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OP, you're spot on with most of your assessments, and there are trade-offs, so it depends on what's important to you.
I can identify with your search- I work from home in Bellingham for an organization in NYC. When my wife and I decided to move to the NW, our original list of finalists included Bend, Eugene, Olympia and Bellingham, but really I also wanted to be with reasonable striking distance of a larger city, but not in one. And I just couldn't justify the tax difference, so Bend and Eugene were out. When it came down to Olympia and Bham, we really liked the setting and vibe of Bellingham. Bham seems to have more of a concentrated downtown, several other commercial areas, and overall more of a layout that is much more walkable and bike-friendly.
And as you mentioned, it is more disconnected from a large metro areas; the Chuckanut Mountains (and yes, according to local land management agencies, the Chuckanuts are a range of mountains-foothills of the Cascades, including Lookout, Blanchard, and Chuckanut: Chuckanut Mountain Park | Whatcom County, WA - Official Website) physically buffer anything to the south. They're not big like the high Cascades but they do rise abruptly and top out at 2,500' feet- 3,000' plus if you count Stewart Mountain on Lake Whatcom. Anyway, even if one day Mt. Vernon and Burlington are considered exurbs of Seattle, development won't make it to Bham, and Vancouver and its suburbs are surprisingly close but won't spill over anytime soon into rural Whatcom County.
I'm only required to fly 2-3 times each year, so most of the flights I take are for recreation. Sometimes it works out to take Seattle, sometimes BLI works- and I know others that go out of Vancouver from time to time. Flights out of town are limited, obviously, and that means that you either get creative and take deals that you find. Many of the flights out of Bellingham are geared towards discounted travel to the Southwest, though there are some more frequent flights to Seattle and Portland. There are also nonstop flights to California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii. We almost booked a nonstop to Kahului for Christmas but prices went up, so now we may do a discounted Sonoma/Yosemite trip in December. In any case, not a full array of flights but more than we expected. And a $7-$10 uber ride from our house + literally zero security wait. Regarding Sea-Tac, it's 1.5-2 hours with no traffic, and the Bellair Shuttle runs 10+ trips daily. We use it from time to time, though I'd pay $100 more to fly out of BLI if the connections are reasonable. Or my wife will pick me up so that we can do a little Seattle afternoon. BTW it's entirely possible- with omnipresent risk of traffic- to go down and sightsee around Seattle. We don't go down there that often, but in the fall enjoy going to Pike Place and trying out new restaurants, etc. But trips to Vancouver for shows are a lot of fun and we're almost more likely to head north when we want a big city fix.
Regarding other transportation options, Amtrak runs 2x on the Cascades each way per day (more if you include their buses/Greyhound) and Bolt Bus runs 4-5x daily. We took the train from Bellingham to Vancouver recently and the walk-up price was $19 pp each way. There's additional buses to Skagit and even to Anacortes if you wanted to take the ferry out to the San Juans or BC.
About weather. Bellingham has a few microclimates, but for the most part it is similar to most areas from Vancouver to Olympia. BUT, we've certainly noticed that it is cooler in the summer, both day and night. I don't think there are many days where Seattle is warm and Bham isn't, but the historical records certainly show that on hot days, Bellingham is 5-10 degrees cooler. In fact the all-time high is 96 degrees, and many summers it doesn't rise above 90. Nights are a little chillier, which I don't mind at all. In fact, summer nights remind me of somewhere at slightly higher elevation, which we love. It is not depressing or noticeably darker here than points south, and again the change is more noticeable in summer.
PNWguy and CrazyDonkey are right about the convergence zone in Everett, and we sometimes see it a little further north of here. But Bham does benefit from the shadow created by Lummi and the San Juans, and we often see things break up before hitting landfall. Being next to more diverse topography and open water than other cities in the area, we are occasionally subject to wind in the winter.
Pricing, Bham is more expensive as between two high dollar metros. But I agree, the lack of income tax makes a huge difference in the choice. We just bought a little 2/1 house in the middle of town for the middle 200's and love it.
Being a telecommuter in Western WA gives you some interesting options. Bainbridge, Vashon, Whidbey, Olympia, Eastside, Everett, Mt. Vernon- they're all on the periphery and you'll just have to decide how close to Seattle you want to be. Personally we don't go down nearly as often as we thought we would. The natural beauty of the water and mountains, coupled with the funky flavor and scene (nearly a dozen microbreweries, for example) keeps us around here most weekends now. Especially west of I-5, it definitely doesn't have a suburban feel and is very chill, living up to it's nickname "City of Subdued Excitement."
From your comments, it sounds like you would love it here.
OP, you're spot on with most of your assessments, and there are trade-offs, so it depends on what's important to you.
I can identify with your search- I work from home in Bellingham for an organization in NYC. When my wife and I decided to move to the NW, our original list of finalists included Bend, Eugene, Olympia and Bellingham, but really I also wanted to be with reasonable striking distance of a larger city, but not in one. And I just couldn't justify the tax difference, so Bend and Eugene were out. When it came down to Olympia and Bham, we really liked the setting and vibe of Bellingham. Bham seems to have more of a concentrated downtown, several other commercial areas, and overall more of a layout that is much more walkable and bike-friendly.
And as you mentioned, it is more disconnected from a large metro areas; the Chuckanut Mountains (and yes, according to local land management agencies, the Chuckanuts are a range of mountains-foothills of the Cascades, including Lookout, Blanchard, and Chuckanut: Chuckanut Mountain Park | Whatcom County, WA - Official Website) physically buffer anything to the south. They're not big like the high Cascades but they do rise abruptly and top out at 2,500' feet- 3,000' plus if you count Stewart Mountain on Lake Whatcom. Anyway, even if one day Mt. Vernon and Burlington are considered exurbs of Seattle, development won't make it to Bham, and Vancouver and its suburbs are surprisingly close but won't spill over anytime soon into rural Whatcom County.
I'm only required to fly 2-3 times each year, so most of the flights I take are for recreation. Sometimes it works out to take Seattle, sometimes BLI works- and I know others that go out of Vancouver from time to time. Flights out of town are limited, obviously, and that means that you either get creative and take deals that you find. Many of the flights out of Bellingham are geared towards discounted travel to the Southwest, though there are some more frequent flights to Seattle and Portland. There are also nonstop flights to California, Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii. We almost booked a nonstop to Kahului for Christmas but prices went up, so now we may do a discounted Sonoma/Yosemite trip in December. In any case, not a full array of flights but more than we expected. And a $7-$10 uber ride from our house + literally zero security wait. Regarding Sea-Tac, it's 1.5-2 hours with no traffic, and the Bellair Shuttle runs 10+ trips daily. We use it from time to time, though I'd pay $100 more to fly out of BLI if the connections are reasonable. Or my wife will pick me up so that we can do a little Seattle afternoon. BTW it's entirely possible- with omnipresent risk of traffic- to go down and sightsee around Seattle. We don't go down there that often, but in the fall enjoy going to Pike Place and trying out new restaurants, etc. But trips to Vancouver for shows are a lot of fun and we're almost more likely to head north when we want a big city fix.
Regarding other transportation options, Amtrak runs 2x on the Cascades each way per day (more if you include their buses/Greyhound) and Bolt Bus runs 4-5x daily. We took the train from Bellingham to Vancouver recently and the walk-up price was $19 pp each way. There's additional buses to Skagit and even to Anacortes if you wanted to take the ferry out to the San Juans or BC.
About weather. Bellingham has a few microclimates, but for the most part it is similar to most areas from Vancouver to Olympia. BUT, we've certainly noticed that it is cooler in the summer, both day and night. I don't think there are many days where Seattle is warm and Bham isn't, but the historical records certainly show that on hot days, Bellingham is 5-10 degrees cooler. In fact the all-time high is 96 degrees, and many summers it doesn't rise above 90. Nights are a little chillier, which I don't mind at all. In fact, summer nights remind me of somewhere at slightly higher elevation, which we love. It is not depressing or noticeably darker here than points south, and again the change is more noticeable in summer.
PNWguy and CrazyDonkey are right about the convergence zone in Everett, and we sometimes see it a little further north of here. But Bham does benefit from the shadow created by Lummi and the San Juans, and we often see things break up before hitting landfall. Being next to more diverse topography and open water than other cities in the area, we are occasionally subject to wind in the winter.
Pricing, Bham is more expensive as between two high dollar metros. But I agree, the lack of income tax makes a huge difference in the choice. We just bought a little 2/1 house in the middle of town for the middle 200's and love it.
Being a telecommuter in Western WA gives you some interesting options. Bainbridge, Vashon, Whidbey, Olympia, Eastside, Everett, Mt. Vernon- they're all on the periphery and you'll just have to decide how close to Seattle you want to be. Personally we don't go down nearly as often as we thought we would. The natural beauty of the water and mountains, coupled with the funky flavor and scene (nearly a dozen microbreweries, for example) keeps us around here most weekends now. Especially west of I-5, it definitely doesn't have a suburban feel and is very chill, living up to it's nickname "City of Subdued Excitement."
From your comments, it sounds like you would love it here.
Excellent info in your post Bartonizer. Thank you for that. Bham looks like a very strong option for me. I think my days of living in gigantic metro areas of 3, 4, 5 million+ people could be over. I'm liking the <500k population metro areas, or even <250k very much.
Excellent info in your post Bartonizer. Thank you for that. Bham looks like a very strong option for me. I think my days of living in gigantic metro areas of 3, 4, 5 million+ people could be over. I'm liking the <500k population metro areas, or even <250k very much.
I remember when you first came here, you wanted nothing to do with anything that wasn't pure city living.
Bellingham has an international airport, with flights by Alaska Airlines, Delta, American Airlines, Alegiant Air, Emirates, KLM, Air France, Empire, Ameriflight. In 2013, Bellingham had 596,000 passenger departures, while Eugene had 434,000.
Emirates codeshares with Alaska Airlines, but they don't fly directly into BLI. Bellingham Airport has service from Allegiant Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and Horizon, which flies for Alaska Airlines. Alaska/Horizon codeshare with Delta, American, and a host of international airlines, which means you can book straight through from BLI on trips throughout the US and abroad, but you'll still connect through Seattle, Portland, or Las Vegas.
No mention of winter in Bellingham?
It is a great area, but be prepared for that cold blast of strong wind coming down from the Fraser valley in winter.
More snow, more wind, generally colder than Seattle area for comparison.
Also the further north, the shorter and darker the days will be in Winter.
My daughter is a Western University alumni. The dark and dreary Winter was a killer for her in Bellingham, almost literally. Really not good for anyone with SAD's.
Otherwise, I would agree its nice setting.
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