Aberdeen???

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook

Shelton is already doing really well with a very vital "old" downtown area full of good little restaurants and a newer shopping area at the north end of town. The mill is running.... it's a happening place.

Homes are still a little cheaper in Shelton than Olympia, but probably 3x what they are in Aberdeen.

Oh, wow, thanks for this updated info!

OP, take a look at South Bend and Raymond, which are just inland from Willappa Bay, south of Aberdeen. Same ecosystem/environment. Stay away from properties too close to the river.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by Hal Roach

I saw this one....is not in a floodplain, but close, and does appear to be in the flats..

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/7...55046481_zpid/

Yeah, I lived about four blocks from there when I was a kid. There's a bit of a rise there, so out of the floodzone, but jacked up none the less. No basement, probably because it would flood - our basement flooded every winter.

Would be nice to look inside.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

Yeah, I lived about four blocks from there when I was a kid. There's a bit of a rise there, so out of the floodzone, but jacked up none the less. No basement, probably because it would flood - our basement flooded every winter.

Would be nice to look inside.

Reminder to the OP (or anyone considering buying on low ground in coastal or riverine areas): what is just outside of flood-prone zones now will no longer be on safe terrain 30 years from now, as sea-level rise increases. Even upriver, away from tidal areas, flooding will increase, as snowpacks become more rare, and heavy winter or spring rains become more the norm.

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

Reminder to the OP (or anyone considering buying on low ground in coastal or riverine areas): what is just outside of flood-prone zones now will no longer be on safe terrain 30 years from now, as sea-level rise increases. Even upriver, away from tidal areas, flooding will increase, as snowpacks become more rare, and heavy winter or spring rains become more the norm.

Or the opposite might happen... or neither one.

Nevertheless, the warning is a sound one, if you're close to the line, you may have a risk of a problem. Particularly in coastal areas where tsunamis are possible, as Aberdeen certainly is.

Good to always know where your nearest hill is!

[CrazyDonkey]

Why all those empty houses in the low-lying areas? | The Daily World

Have you wondered about some of those empty houses in the low-lying areas? Even though you could theoretically buy one to fix up and resell, there’s a major hurdle to jump.

Because our cities are part of the National Flood Insurance Program, they have to abide by certain building codes.

“When you take out a building permit, if the value of the work is worth 50 percent or more of the value of the house, you have to raise the home it up to flood code,” explained Hoquiam City Administrator Brian Shay. “That means if the base floor is two feet below a certain elevation, it has to be raised up three or more feet.”

Rick Sangder, the Aberdeen Public Works Director agreed. “Let’s say you want to invest money to flip a home in the flood zone. If you find a bargain at $20,000, and put $10,000 in it, you’d then have to put a foundation under it to put it above the flood zone. Now all the potential profit is lost,” he said.

In addition, to get a loan to buy a building in the designated flood plain, lending institutions require that you buy flood insurance. And folks in both cities with mortgages are paying out a lot in flood insurance – sometimes it’s even higher than their mortgage payment!

The exact placement of the North Shore Levee is currently being determined and the people whose property it will likely affect have been contacted.

In general, the North Shore Levee’s target area of protection is bordered by the east bank of the Hoquiam River, Grays Harbor Bay-Chehalis River to the south and the west bank of the Wishkah River to the east.

Similar to the south Aberdeen’s dikes, it will likely be a system of earthen dikes, raised roadways and walls.

https://www.ezview.wa.gov/DesktopMod...ersion=Staging

Once the Levee is constructed and accredited, over 3,100 properties in Aberdeen and Hoquiam, including Downtown Aberdeen, will be removed from the area that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has mapped as Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) due to coastal flood risk. Properties removed from the SFHA will no longer be subject to National Flood Insurance Program building code and flood insurance regulations, financial burdens that cost the community millions each year and hinder local investment. FEMA issued a preliminary approval for the proposed mapping change in October 2017 through a Conditional Letter of Map Revision.