Bellingham A Great Place to Live

[waviking24]

Bellingham was great 10 years ago. Now it sucks. Too crowded. No winters. Too many visitors from up north. Way toooo many transients. Not enough housing.

[Ruth4Truth]

Originally Posted by waviking24

Bellingham was great 10 years ago. Now it sucks. Too crowded. No winters. Too many visitors from up north. Way toooo many transients. Not enough housing.

No winters? You mean, there's not much snow anymore? And what kind of transients, what does that mean? Crowded? 10 years ago it wasn't crowded? Have there been a lot of retirees moving into the area, and refugees from the drought in CA and the harsh winters in the NE? There's been a lot of that in Pt Townsend, & I heard the same has been happening in B'ham the last few years.

Even so, I don't know if I'd call it crowded. Looking at real estate around Fairhaven and Happy Valley, I see 1-acre lots, some 1/2-acre lots, quite a bit of spaciousness, yet. Plenty of rental housing being advertised, too, unlike Pt Townsend, where it all disappeared a year ago spring/summer. The rental market dried up, due to such a huge influx of newcomers. Massive housing shortage. Rental rates shot up instantly and to a fairly extreme degree. That hasn't happened in B'ham, thank heaven.

[bartonizer]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

No winters? You mean, there's not much snow anymore? And what kind of transients, what does that mean? Crowded? 10 years ago it wasn't crowded? Have there been a lot of retirees moving into the area, and refugees from the drought in CA and the harsh winters in the NE? There's been a lot of that in Pt Townsend, & I heard the same has been happening in B'ham the last few years.

Even so, I don't know if I'd call it crowded. Looking at real estate around Fairhaven and Happy Valley, I see 1-acre lots, some 1/2-acre lots, quite a bit of spaciousness, yet. Plenty of rental housing being advertised, too, unlike Pt Townsend, where it all disappeared a year ago spring/summer. The rental market dried up, due to such a huge influx of newcomers. Massive housing shortage. Rental rates shot up instantly and to a fairly extreme degree. That hasn't happened in B'ham, thank heaven.

waviking always seems jaded about Bham, but it's all relative. I mean, I agree that Bellingham doesn't seem crowded, but it may seem bustling to those that lived here ten years ago- though I don't know if he/she has been here in a while. Also, BC tourism has been way down due to the weak Canadian dollar, and the city has gone through multiple time periods where the number of transients was high- the city was a safe haven and jumping-off point for people headed to Canada to avoid serving in Vietnam, for heaven's sake. Personally I like the town precisely because it isn't crowded at all compared to metros to the north and south.

I'm not sure about the accuracy of your housing assessment, though. In fact, it's housing that is probably the biggest obstacle to many people moving here (that, and a lack of jobs). It has more listings because it's ten times the size of Pt. Townsend. But low vacancy rates are a regular topic of conversation here (it's a college town, after all), as is the subject of ADUs to accommodate the lack of available rental properties. As a former renter, we lucked out and found a place in Fairhaven being rented by a friend of a friend, when we moved in town. Discussion boards are littered with people looking for reasonable places to live, though, and the city recently instituted a rental inspection system because of subpar offerings by landlords.

Regarding real estate, a cursory search doesn't tell the story, apparently. You're right that lots are generally rather large (my in-laws referred to it as "low-density urban") but reasonably-priced single-family houses are in extremely high demand- though considerably cheaper than Seattle or Vancouver. The problem is the same as it is in CO and many places in the west: lack of inventory. The economy improved faster than the supply- and builders are more likely to construct apartments or high-end houses than small, affordable houses. So, prices in most parts of town are up 10-15%+ over last year. And houses under $350k that don't require serious upgrading are on the market only a few days, sometimes less.

My wife and I just purchased a house late spring/early summer- after several offers fell through because of situations where either the sellers made ridiculous demands (wanted us to waive all inspections!) and losing a couple intense bidding wars to investors from Seattle, parents of WWU students, other young couples and all cash buyers. We only secured our current home because we were able to convince the tenants occupying the house for sale to move into the house we were renting at the time!

Again, we love this place and we're really excited to own something in town. The housing and job shortages are frequently inherent to similar, desirable cities like Missoula, Flagstaff, Bozeman, Asheville, etc. etc. They're generally reflective of places in high demand.

[Ruth4Truth]

^^^ Thanks, bartonizer. Your posts are always very insightful. Keep up the good work!

[Raussie]

Thanks for your info! We left east coast (NJ), didn't like vast fluctuations in weather, i.e. cold winters, lots of snow and rain and then very hot, humid summers. We drove thru B'ham a few years ago and are going to check it out again. Currently in Eastern WA, hot and dry, sometimes too hot, up to 100 degrees July-Aug. and then we've had the forest fires past two summers. Don't want to buy a house in the woods!!