are in Eastern WA.

[509]

Originally Posted by praiseincolor

My family is considering to relocate to Washington state. I want a smaller populated town/small city. 1,000 - 13,000 max. Must be safe and great for families. I love warmth and sunshine but don't mind rain, can handle a little snow but not for a whole long winter. I don't want to be in eastern washington nor do I want to live to close to the coast. Mountains are fine as long as winters are not harsh. Being close to seattle is not important but I would like to be within an 1 hour or so to the puget sound area. We will be renting for a few years but will still be looking for a rural, out of town, country-ish home.

I love parks and culture and want my kids to have plenty of extra curricular opportunities. Am I dreaming?

What is your issue with eastern Washington??

There are a many towns in eastern Washington that meet your criteria.

[cjg5]

Originally Posted by bisjoe

Yes, I think you are dreaming.

There are a lot of safe, small towns, but there are none with sunshine within an hour of Puget Sound. Basically, all areas of WA east of the Cascade Mountains, to the water, will get 40-100" of rain annually, with consecutive sunny days only in July and August,


You would need to go two hours east to get more sun, and then you would have a lot of winter snow. More than two hours and you are in Eastern WA.

You mean west of the Cascades. Head east of the Cascades and you start getting a drier climate, a sunnier climate, and one that is about 10 to 20 degrees warmer in the summer, and about 10 to 20 degrees colder in the winter than Western Washington.

I agree with the above poster, what's wrong with Eastern Washington? Yes, it may have colder winters, but very few places have snow on the ground all winter long.

Check out some of these places:

Waterville, Washington - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Soap Lake, Washington - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chelan, Washington - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Entiat, Washington - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ephrata, Washington - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

There are many more, too. As I said, cold in the winter months, but once spring hits it warms up very quickly over that way!

[Inkpoe]

... But what does the OP define as warm? Some people consider 70 degrees to be sweater weather, whereas some (like me) would consider wearing T-shirt in 40 degrees.

Otherwise, I'd think the SW WA (Longview-Kalama-Woodland-Vancouver area) would work (except the 1hr to Puget Sound, but it has the Columbia River, among others)

[praiseincolor]

I had thought that the winters are harsher in eastern, wa and I have family that lives near the western part of the puget sound. So, it is just preference. I think 70-80 degrees in summer would be nice. I also don't mind cloudy, but too much rain is depressing. I thought there were areas that were full of rainy days like around grays harbor. I wouldn't want to go to far north because of the snow/ice. I really like the southern end of puget sound but worry about the crime near the cities.

If anyone has information about some small towns near this area that would be great.

[Hemlock140]

There are some safe areas toward the South end of Puget sound, such as
Lacey and Dupont, however they still have the 40" of rain, lack of sun.
Summers are more often 80-90 than 70, but 40's-50s can last until late June throughout western WA. Gray's Harbor gets even more rain, twice as much as Seattle at 80".

There are places with mild winters in Eastern WA, the worst winters are close to the mountains.


I don't know why you don't want to be on the coast, but I think a good place for you would be the Brookings-Harbor area of Oregon, where it can be in the 70s year-round, never gets too hot or cold.

[Inkpoe]

If too much rain is the issue... even the southern end of Puget Sound isn't that great an option, given that it rains a lot more than Seattle's 37 inches. Olympia's annual rainfall is around 53 inches. While it's not technically the rainiest city in the US, it does have the most rainy days on average. Study Reveals Top 10 Wettest U.S. Cities | LiveScience

There is a reason why people refer to Western WA as "Wet Side" WA. If you're fine with clouds, but want less rain... You'd have to go north towards Sequim or in that region of the rainshadow.

[NW Crow]

You probably can't get everything you desire perfectly in one western WA place, to my knowledge.

Sequim has 6,000 people and the least rain in western Washington but the population is quite elderly with few children and about average on crime.

Poulsbo is 8,000 people, close to average on amount of kids but with lots of rain & clouds and about average on crime.

Chimacum (near Port Townsend) has almost 2,000 people, moderate rain, an average amount of kids, low crime but not as near major cities for jobs or activities.

Tenino is under 2,000 people, lots of rain & clouds (except summer which is sunny and dry throughout western Washington) , above average % of families with kids, near enough to jobs & activities in Olympia, very low violent crime, average property crime.

Eatonville is 2,500 with lots of rain & clouds, slightly above average % of families with kids, further from jobs & activities, a bit below average on crime.

Stanwood has 6,000 people, lots of rain & clouds, above average % of kids and average crime.

Clinton has about 1,000 people, lots of rain & clouds, below average % of kids, low crime and would be a ferry ride from the Puget Sound metro.

North Bend has 5,000 people, heavy rain & clouds, average crime but lots of kids and interstate to the east-side cities and Seattle for work and activities.

Washougal has 13,000 people, lots of rain & clouds, average crime, average % of kids and near bigger cities for activities and jobs.

Camas is about 18,000 people, closer to those bigger cities, with even more kids.

If you were willing to step east of the Cascades there would be other choices depending on how much snow you can tolerate.

Goldendale has 4,000 people, modest rain / modest snow, more sunshine, an average amount of kids, below average violent crime, above average property crime.

Waterville is attractive to some with 1,000 people, low rain / moderate snow / lots of sunshine, low crime and an average amount of kids and fairly near Wenatchee.

Those are some possibilities you could check out further. If you end up refining your criteria or priorities the choices will narrow.

Generally cities under 10,000 are probably not going to have as many organized or at least specialty extra-curricular activities for kids (of your choosing or theirs) and towns under 3,000 even less when compared to places with say 25,000 or more. But there will be some options, the most common options, and depending on which activities you are seeking and how picky you and they are about their quality or how far you are willing to drive to them maybe you can find enough to make it work acceptably on this aspect in some of these places, especially those nearer your upper population limit and near the bigger cities.

For "culture" you'd be hard pressed to find that much of it in a city under 50,000 or 100,000 using the standards for "culture" that many have (a variety of and higher frequency and quality of live music, art galleries, museums, plays, social organizations, etc.) and of course much much less in a place under 10,000 or even less in those under 3,000. Even places with 50,000 or 100,000 are too small to provide enough culture for some. But of course people vary and many are satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the cultural offerings in smaller places that probably will fall in a narrower range of variety than bigger cities.

[praiseincolor]

Thanks so much for all the info. I know I will have to learn to enjoy the rain more and the warmer summers sound nice too. I haven't heard much of this rain shadow area, but what about the cold temperatures there or the snow/ice in winters? Does washington have areas that are prone to floods? I will look into eastern washington too.