WTF prices in Bellingham WA

M

Mckenzie_IHB

New member
I can't believe the prices up here. Some fools just purchased a condo for $829,000 at 1103 Taylor Street in Bellingham WA. I guess some people have more money than sense. Folks believe Bellingham is special and can justify the prices that are being asked, (time will tell). We were born and raised in California and we moved to Bellingham after visiting for many years. It's pretty here but we miss our grandchildren and hope to purchase a place back in California once the prices come down. Winters suck with all the gray weather and many people suffer from SAD, (myself included along with weight gain). If we decide to keep a presence here I think we'll only be renting, (hubby likes it here and the people are nice).
 
Thanks for posting about you area. I have looked into Bellingham in the past as a possible place to move to. It seems like such a nice area. However my family is from the Pacific NW and says the same thing about S.A.D. disorder as you have stated. Well at least you guys don't have things like droughts and heatwaves as we do here so that's good right? I had no idea prices were still so high there. Let us know how it goes there. It will be interesting to see what the market is like in the new year.
 
Bellingham is a nice area but getting pretty pricey. Right now we're renting a 2 bedroom condo for $1,800 per month in the Fairhaven area. It's great because we can walk to the market, bookstore and restaurants but it can get noisy. We are going to be looking for a cheaper place when our lease is up or we'll rent month to month if possible. I've noticed rents seem to be increasing on the nicer places which are far and few between, (there are some nasty rentals here). Also with the college here they rent at certain times of the year which is kind of a pain. Fairhaven is also seeing increase of expensive condos being built, (check out windermere.com). The job market also seems to be drying up but you can check it out on the Bellingham Herald, Simply Hired and Go2WorkSource.com. Your right about the droughts and heatwaves but we do have LOTS of rain. I do love the spring, summer and fall, (when it's not raining all the time). Winters have gotten worse each year we are been here so I am looking forward to getting a place back in California.
 
I'm wondering how much the market conditions in Bellingham are being influenced by what's going on in Vancouver, Canada. Although it's roughly 90 miles north of Seattle, I've always considered it to be more of a part of the Lower Mainland than anything else, especially with Bellingham being approximately 50 miles from downtown Vancouver.



Where I'm going with this is to see if the factors behind the RE market in Bellingham can be explained by what's happening north of the border. It's been at least 15 years since I've been to Vancouver, but I have known a few Canadians who have purchased property across the border as a nearby weekend getaway (Birch Bay comes to mind). The bonus at that time was getting a foothold in the USA by owning property here. I'm not sure if Canada has any restrictions on property being owned by non-citizens, like Mexico and Australia have. If that's true, put that together with a heavy amount of emigration from Asia into Vancouver, and there may be a possible explanation for the WTF prices you've been seeing.
 
Your right Mr. Yuk. We do have a lot of Canadians buying homes and condos here, (we know of several who own in Birch Bay Village). They can purchase property here but have to watch that they don't overstay their visit. We are starting to see prices come down in Birch Bay and Semiahmoo (Blaine) and hopefully it will work it's way to Bellingham. Canadians do LOVE shopping here at Costco, Target, Fred Meyer, etc. Sometimes half of the cars in the Costco and Target lots are from Canada. It's funny when they shop at Lowes they will remove their purchase from it's box and dump it in the parking lot so they won't be caught at the border. At Christmas time our shopping mall decided to put in Goodwill drop boxes for the discarded clothing being left.
 
I always thought Bellingham would be a great town once the stinky paper business died down a bit, as long as some new jobs came along to replace that business.
 
<a href="http://www.geocities.com/wwu777us/Bellingham_Curse.htm">http://www.geocities.com/wwu777us/Bellingham_Curse.htm</a>



The Unexplained "Curse of Bellingham, WA"

A dissertation on the most anti-social place in the world



By Winston Wu (WWu777us@yahoo.com)



?Once you?ve lived in Bellingham, when you leave it, circumstances bring you back?



?Bellingham is like a black hole, drawing people in and sucking back those who try to get away?



?The only constants in Bellingham are boredom, loneliness, and anti-sociality. It is the only place I know of where flirting is vilified as a crime to the female population.?



===========



Tell us if the descriptions are true!



:)
 
Thank you momopi for the reference to the Wu dissertation and the article therein. I think the piece in the Pacific Northwest Magazine called Our Social Dis-ease rings true. The item mentioned people are polite but distant to which I agree. Sociology professor Jodi O'Brien has a name for it: "The phenomenon of the plastic smile." She is the chairwoman of the sociology department at Seattle University. Seattle's "social script," she says, can ultimately lead to "alienation" and isolation." "Politeness is a poor substitute for intimacy and genuine friendship." I concur.



I wouldn't compare Bellingham Washington to a black hole as Mr. Wu did. You can get bored here particularly in the winter months and I can see why some would be lonely. Also I think the weather does have a negative effect on people's personalities. We were lucky when we moved to Washington as we already had friends in Bellingham and Birch Bay. We also joined a service club and a local gym in town which keeps us busy.
 
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