Bellingham, the ugly truth.... (Port Angeles, Republic: fit in, day care, attorney)

[Fairhaven]

I find the most vocal people in this thread hate Bellingham or wish they could "get out". Sad how biased that makes this discussion. If all you have to do is trash a community online like this, well, it's pitiful.

The comment about how bad the traffic is reveals a ton. The traffic here is NOTHING compared to most of the country. So it seems you're comparing Bellingham to where, exactly?

Pick any community and you can talk all negative about it by talking around the facts. Isn't CDA that resort town with the child molestor stealing kids and killing them? I'd hate to live there and worry about my kids all the time.

San Diego beaches better for swimming? Check your facts... raw sewage from Mexico regularly closes those beaches, and surfers participate in research projects because of the respiratory and skin diseases caused by pollution in the water. Yuck.

One person here says Birch bay is dirty with raw sewage, and another enjoys harvesting and eating the clams. Go figure.

[Fairhaven]

By the way it rained heavy all day today in Bellingham. Rather than feel depressed as some here suggest, I found it amazingly beautiful. So fresh, and the greenery is lush and colorful, and the air smells amazing too. We biked (in the rain) with the kids for a bit, and then hiked the trails in Whatcom Falls for a few hours. Rain gear keeps you dry enough to be comfortable, and the colors of the ferns and red cedar bark is super-saturated in the northern light. The mosses were brilliant emerald green.

Yesterday 190 teams of kids, 5 kids per team, raced at Lake Padden park. Over one thousand elementary and middle school kids competing, with hundreds of additional friends and family spectators. I figure over 4000 people using the park. One hour after it was over, the park looked like it had never seen the event. The people care for the park, clean up their litter, and keep it beautiful. No police patrols, no dozens of city clean up crews, no overflowing trash cans etc., just people who care about their community.

We really don't need people living here if they hate living here. We need people who love living here enough to do their part of the work it requires to keep Bellingham a great place to live.

[CoastieTX]

And this discussion would be equally as biased if everybody did nothing but paint a rosy picture of what Bellingham is like. I'm not one of the vocal people in this thread but here's my thoughts, for what it's worth.

I would think that I'm one of the people "who care about their community" and would "love living here enough to do their part of the work it requires to keep Bellingham a great place to live." In fact, I think I fit that description to a "T," yet this young, well-paid professional is less than ecstatic about Bellingham.

Why?

The absolutely deplorable and obscene housing situation here makes me regret moving here and just want to move on. And the funny thing is that I make $80K a year and can make a large down-payment. But I still have yet to buy my 1500 square foot, three bed, two bath $315K rambler because they're in such short supply here.

Bellingham's entire housing market caters to out-of-state retirees spending $500K+ on their homes. How wonderful.

Since I've been here, I've only seen two (TWO!!!) homes in the $300-$325K range that I liked enough to make an offer on. Both times I was outbid and the homes sold within days of when they were listed. It seems like there's a lot of people like me in Bellingham but the market completely ignores us because it's more profitable to accomodate the retirees. Again, how wonderful.

Based on what I've seen here, I could never recommend Bellingham as a place young professionals should consider moving to. There are too many options that offer better housing, better weather, better employment opportunites, etc.

Bellingham - great if you're an out-of-state retiree who can pay cash for a home, but sucks for everybody else.

[Ultrarunner]

I agree that Bellingham home prices have appreciated greatly and I'm not sure what you mean by Obscene? Right now, there are places in the country, like Michigan, where a new car can cost more than a house...

High home prices are caused by demand, for what ever reason, and can be considered the "Cost of Admission" to a desirable local... If your looking for inexpensive homes, I would not recommend Bellingham.

[racechick73]

Thank you Coastie for your great comment- you hit the nail on the head! And for you Fairhaven, I do agree that if you don't like it you should move. We are planning a move to another state by the end of summer. Unfortunately not everyone wants to leave this area- they grew up here and want to raise their family here, but are forced to either waste their money on rent or buy an over-priced dump. I was born and raised in Whatcom County- I'm 34 now- and until about 15 years ago, I loved it. Fortunately my ties to this area have dwindled (a lot of my family has moved away), so moving out of state isn't a huge deal for me. But to a lot of folks, it is. It's definetely gone downhill around here- just an honest opinion.

[Ultrarunner]

Is there really anywhere that has not gone "Down-hill" over the last 15 years?

The obvious answer is that for many new arrivals is that Bellingham is better than where they came from...

Simply put, Washington is a beautiful and desirable place to live for a number of factors and I think, barring some natural disaster or the collapse of Microsoft, etal... people will continue to be drawn to the State in droves.

[Linson]

i am in the same situation as CoastieTX. i really wanted to move to the beautiful Pacific Northwest where i was raised, but on 70K a year, i am not going to pay HALF of my income on housing, and most of the other half on utilities/bills. so, to my disappointment, i have taken Bellingham off of my list for relocation. and it is due 100 percent to the obsene housing market. i am now looking at Corpus Christi, TX where you'd be AMAZED at what 200,000 and much less will buy.

so, having said that, i understand that it is easier to talk about the negative than the positive of the place where you live, but i am greatful to those who have been honest about some of the drawbacks of where they live. as for Bellingham, i would have loved to live there, but based on my own research there was just no way of getting around an 1700.00 or 1800.00 / mo mortgage payment.

so, i guess, enjoy being a botique town for rich old people. sorry.

[CoastieTX]

I knew before coming here that Bellingham was expensive and that it was "the cost of admission to a desireable area," as Ultrarunner mentioned. I never imagined, however, that there would be a complete and utter lack of nicer, 1500 square foot homes to choose from. The problem isn't with me - I've got the money and the income and desperately want to buy, but there's hardly anything to choose from.

Go fourteen miles north to Lynden and at any given time, there's at least half a dozen very nice homes for sale that are exactly what I'm looking for. Meanwhile, in Bellingham (probably ten times as big as Lynden) there is NOTHING but tons of 2800+ squarefoot $500K homes.

Fairhaven, you don't want people in Bellingham that don't like it and don't contribute to the community, huh? Why should I contribute anything to Bellingham when Bellingham couldn't care less about anybody except retirees with money?

Maybe I'll just go buy and contritube to Lynden since obviously Bellingham has no use for people like me...the amazingly fresh air and lush greenery doesn't mean jack when you can't find a place to live...

[Screenial]

Back in the mid 90's there was an honest builder in Bellingham that decided to take a risk and build some low income first time buyer homes in Bellingham. He didn't have much capital, but he decided to build a development with 1200 to 1800 sq. ft. homes in the $112K to $180K range. He refused to sell to investment groups, because he knew the neighborhood would just turn into rentals. He wanted a nice neighborhood for average people to raise a family. I bought my first home there, and many families like myself jumped in too. The development hit some major hurdles, the developer was working long hours, and he was getting dangerously close to his balloon payment. He had to sell some lots to another developer, and a couple homes to an investor for $95K cash each. He told me he hated to do it, but was working on a shoestring, and he didn't want to go broke.
It's over ten years now since that housing development was created, and from what I hear most of the homes are rentals now, and the neighborhood isn't that great. It was a good idea though. I'm sure that builder has moved on the profitable homes in the $500k range too.
I looked at Zillow.com, and it lists the house I bought in Bellingham for $112K as worth $257K now, BUT it claims the value has gone down over $34K in the last 30 days. Is the bubble bursting in Bellingham?

[E Roy Slade]

people are driving like idiots in bellingham lately-gas prices high so they all bought motorcycles and making tons of noise or hyena's like the loud ones

if you hate rain -dont come