Kingston

[cabocurtis]

I think Bainbridge is a nice option if you can afford the housing. They have some townhouse and detached home developments similar to Poulsbo Place. The reason I say this is they have community theater, pool, parks, waterfront and some great restaurants like cafe nola. It has a good health club and golf courses. Its a nice walking town. Walking on the ferry and being accessible to Seattle restaurants, the new light rail system, sports teams is worth alot to retirees. Poulsbo is a nice town but is limited in restaurants, theater and you have to drive 13 miles to the Bainbridge ferry and that drive can sometimes be painful. Althought the housing is more expensive likely resale value will be better than the other areas due to having one of the best school districts. The better housing values might factor in later a reverse home equity mortgage if ever desired. They have many doctors and a medical center and also Harrison Hospital in Silverdale is about 22 miles away. Good luck.

[cluetrain]

Originally Posted by akcurnutt

I can sure relate to your situation. We are retiring most likely at the end of the year from living overseas (currently in Nigeria) and want to have "north" and "south" houses (winters in Texas). We have 3 adult children in the Seattle area so want good access but not in Seattle. We have home-based in Bellingham the last six years having bought a house when our son was going to school there allowing us a place to hang our hats when we come home. Bellingham is a fabulous place but is too far north for running to Seattle. I'm born and raised in Bremerton and my husband is from Texas. He found a place in Kingston over the holidays that we are considering purchasing. I've never lived in that small a town but everyone there seems to love it. I'm trying to read everything I can about it. I grew up with the Bremerton ferries and the Kingston locals are hoping for a passenger-only ferry when the economy picks up as those discussions were in place and were heading in that direction. I'm struggling with this decision as I am stateside with my husband's power of attorney to do this. I'm not sure what's holding me back but need to decide soon. The house I'm looking at is very close to the ferry which is a plus. Best of luck to you in your decision.

I was hoping to retire in Kingston, and took out a loan and bought a condo in August of last year not too far from the current crunch. I had made a few "practice" commutes first as I work in Seattle and I thought I could make it through another 5 years of work. Unfortunately a fall at work made an already existing disk (or lack of one I should say) worse enough that I had to move about two weeks ago after trying to stay at a hotel two nights a week for awhile. I wasn't even moved in yet I'd been so busy.

So I'm trying to find some one who specializes in helping prep it to rent. And then since the prices dropped I have to concentrate on paying it down far enough to sell. It's pretty frustrating how the current economy has caused a lot of us to have to go to plan b if we had one. But as far as Kingston I liked it a lot, since I work in Seattle what a difference. People actually smile and say hi. The population is under 2,000. There's no crime to speak of, the area is beautiful and the air is clean. My condo is about 7 blocks from the ferry which made the commute easy because the Sounder Train stops at the terminal in Edmonds (another very nice town to visit). The train takes about 20 minutes to get to Seattle and is a nice calm ride. You mentioned a passenger-only ferry - I heard that a foot ferry was just "around the corner" again but that's a battle that's been going on for years. There was private company that made a go of it a couple years ago, but it didn't last very long. I imagine someday there will be one though. Good luck in your search. ---b