Camano Island questions (Everett, Marysville, Arlington: real estate, how much, homes)

[steenbean18]

Hi! Long-time lurker here with some questions about Camano Island. A little background about us first:

Family of four with two small children (14 months and 1 month old)
Extended family located in Everett
Looking for 1/2 acre + properties in the $300k range


Here are my questions:

1) How long of a commute would we be looking at from Camano Island (North or South) to Stanwood or Marysville? How long to Everett? (with traffic please)

2) Are there fast food/restaurant options on the island?

3) Are there any gyms/fitness centers on the island or nearby?

4) Are there frequent power outages on the island?

5) What limitations can we expect living on Camano Island? (As an example, we live in a semi-rural area now and only have one option for internet that is ridiculously slow, cannot get cable, are on septic,well-water, etc)

6) Are there a lot of families with small children on the island?

7) Anything else I should know before we consider this area?

Thanks in advance!

[mkarch]

2&3 present some irony.

[homesinseattle]

Hi Steenbean,

Camano Island is great value for the money, I've sold a few homes there in the last year. You might enjoy this site from the chamber of commerce: Camano Island Chamber of Commerce

About your questions, I'll just paste them here and then answer after, please let me know if i can help in any way:

1) How long of a commute would we be looking at from Camano Island (North or South) to Stanwood or Marysville? Depends on time of day of course. Stanwood is easy (especially from mid or north Camano, about 5-10 min. Marysville about 20 min. How long to Everett? (with traffic please) 30 minutes

2) Are there fast food/restaurant options on the island? Yes, a few, good brewpub too

3) Are there any gyms/fitness centers on the island or nearby? yup, great one: Camano Island Fitness Health Club |

4) Are there frequent power outages on the island? article about that, getting a lot better: New PUD substation should limit number, length of Camano Island outages | HeraldNet.com - Local news

5) What limitations can we expect living on Camano Island? (As an example, we live in a semi-rural area now and only have one option for internet that is ridiculously slow, cannot get cable, are on septic,well-water, etc). You will find more options on Camano. You feel private but aren't too far from civilization. Septic is common but no problems

6) Are there a lot of families with small children on the island? All kinds of people, very friendly place.

7) Anything else I should know before we consider this area? I think not really. It is a really special place, IMHO a great value for the money. There is a bit of a bottleneck in the morning but that's what you get for living the dream!

[steenbean18]

Originally Posted by mkarch

2&3 present some irony.

Touché. Haha! We are mostly fit and healthy people but do like to have options from time to time

[steenbean18]

Thank you homesinseattle Very helpful! Access to decent utilities was one of my biggest concerns (I don't mind septic) so that is a relief! And sounds like the commute might be much shorter than I thought, so I can expand my job hunting areas as well!

[homesinseattle]

might want to plan on 45 to Everett just to be safe (allowing for traffic)

[steenbean18]

That's still not bad. We currently live about 20-30 minutes from amenities and are used to having to frequently drive 45-60 mins to get to our favorite activities. It's worth it to us to have the space, privacy, and scenery! We visit a lot but I've never been up to Camano Island and it looked much farther away than what you're describing. Sounds very manageable. I wonder why more people don't live there?? Seems the housing is VERY reasonably priced for all that Camano has to offer. That's why I thought I *must* be missing something.

[homesinseattle]

Agreed, I think it is rather a hidden gem.

[Sonnenwende]

Originally Posted by steenbean18

That's still not bad. We currently live about 20-30 minutes from amenities and are used to having to frequently drive 45-60 mins to get to our favorite activities. It's worth it to us to have the space, privacy, and scenery! We visit a lot but I've never been up to Camano Island and it looked much farther away than what you're describing. Sounds very manageable. I wonder why more people don't live there?? Seems the housing is VERY reasonably priced for all that Camano has to offer. That's why I thought I *must* be missing something.

It is a long commute to where the well paying jobs really are. It is 55-60 minutes from where I live to Boeing, for example. My husband commutes an hour and 15 minutes one way every day. Most of the jobs here are in retail, real estate, agriculture, food service, medical services. There is a meat packing plant in Stanwood. Other than that, there isn't much in the way of industry until you get to Arlington.

Most people who live out here are retirees who don't have to deal with the rat race anymore, rather the 35-40 minute trip to the closest hospital. There are some families with kids. There are only elementary schools here. For middle and high school, they are bussed to Stanwood. In general though, enrollments are declining across the district.

There is only one cable internet provider, Wave Broadband. It is very expensive compared to what you could expect from Comcast. Our internet bill doubled out here for the same service.

It is a quiet place and rents are cheap, but then I figure how much gas/time we are wasting getting anywhere from here and eh, not such a great deal anymore. We're moving back to the mainland. Nice while it lasted though, the novelty of living on an island.

[steenbean18]

Thank you for your perspective sonnenwende . I am a pharmacist so there should be a few opportunities in the area for me. What does your Wave bill come to monthly? We pay $60/month for slooooow broadband here so I'd imagine it can't e much worse. It's fast at least, right??