Bellingham, the ugly truth.... (Anacortes, Pacific: best city, find a job, to buy)

[sberdrow]

Originally Posted by Linson

Why I'm choosing Bellingham.

i grew up up and down the west coast. born in SF, California; raised in southern Oregon; a couple of years in central California; and a couple of years in SW Washington. right outta high school i joined the military which landed me in El Paso, TX. so, i went from Washington to West Texas. it is a hot, dry, brown, barren, boring, ugly area. i was in the Army for 10 years. i got out and joined the Border Patrol in 2004. this landed me in an even worse place than El Paso. alot worse.

so i now have a choice of where to move. my first choice was Bellingham - green, clean, lot's of outdoor stuff to do. and it is off the Border - if you dont have kids in public school you may not appreciate the significance. my son is not in school yet but he will be in a couple of years. plus i saw it in a bunch of "best places" lists. then i started looking houses online. major problem there. i didnt even know that 1 bedroom houses or places with only 1 bathroom still existed. i had also never seen a quarter million dollar + mobile home. i scratched B'ham off the list and put in for Corpus Christi, TX. not my ideal place to live, but you could apparently get new 2500+ sqft homes for around 200K. and it at least has the beach.

so i went down to Corpus and looked around. a realtor took me to look at a few houses. as it turns out, the property taxes are so high in Corpus, that it is actually cheaper in Bellingham. y'all say that property taxes are high in Whatcom Co. how does 4-500 dollars a month sound? plus HOA dues for many of around 200-250 a month. plus due to the hot, humid weather central air conditioning is required for most of the year, which leads to 3 and 4 hundred dollar monthly electric bills. so, overall the cost of living seems roughly equal. Bellingham, WA and Corpus Christi, TX are two of the very few locations in my profession that would broadly be considered "nice places to live." so since i'm sick of Texas anyway, plus sick of the heat, sick of it being 75 degrees and sunny on Christmas day, and Corpus was more or less a compromise that didnt turn out to have the benifit of lower cost of housing - yeah i'm going back to Washington baby.

YOU NAILED IT. Texas SUUUUUUUKS if your from the Pacific NW. Reading all these gripes, I would love to have these people move to Austin Texas, and pay 6000 in taxes a year on a 225,000 house, deal with the crime, deal with the sex offenders, deal with the flat ugly barren land, deal with rattle snakes, copperheads and other deadly snakes in your back yard. Deal with the intense humidity for 5 straight months. I tried to move to Bellingham where I lived many years ago when I was young, but I just could not find a job. Bellingham was absolute paridise on earth. Lake padden at 6 am is one the most welcome sites my eyes have seen. Whats wrong with you Bellinham haters.

[Linson]

pay 6000 in taxes a year on a 225,000 house, deal with the crime, deal with the sex offenders, deal with the flat ugly barren land, deal with rattle snakes, copperheads and other deadly snakes in your back yard

dont forget about those damned "goathead stickers" - cant walk barefoot on your lawn...in the unlikely event that you have a lawn.

[sberdrow]

Originally Posted by Linson

dont forget about those damned "goathead stickers" - cant walk barefoot on your lawn...in the unlikely event that you have a lawn.

you bellingham people don't know how lucky you are to be free of that damn texas star everwhere......and that flag, that flag can be seen from ever vantage point. Well I could go on and on and on but this isn't a texas board. I just wish someone would have hired me (an award winning top retail sales person, hint hint) in bellingham.

[jim97205]

I have been looking at property in the Whatcom/Skagit County area and just discovered this site.

I have lived in the NW all of my life and am half Canadian half American. I was born in the US of Canadian parents. My father was transfered by the company he worked for to the US back in the 60's and then along came me. We then returned to Canada where I went to school for a few years and then back to the US where I completed high school and University.

Now I wish to return to the area along the border so that visiting relatives in Canada is not such a trip as I am not getting any younger.

Here is my situation in general terms. I am looking for a piece of land that is no more than 2.5 ac and no less than 1 ac. with a home on it. A mfg home is fine with me. I have 8...yes 8 dogs and want to find an area that I can live in peace and so can my neighbours.

My present home was in a rural area but the property owner next to me sold his farm and now we all know that a developer bought the property and the dozers are moving and and I want to be gone before there are any problems.

I can sell my property and pay cash for my new home and live very well.

Any suggestions as to areas that have low crime and I would not have a hassle about my dogs. I presently have 1 ac. of my property fenced with 6' high cyclone fencing with dig guards along the ground so I never have any escapes.

Oh and I am not an animal horder. Father dog was the only one here, late one night 4 years ago someone thru a Saffordshire Terrier over the gate, she hid in the field until discovered. The father dog became interested before I realised what was going on. She had kids and I was going to adopt them out, however the local news was full of stories of animal abuse, so I decided that I have the money and the land and kept all of her kids. All are fixed and when they are gone I am free at last.

[CassiePants]

Originally Posted by sberdrow

YOU NAILED IT. Texas SUUUUUUUKS if your from the Pacific NW. Reading all these gripes, I would love to have these people move to Austin Texas, and pay 6000 in taxes a year on a 225,000 house, deal with the crime, deal with the sex offenders, deal with the flat ugly barren land, deal with rattle snakes, copperheads and other deadly snakes in your back yard. Deal with the intense humidity for 5 straight months. I tried to move to Bellingham where I lived many years ago when I was young, but I just could not find a job. Bellingham was absolute paridise on earth. Lake padden at 6 am is one the most welcome sites my eyes have seen. Whats wrong with you Bellinham haters.

There are many different parts of Texas though. I lived in the Dallas area for a couple years and found it great. East Texas is green. It's west Texas that's so barren. Personally I'd pick east Texas over WA any day, but that's coming from someone who grew up in Louisiana.

[gmmhastings]

Thanks so much for your input Trilogy. You read many different opinions here on C-D and one has absolutely no idea who these people are, so I tend to take most of it with a grain of salt. Your comments made a whole lot of sense.

[sberdrow]

Originally Posted by CassiePants

There are many different parts of Texas though. I lived in the Dallas area for a couple years and found it great. East Texas is green. It's west Texas that's so barren. Personally I'd pick east Texas over WA any day, but that's coming from someone who grew up in Louisiana.

Well, I think a person should just go where they can be happy. I have not met many who would consider moving back to Texas who now live in Wa.

[mosskeeper]

Originally Posted by RandyV

I am moving out to this area soon. I read a post where someone said stay away from a certain area in Bellingham. Could someone tell me where that might be?

You'd probably want to stay away from anything near or around the Western Washington campus. For at least the past decade if not more the college kids have taken over the big old houses. To keep their individual rent amounts within reason there can be too many of them living in any one place. Living within close proximity can be difficult to say the least.

[VoiceofReason]

Bellingham is no different from many other communities that have been "discovered" over the past 30 years. Santa Fe, Bend, Bozeman, etc. have all had a similar challenge in dealing with an unexpected, and rapid, popularity (and population) boom. The flipside that's been largely ovrlooked here is that the lifelong residents who were living in these communities often were taxed out of their (paid for) homes, but also made a relative fortune from the sale of these homes. They were living in a $40,000 house one year and a $400,000 house the next, due to the skyrocketing real estate prices. The windfall from the sale of their homes may not have allowed them to re-purchase in the immediate area, but did give them the luxury of choice when looking at their next options.

We're probably in the category of the "Despised Interlopers" when it comes to Bellingham, having just moved up from Seattle 2 years ago. We are self employed consultants and have met quite a few other transplants who also moved here to take advantage of the good things the city has to offer for entrepreneurs and telecommuters. We chose Bellingham, because (despite all the whining) it is still a far superior place to raise a family than Seattle. The real estate market is hot, but prices are well below what we would have invested in Seattle, where we were looking at 1200 s'f on a tiny lot for $750,000. At $500,000 for 3,000 s/f on 1/4 acre with a view of the lake, we felt like it was still a reasonable investment.

Had bellingham continued to be the unnoticed, declining town it was 15 years ago, the same people who are complaining about the cost of living would be now complaining about lack of services and infrastructure. The tax base, and investment that has been provided by the influx of people and development is supporting the services and amenities that everyine is enjoying today - the Farmer's Market Pavillion, new Whatcom Transit station, City Parks, Children's Museum and the rest.

Bellingham has become a community in transition, and that's not always an easy pill to swallow for those who have a hard time with progress and change. One of the greatest things about Bellingham is the spirit of the town which still survives. People are vocal, involved and passionate about their point of view. If you don't like what's happening, then get out and vote for someone you believe will move your agenda forward.

We love our home

[jmhunter]

It's funny all of these negative arguments can be said for my home area of Salinas, California, which was the highest priced (comparatively to income) place to live in the US in 2006.

Wages suck, gas has nearly a 50 cent tax per gallon, there is a state income tax, there is a 8+% sales tax, there is extremely high property taxes... And I have grown up here and love it.

Anyhow, I've never actually been to bellingham, but I am considering a job in Bham, and my wife works for the worlds largest coffee retailer in retail management. I have driven through Bham, and spent a week in skagit cty in 2005 (may).

Rents seem cheap to us, and we are salivating at the potential opportunity.

Anyhow, just a lil rant...