Lots of trees and rain, liberal, low religiosity and affordability...does it exist? (Seattle: school, gated)

[freepelican]

OP, I'm familiar with the hot humid "you can slice the air with a knife" weather of the deep south and totally understand your yearning for cooler weather where you can actually enjoy being outdoors enjoying the trees and mountains you love. I also know of the culture you speak. So... here are my recommendations:

First, I would agree with some of the posters here that Olympia would be better than Seattle for you... not only because price but also access to nature. Second, Port Townsend would be worth a visit and would fit some of your criteria but I'm not seeing it as a tree and mountain place. Certainly easy day trips to those places but not in the city itself... not to the extend I sense you desire. A little bit further out on the Olympic Peninsula might suit you better. Somewhere between Sequim and Port Townsend or north of Blyn/Sequim in the mountains.

Next, I'd like to suggest FAR northern California (not the San Francisco area), especially Humboldt County.... gateway to amazing redwood forests, other forests, mountains, and water (although you didn't mention that... it blends well so well with what you did mention). I think you might could establish your own clientele in this region and have flexible hours to enjoy the bountiful nature and amazing weather.... same in Washington probably too if you chose the right place but in my opinion, northern California is even better.

I would encourage you to take a road trip exploring all of these areas on your own and renting for at least a year before making a final decision. Good luck to you... I know where you are coming from!!

[TrueTimbers]

Originally Posted by freepelican

OP, I'm familiar with the hot humid "you can slice the air with a knife" weather of the deep south and totally understand your yearning for cooler weather where you can actually enjoy being outdoors enjoying the trees and mountains you love. I also know of the culture you speak. So... here are my recommendations:

First, I would agree with some of the posters here that Olympia would be better than Seattle for you... not only because price but also access to nature. Second, Port Townsend would be worth a visit and would fit some of your criteria but I'm not seeing it as a tree and mountain place. Certainly easy day trips to those places but not in the city itself... not to the extend I sense you desire. A little bit further out on the Olympic Peninsula might suit you better. Somewhere between Sequim and Port Townsend or north of Blyn/Sequim in the mountains.

Next, I'd like to suggest FAR northern California (not the San Francisco area), especially Humboldt County.... gateway to amazing redwood forests, other forests, mountains, and water (although you didn't mention that... it blends well so well with what you did mention). I think you might could establish your own clientele in this region and have flexible hours to enjoy the bountiful nature and amazing weather.... same in Washington probably too if you chose the right place but in my opinion, northern California is even better.

I would encourage you to take a road trip exploring all of these areas on your own and renting for at least a year before making a final decision. Good luck to you... I know where you are coming from!!

Great post...
We are just outside the city limit of Port Townsend... Get some decent woods with public trails. Yes, by all means a cheaper place 1/2 hour from town is easy to be had! Hell, pull up a camper and call it home..

Our runner up place to settle was Mendocino/Caspar/Fort Bragg. It just was a bit isolated (Even for me a country boy used to being hours from anything over 10K people) and work op for spouse was a bit more limited. Other than that... If looking in NCal check out Fort Bragg area.... Pretty good redwoods/rivers/ocean, with some jobs. (Lots of bay area summer homes to supplement the pot money.)

[ccoonz]

Moving to Graham, Olympia, Lakewood, Steillacoom, Dupont, for safer areas to live. Then there is University Park, parts of Tacoma (just not on its hillsides), Vashon Island, Mercer Island is expensive but still you can find affordable stuff there too. Fox Island isn't so bad either. All of these areas are literally low in crime, and criminals are not likely to run these towns, basically because we don't let them.

Rents for a single person without children, living in a one bedroom or more from an apartment to a house could start from $400 to $600 a month, be aware that some vultures are looking for a sucker and could try to charge you from $800 and more to start, just be aware of the flip side.

[ccoonz]

You can buy a nice little house for $150K in Washington. Are you kidding me? Try looking in Dupont, Lakewood, Steillacoom, and Graham.

[freepelican]

Originally Posted by TrueTimbers

Great post...
We are just outside the city limit of Port Townsend... Get some decent woods with public trails. Yes, by all means a cheaper place 1/2 hour from town is easy to be had! Hell, pull up a camper and call it home..

Our runner up place to settle was Mendocino/Caspar/Fort Bragg. It just was a bit isolated (Even for me a country boy used to being hours from anything over 10K people) and work op for spouse was a bit more limited. Other than that... If looking in NCal check out Fort Bragg area.... Pretty good redwoods/rivers/ocean, with some jobs. (Lots of bay area summer homes to supplement the pot money.)

I agree that Mendocino County (the county just south of Humboldt County) in far N. California would be another place to check out. I do think it is a little more expensive than some parts of Humboldt overall. I also think there is less population overall than Humboldt, if you live somewhere near Eureka. I think there is a fabulous road trip calling your name OP!!

[oregonchickfan]

Originally Posted by NewYooper

If you want liberal, Eugene and Olympia are best choices, but Eugene doesn't have very many trees. It's in the middle of a large plain and you have to drive for miles to get to any kind of forested area.

Lol...what Eugene are you referring to? Eugene, OR has lots of trees and forested areas.

[freepelican]

Originally Posted by oregonchickfan

Lol...what Eugene are you referring to? Eugene, OR has lots of trees and forested areas.

It does kind of appear that way if you're headed down I-5 a lightening speed.... but of course, not really so.

[lady fern]

I would recommend Olympia as well. In your price range of under $150K, you can find some small, older homes close to downtown. It is a very liberal area and religion will not be a factor. I did a search on Windermere for homes in your price range and got 77 hits. They will be small, but several were in great crunchy, granola neighborhoods which seem to fit what you are looking for. Plenty of cloudy days in the area. You will get a bit of snow in the winter, but only for about a week or so.
There are a ton of massage therapists in the area, so I am not sure if this will be a plus or negative as far as employment.

[bad apples]

Humidity vs. inhumanity, pick your poison.

[freepelican]

A couple of posters have referred to the Olympic Peninsula as "liberal." I'd like to offer my perspective on this. I do not quite agree. Of all the areas mentioned, I would say Port Townsend is the most liberal area of the Olympic Peninsula but not as liberal as other more liberal areas of the country. One of the main employers in Port Townsend is a big ugly stinky paper mill that's an eyesore and a major source of pollution (I may get flack for saying so but it's true). This keeps the area from going "completely" liberal in my opinion. It also causes tension within the township... some people pitch it as "jobs versus environment." To me, it is a lot more complicated than that but that's for another post!

South of Port Townsend but still in Jefferson County, you have some smaller communities like Port Haddock and Chimacum. These areas are more liberal than conservative too but still not super liberal imo. You've also got some smaller communities west of Port Townsend (but with a bay in the middle so you have to travel south then north and then west to get there) that are also fairly liberal. These are places like Gardner and Blyn. However, again they are not super liberal.

Now, if you go west of this area, you start getting less liberal really fast. By the time you get to Port Angeles and beyond, I would not call these areas liberal at all. I would classify Port Angeles as a mix of liberal and conservative with a lot of moderates around as well. Same with areas north and west of Sequim. Sequim itself has an odd character to it as there are a ton of retirees moving in, many old farms have been replaced with housing developments (very sad), and the bulk of the people that call themselves living in "Sequim" don't actually live in the city limits. The average age of the Sequim citizenry is also considerably older than the average for most other areas.

Another way to look at this is to check out a map and see the funny shapes of the two counties that make up the peninsula: Jefferson and Clallam. Then look at voting records, especially for national elections. Jefferson usually goes blue and Clallam usually goes red but I don't think it is a landslide in either case, at least not usually.

Going west past Port Angeles in Clallam County, except maybe Neah Bay perhaps, is very solidly in the red camp.

Yet another way to look at this is the following. "Red" in Clallam County is no where near as conservative as places in the deep south. In other words, it's not the Florida panhandle, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, or Texas.... not by a long shot, but it is conservative in its own unique sort of way. "Blue" in Jefferson County is no where near as liberal as places like San Francisco, Seattle, Santa Cruz, Missoula, etc but it is somewhat liberal and liberal compared to most areas in Washington state outside of Seattle.

Hope this helps. Others may disagree but I have lived a lot of places around the country and therefore have a lot of experience to compare things to.