Olympia Area (Seattle, Tacoma, Lacey: 2013, apartment complexes, house)
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I hope it's ok to jump in with questions on this thread: I'm a retired teacher heading to the PNW from Ohio. I've arranged a temporary spot to land on Point Roberts and will be exploring up and down the coast.
Looking for a small- mid sized area (less traffic, congestion) with all amenities and reasonable rents.
Considering Olympia too- wondered if you could describe Olympia- areas one should avoid in renting, better areas to look at; are there enough things to see and do - decent food, theater, shopping, books, coffee/ tea spots so that one would not have to drive the long drive into Seattle often? Is it a low crime area in general? Is traffic reasonable? Are there farmer's markets and festivals? Lots of daytime fun stuff to do that won't break the bank? Are rents reasonable? Is there any demand for subs in the schools? Are they rough or are they pleasant? Also considering Bellingham - I kind of like that it's half way between Vancouver and Seattle but realistically, a 90 minute drive is not going to happen daily.
Have you any thoughts on comparison of these two areas? I read a lot of great things about Edmonds and passed through last October- enchanting little town- very small from what I saw- but located near ports - which seems great too. Rents are high; almost Seattle levels. I've been spoiled on Ohio rents a while- and retiring on an Ohio pension too so I need to be careful, but hoping to make ends meet with subbing.
Thanks!
We can't address the substitute teacher situation as we've both been away from teaching for decades. I have to believe there's always a demand for substitutes. We know a few retired teachers in both the Olympia SD and North Thurston Schools so when we see or talk to them next, I'll try to remember to ask them.
Pertaining to schools being rough ...no, none of the districts in Thurston county are known for their "roughness." The Olympia area has the "feeling" of essentially a middle class suburbia. Are there some schools that have more discipline problems than others? --possibly but not to the extent that they have problems like inner city schools in large metro areas. There was a shooting incident in Lacey last year but that was surprisingly out of character for the area and definitely an anomaly --CLICK. These shootings by young people can occur anywhere nowadays, however. Just like the shooting in Mukilteo (just north of Edmonds) last week which occurred in a very upscale neighborhood CLICK.
The Olympia area has most things that you describe as desirable in an area. I can get into specifics later if you'd like. No, it's not really necessary to go into Seattle frequently unless desired. We rarely, if ever, go into Seattle as we want to stay away from all the increasing crime and congestion. When we bought our property in Thurston county over ten years ago, congestion was so much less than the Seattle and Tacoma areas. However, lately, it's gotten much worse. Still not as bad as King and Piecre (and Snohomish) counties but much more than a decade ago.
Olympia is comprised of essentially three cities. Olympia, Lacey, and Tumwater. Their borders abut and intertwine in places so it's essentially all one mini-metro area. Olympia/Lacey/Tumwater's combined population is a bit over 100k. You can compare that to Bellingham's population of between 80-90k.
Although it's been ages since I've lived in Bellingham (and it was just a short stint in the 70s), I can say that both the Bellingham and Olympia areas "feel" alike in a lot of ways. They are both liberal-leaning areas and offer many of the same amenities. I'd say Bellingham would have a slightly lower crime rate and less congestion but possibly not enough to really notice on a day-to-day basis. Both, as does much of western Washington, have a higher crime rates than the U.S. average, however.
Like any area, the safest (less crime) will be in areas of less dense population. There isn't really that much of a difference in Olympia's neighborhoods but the area in and around the downtown core, of course will have the most crime and is considered less safe. The west side is considered safe as well as most neighborhoods of Lacey and Tumwater. I'll defer to the Realtors who participate on this forum to chime in on the exact neighborhoods they consider the safest.
I can get to the specifics of your questions in another post and I'm sure others will give their opinions too in the meantime.
I am leaning toward Olympia and Bellingham as the most hospitable mid sized towns for me- one easily driving distance from Vancouver the other from Seattle. Both comparable in traffic patterns, crime, etc- both seem beautiful- water front areas, wooded areas, both seem to have lots of little coffee places and eateries.
Both boast art communities and art walks and both boast great farmers markets.
Any thoughts on the advantages of one over the other would be most appreciated!
One more thing: "There was a shooting incident in Lacey last year but that was surprisingly out of character for the area and definitely an anomaly --CLICK. These shootings by young people can occur anywhere nowadays, however. Just like the shooting in Mukilteo (just north of Edmonds) last week which occurred in a very upscale neighborhood CLICK. " I taught the last 20 years in a large suburban school in N.E. Ohio and guns have become an issue everywhere. The kids are mostly just fine but from time to time there is a threatening incident. All schools have plans in place for lock downs and the like. It's a sad fact of life today.
Yes, you are right. It's really too bad about the gun violence associated with today's youth. When I grew up in the 50s and taught in the public schools in the 70s, I never would have imagined where we're at today with kids and guns.
But pertaining to Bellingham vs Olympia, man, that's a conundrum to put one area over the other as they both have similar pluses and minuses and there would be many pieces to the puzzle to rate one over the other.
Most of the comparisons I've noticed have the Bellingham area higher in overall cost of living than Olympia. Housing is higher in Bellingham. As mentioned previously, crime and congestion are slightly lower in Bellingham.
One of the main reason we like Olympia, however, is for medical purposes. We are starting to be plauged with more health issues than we had when younger as many do as they age. Olympia has one of the best hospitals in the state, Providence St. Peter, which we've used on several occasions. It is excellent. However, in fairness, Bellingham's hospital, St. Joseph Medical Center, is also highly rated but is usually rated below Olympia's St. Peters in the surveys over the past few years. With all this said, it's probably insignificant and a essentially a toss-up. We personally like the health care in Olympia but in all fairness, we haven't used the hospital or been under the care of a physician in Bellingham. In Olympia, however, we've been referred to specialists on two occasions over the course of the past ten years in Tacoma/Lakewood which could be a slight plus over Bellingham ...as you know, the Tacoma area is very densely populated but also provides several amenities which are convenient in proximity to Olympia --Lakewood especially (but high crime).
You may feel more comfortable in Bellingham because of your ties to Point Roberts and the Vancouver B.C. area. As you say, it takes approximately the same amount of time to travel to Vancouver (depending on the border back-up) or to Seattle from Bellingham ...a plus.
So, my personal summation--
Bellingham: slightly less population, congestion and crime rate
Olympia: slightly less cost of living (including housing costs), slightly more diverse, possibly more opportunity for substitute teaching (access to some of the Pierce county school districts and also Mason county and Lewis county)
Probably can't go wrong with either. In my opinion, they're both great places to live and/or retire.
I don't recommend anyone move here that has issues of any kind with rain/dark/damp/gray weather.
-Mike
I know, Mike. But as I mentioned previously, we are retirees and are both western Washington natives ...born and raised spending most of our working lives in western Washington. We couldn't wait to get out of the state once we retired for the reasons you cited. So when we took an early retirement over ten years ago, we traveled as full-time RVers for awhile and then settled in southern Nevada to be in the sunny and dry desert.
However, we soon found that being the the extremely dry weather and intense sun day after day took its toll. We craved the sun and dry weather during our working years but now that we were in the sunny and dry weather, we found it isn't as great as we thought it would be. To us, the arid climate with humidity routinely being less than 10% was hard on the skin. That combined with the intense sun which we were always trying to find shade to avoid having more skin problems, got to be as much of an irritant that we once found the constant drizzle and cloudiness of western Washington to be. Yes, there are benefits of being in a desert climate but we quickly decided that the rain/dark/damp/gray weather was more to our liking in comparison.
The difference in climates couldn't be more of an antithesis. Western Washington seemingly always wet, cold, drizzly, gray, etc. and southern Nevada seemingly always being sunny, dry, and warm.
Although we could probably find a better climate somewhere in California, we just don't want to become California residents. Therefore, we are planning on coming back to spend our sunset years in western Washington. It's home for us and we are definitely homesick. We have property in both western Washington and southern Nevada but plan on coming back to Thurston or Lewis county to spend out last years.
The grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence ...in our case, we're coming back to where the grass is literally greener.
~amanda
I know, Mike. But as I mentioned previously, we are retirees and are both western Washington natives ...born and raised spending most of our working lives in western Washington. We couldn't wait to get out of the state once we retired for the reasons you cited. So when we took an early retirement over ten years ago, we traveled as full-time RVers for awhile and then settled in southern Nevada to be in the sunny and dry desert.
However, we soon found that being the the extremely dry weather and intense sun day after day took its toll. We craved the sun and dry weather during our working years but now that we were in the sunny and dry weather, we found it isn't as great as we thought it would be. To us, the arid climate with humidity routinely being less than 10% was hard on the skin. That combined with the intense sun which we were always trying to find shade to avoid having more skin problems, got to be as much of an irritant that we once found the constant drizzle and cloudiness of western Washington to be. Yes, there are benefits of being in a desert climate but we quickly decided that the rain/dark/damp/gray weather was more to our liking in comparison.
The difference in climates couldn't be more of an antithesis. Western Washington seemingly always wet, cold, drizzly, gray, etc. and southern Nevada seemingly always being sunny, dry, and warm.
Although we could probably find a better climate somewhere in California, we just don't want to become California residents. Therefore, we are planning on coming back to spend our sunset years in western Washington. It's home for us and we are definitely homesick. We have property in both western Washington and southern Nevada but plan on coming back to Thurston or Lewis county to spend out last years.
The grass isn't always greener on the other side of the fence ...in our case, we're coming back to where the grass is literally greener.
~amanda
Good points about the dry desert climate and the harshness of the relentless blistering sun and dryness. Even as a winter getaway. When I went to Scottsdale a few years ago for a week, I felt like I needed to dive into a pool of moisturizer everyday to not dry up! The alternative to being a snowbird and getting winter warmth and sun but not the dryness & brownness of the southwest, is a more tropical climate like FL, HI, Mexico, Carribean, Panama, etc... But those all have their own problems in terms of easy access from WA, crime, cost, etc... I can't live in WA for 12 mos a year. Getting away from Jan to say mid April every year would be perfect for me. I don't mind the holidays here even though the weather is gloomy. But by January the dark, dreary and endless grey skies start to get to me. And many times like this year, consistent sun and warmth doesn't start until July. April, May and June can have a lot of gray too and feel cool. I didn't need to get out the shorts and sandals until July this year.
Good points about the dry desert climate and the harshness of the relentless blistering sun and dryness. Even as a winter getaway. When I went to Scottsdale a few years ago for a week, I felt like I needed to dive into a pool of moisturizer everyday to not dry up! The alternative to being a snowbird and getting winter warmth and sun but not the dryness & brownness of the southwest, is a more tropical climate like FL, HI, Mexico, Carribean, Panama, etc... But those all have their own problems in terms of easy access from WA, crime, cost, etc... I can't live in WA for 12 mos a year. Getting away from Jan to say mid April every year would be perfect for me. I don't mind the holidays here even though the weather is gloomy. But by January the dark, dreary and endless grey skies start to get to me. And many times like this year, consistent sun and warmth doesn't start until July. April, May and June can have a lot of gray too and feel cool. I didn't need to get out the shorts and sandals until July this year.
Excellent summation, ctr88. Yes, we did consider a tropical climate. We take short vacations to Hawaii and enjoy it for a week or so but I'm not sure if I'd even enjoy the tropical climate day after day either. One thing that bothers me about a tropical climate is you can take a shower but ten minutes later, you feel sweaty and sticky like you never did take a shower ...
For us, like many, consider a place like San Diego probably having the most ideal climate of anywhere in the U.S. However, we refuse to become residents of California. Additionally, San Diego is congested and getting more crime ridden as time passes. One thing, however, is that surprisingly, San Diego --as well as many places in California-- have crime rates much lower than the majority of places in western Washington --and specifically, Olympia and Thurston county.
Still, we probably will still return to western Washington to spend our last days. With the climate changing so much from what we remember when growing up in the 50s and 60s, western Washington will probably yield warmer temperatures and generally a more mild climate, especially during the winter. We plan on putting in heated flooring when we return as we find as seniors, we now notice our extremities, fingers and toes, react badly to cold wet weather.
And yes, we remember many Junes through the years when we had the furnace going as most months of June were cold and dreary too. Nowadays, Junes are pretty darn good. As kids, we knew summer was only the last two weeks of July and the first two weeks of August. Now, it seems that summer is actually almost three months ...sometimes more!
^^^ This is what I have heard many times from those with years of experience.
Only time will tell... maybe this is the new normal?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
