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Moving andWould Love Info/help for areas in WA or OR

Sheri869
Sheri869 Posts: 1,195 Member
in Social Groups
I live in a small town on the Olympic Peninsula now with a beautiful view of the shipping lanes...walking distance to a lighthouse and small beach one way and a park and small lake the other....I have lived in Hansville (near Kingston) for 8 years now and I absolutely LOVE it...

but sadly the commute to work with gas prices what they are and the town of Silverdale (where I work) doesn't seem to be doing well...and my job has a shelf life of maybe 5-7 more years (as I work for 1 man who is 76 years old that owns MANY properties that I help manage and do all the accounting for... when he retires or dies everything will be sold off individually...thus me out of work)

I am a big time planner and don't want to wait until I'm blindsided with this problem in 7 years and I'm pushing 50. So I have decided to take the proactive route and start looking now for an alternative place to live and work....and this way I have TIME to sell my home and find something that I will hopefully be as happy with as I am now (or close).

So we are just starting to look outside of this area - but I don't know a lot about the surrounding cities in the Seattle area. Obviously would like to find somewhere that has some rural areas but has job opportunities nearby - isn't a TOTAL fortune to buy a home, not horrible crime...etc

so anyone living in a city you LOVE in the Seattle-ish or Portland-ish area...PLEASE tell me a little about why you love it....I'm a research freak....so I'm sure if anything sounds interesting I'll research it to death to get more info.

Thanks to anyone who responds here!

Replies

  • fitterhappiermoreproductive
    fitterhappiermoreproductive Posts: 44 Member
    I think the first bit of research you could do is to hop on the Kingston ferry and check out Edmonds. I just moved to Edmonds in March and I absolutely LOVE the place. It's close to Lynnwood, Bothell (where I work), and super quick to North Seattle (where my gym is). It has the small town feel while being surrounded by mountains to the east and west as well as a beautiful, well-kept waterfront and a booming metropolis within a quick train/bus ride.

    I also have lived in the Seattle city limits, Bellevue/Redmond, and Kenmore. I definitely prefer Edmonds to all of the above, and Seattle is a great place if you plan to live without your car. Kenmore is also a great place location-wise, as living there does not require any use of the 520 bridge whatsoever.

    As far as jobs in the area - I'm not sure what your background is, but you can find lots of tech-related contracts in this area, as we have many large companies like Microsoft / XBOX LIVE, Google (where I work), Amazon, Nintendo, Valve, Bungie, Siemens, Expedia, Boeing, and more.

    Let me know if you'd like to know more :)
  • fitterhappiermoreproductive
    fitterhappiermoreproductive Posts: 44 Member
    Oh, and I also wanted to mention that I also used to hail from the peninsula - Allyn and Bremerton.
  • Trishkit
    Trishkit Posts: 290 Member
    Have you considered further North, around Bellingham? It's a great area. You've got Lake Whatcom, Lake Padden, Bellingham Bay, interurban trails, tons of hikes, Mt. Baker, state parks ... the list goes on and on. The community is really great and I feel like it has just the right balance of city and country. Downtown Bellingham and Fairhaven are awesome to just walk around; Fairhaven especially has a cute, welcoming, small-town feel. I feel like the homes are pretty affordable around here. My husband and I recently bought a 1500 sq ft house on 4.6 acres for $275,000, just outside of town.

    As far as jobs go, it depends on what industry you're in -- but I just heard that Bellingham has a lower unemployment rate than the state (don't know the numbers myself, though). If you do tech stuff, there's a lot of that around here. My husband is a software engineer at Attachmate's Bellingham office (they have a much larger office in Seattle), and he's had a lot of other companies try to win him over and work for them, so there's definitely stuff available.

    You should make a day trip up here some Saturday, check out the AMAZING Bellingham Farmers Market (look for Kulshan Farm and you can say hi to me, if we're there that day!), then tour around town. It really is a great place.
  • NWCyclingBeast
    NWCyclingBeast Posts: 157 Member
    I live out here in Yelm and I love it! Close enough to Olympia/Lacey/Tacoma to get whatever I need when I need it, but far enough from all of the sprawl to make it feel like a real getaway when I come home from work. (JBLM)
  • FidalgoGirl
    FidalgoGirl Posts: 39 Member
    Skagit County area is awesome! Anacortes is beautiful and has less rain than Sedro Woolley. Both sides of the county offer loads of opportunity for the outdoor enthousiast. I grew up in Anacortes, lived on a boat for eight years, moved to land, then moved to Sedro Woolley to be closer to work and start anew with family. I love being close to the mountains, yet a 15 minute drive to Bayview State Park where there is tons of water. We often find ourselves up in Bellingham which is about 20-25 minutes drive from our place.

    If you like cross country skiing, you are closer to Vancouver and some areas near Mt.Baker. Research up north could be beneficial. If you like easy access to the city there is also an Amtrak that has tracks in Mount Vernon so you can go north to Van or south to Seattle or even Portland.

    Good luck,
    FidalgoGirl

    PS - My husband loves Wenatchee and Lake Chelan, could be good for someone specializing in property rentals.

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