Ocean Shores--good, bad and the ugly (Seattle, Aberdeen: employment, casino, to live in)

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by blueheron99

Just strikes me as a depressing, white trash place. Very little good food beyond burgers. Most stores in tiny buildings. This place could be really nice and luxurious. It’s in a great location!

If they had decent Internet, instead of the Coast Communications monopoly, it would be more attractive to WFH'ers.

One reason many are trying to sell is worry about future assessments to fix this:

https://www.northcoastnews.com/news/...cean-shores-2/

[pnwguy2]

The transportation corridor between Aberdeen and Ocean Shores is terrible. If local officials really want to improve the area the first step would be ask wsdot for new funding. Then try to bring in more higher end residential and higher end hotels, perhaps even more casino development. This can be accomplished but there needs to be leadership.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

The transportation corridor between Aberdeen and Ocean Shores is terrible. If local officials really want to improve the area the first step would be ask wsdot for new funding. Then try to bring in more higher end residential and higher end hotels, perhaps even more casino development. This can be accomplished but there needs to be leadership.

It's 25-30 minutes from Aberdeen to Ocean Shores. The tourist season is too short to justify "higher end hotels". The bigger problem is the Seattle to Aberdeen segment.

I remember when there was a one-lane bridge between Aberdeen and Westport.

[Diana Holbrook]

I don't find Ocean Shores to be dismal or depressing at all. I think it's a tidy little community. Likewise, Long Beach is very similar on the south end. If you are really into watching Washington weather and wildlife and wild sea life, our ocean beaches are a great place to be. But they're not California beaches... bring a jacket.

It's only going to appeal to you though if you want to be in a small, quiet, humble community. If the facebook groups for the areas are an accurate sample of the residents, most of the residents there are not eager for a lot of new growth or expensive restaurants. They tolerate tourists in summer, but only barely. They like it the way it is.

They want to live in a little seaside village with humble homes and familiar burgers and fish and chips. If they want something bigger they trek into town once in awhile. Some people like living that way. I get it. :-)

[Bluefox]

Originally Posted by Diana Holbrook

I don't find Ocean Shores to be dismal or depressing at all. I think it's a tidy little community. Likewise, Long Beach is very similar on the south end. If you are really into watching Washington weather and wildlife and wild sea life, our ocean beaches are a great place to be. But they're not California beaches... bring a jacket.

It's only going to appeal to you though if you want to be in a small, quiet, humble community. If the facebook groups for the areas are an accurate sample of the residents, most of the residents there are not eager for a lot of new growth or expensive restaurants. They tolerate tourists in summer, but only barely. They like it the way it is.

They want to live in a little seaside village with humble homes and familiar burgers and fish and chips. If they want something bigger they trek into town once in awhile. Some people like living that way. I get it. :-)

I agree - I was there last month for a few days and thought it was just fine. People seemed warm enough to me. Everywhere we went people were very friendly and helpful. We had a bit of a mishap as my friend forgot his sleeping bag and we were about to do a backpacking trip and fortunately the Ace Hardware had one - they actually have a LOT of stuff at that particular Ace in Ocean Shores. Now, some of the surrounding areas definitely seemed fairly dismal and depressing and not just Aberdeen. But I thought Ocean Shores itself was fine.

[pnwguy2]

My comments about Ocean Shores were in comparison to the Oregon Coast. Yes this is about geography which nobody can do anything about. But that is the reality.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

My comments about Ocean Shores were in comparison to the Oregon Coast. Yes this is about geography which nobody can do anything about. But that is the reality.

It's a lot easier to get from Portland to Seaside than from Seattle to Ocean Shores. I remember when it was only US 99 (no I-5) to Olympia and a two-lane highway to Aberdeen. That was a trek. It is not much easier these days, with all the congestion and bottlenecks in the I-5 corridor, and a four-lane highway to from Olympia to Aberdeen.

The real problem is the local economy - just not enough money has been circulating. In the 1950's, the local economy was a three-legged stool - trees, fish, and whores. They cut down the trees, fished out the fish, and ran the whores out of town, leaving only razor clams and cranberries (and they're threatened).

The biggest hope for bringing money into the local economy is work-from-homers (WFH'ers) who have discovered that it has high-speed Internet, real estate values less than half of Seattle's, and the ocean.

“I’ve never seen anything like the current market,” said David Quigg, who owns Quigg and Co. Real Estate in Hoquiam, along with his wife, Jamie.

“Right now the average time on the market is six days and on average sellers are getting 96 percent of the asking price, which means that a few houses are selling under the asking price and many homes are selling over it,” he said.

Carrie Leinum of Century 21 Northwest says that when so many people began working from home during the coronavirus pandemic, they realized that they don’t necessarily need to be physically near their job anymore.

“A lot of people are moving to outlying areas and so we are seeing an increase in people buying homes here,” she said. “For one thing, Grays Harbor homes are at a price bracket that many first-time homebuyers can afford,” she said.

https://www.thedailyworld.com/life/r...-grays-harbor/

[Zillow's] sales figures found Aberdeen homes sold at 22% higher prices in March 2021, compared to March 2020 — the fourth-highest rate in the nation.

https://www.king5.com/article/news/l...c-2811f984caa3

During the first four months of 2021, 218 building permits were issued in [Ocean Shores], a total of $404,564 in building permit money for the city. During that same time period in 2020, 117 permits were issued, with a total of just under $190,000 in permit revenue for the city.

https://www.thedailyworld.com/busine...-ocean-shores/

[Bluefox]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

My comments about Ocean Shores were in comparison to the Oregon Coast. Yes this is about geography which nobody can do anything about. But that is the reality.

I don’t think anyone thought otherwise.

I wasn’t super impressed with Seaside OR, which we also visited. It was fine… had a sort of fun feel but also had an overall sort of… hmm politically correct… “weathered” vibe. I liked the HUGE beach and the massive volleyball courts that are clearly for tournaments which is cool. And I believe they do have a few nice hotels on the beach. But otherwise it wasn’t very distinguishable from that general area including Washington.

[Diana Holbrook]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

The biggest hope for bringing money into the local economy is work-from-homers (WFH'ers) who have discovered that it has high-speed Internet, real estate values less than half of Seattle's, and the ocean.

It will be real interesting to see if these kinds of buyers really stay for the long term.

[Botev1912]

I would never move to Ocean Shores for WFH. There are far more appealing places with much better weather. Tri-Cities is one of them. Even Chelan sounds better.