Resort Lifestyle Community - Rain Shadow Areas? (Seattle, Wenatchee: condos, home)

[onthewhiteboard]

Hello everyone!

My question: what lifestyle resort communities exist anywhere in central/eastern WA that we can live in? For instance, Bend Oregon has places like Sunriver or Eagles Crest - anything like that in WA?

Rain is not on my list of must-haves. Sun is.

Does this exist in WA?

Thank you!

[Hemlock140]

Sun in summer. Actually they are having an auction soon at Suncadia in Cle elum, with starting bids at $70,000 on condos that were close to $400,000 up to over a million. They finished building the resort community right before the economy went. Beautiful area but the do get snow in winter as it's on the eastern slopes of the cascades.

Suncadia Lodge Condo Auction | The Suncadian

[nullgeo]

As you will read repeatedly now, no, sun does not exist here in western Washington other than about three months a year ... four months on a good year. The "rain shadow" does not mean more sun, just fewer inches of rain. For that matter, a lot of western Washington doesn't get a lot of inches of rain ... but it stays wet and damp through light misty rain and on and off showering throughout most of the year. Rain shadow remains mostly overcast with less falling precipitation. Still pretty damp though. It really doesn't dry out except height of summer for a brief time. That's it.

Eastern Washington is not a big improvement except hotter and more intense sun in summers. A bit more sun on and off the rest of the year but nothing to write home to California about

The whole of the NW is a dominantly gray place. It is what it is. If it were any sunnier, it would be California.

[509]

Originally Posted by nullgeo

Eastern Washington is not a big improvement except hotter and more intense sun in summers. A bit more sun on and off the rest of the year but nothing to write home to California about

The whole of the NW is a dominantly gray place. It is what it is. If it were any sunnier, it would be California.

I pulled some cloud cover statistics for Seattle, west-slope of the Cascades, Tri-Cities and east-slope of the Cascades that were on a summarized by hour.

Eastern Washington is quite a bit sunnier than western Washington most of the year. It is however, just as dark and gloomy in Tri-Cities as Seattle from mid-December to mid-February. You do not want to be anywhere near the northwest during that time period. I do not think it approaches the 300 days of sunshine the chamber touts over here, but it is much, much sunnier over here. You can't have a desert without sun!

The resort lifestyle around Bend is almost unique to Oregon. We are trying to find similar communities in the southwest in small cities and towns and they just do not exist.

Desert Canyon outside of Wenatchee is a golf community, but hardly a resort type development.

[nullgeo]

Originally Posted by 509

I pulled some cloud cover statistics for Seattle, west-slope of the Cascades, Tri-Cities and east-slope of the Cascades that were on a summarized by hour.

Eastern Washington is quite a bit sunnier than western Washington most of the year. It is however, just as dark and gloomy in Tri-Cities as Seattle from mid-December to mid-February. You do not want to be anywhere near the northwest during that time period. I do not think it approaches the 300 days of sunshine the chamber touts over here, but it is much, much sunnier over here. You can't have a desert without sun!

The resort lifestyle around Bend is almost unique to Oregon. We are trying to find similar communities in the southwest in small cities and towns and they just do not exist.

Desert Canyon outside of Wenatchee is a golf community, but hardly a resort type development.

I would be interested to view those stats ... could you link?
I have lived here in the NW since 1970. I have spent most of my time on the "wet side", but have also owned property and spent a lot of time -- at all times of the year -- "dry side". While I have enjoyed a bit more sun east side, it has not been my experience that it "is much sunnier" over there. Somewhat, though. And in the NW every minute counts And that is an important point: if you are a sun-oriented person, the difference in sunshine from one side of the Cascades to the other won't make you happy. "More" is not "sunny".

I agree that Chamber of Commerce claims are not to be relied upon.

[cabocurtis]

Resort areas like sunriver are rare in nw. If you go into Idaho sun valley fits the profile and sandpoint and cour de lane. for washington the closest I have visit besides suncadia is lake chelan wapato pt and also cresent bar which has newer vacation condo complex. Both feature watersports golf wineries and dry climate. Also skiing is relatively close in Wenatchee. Both fall short in biking trails compared to sunriver.