My step-daughter and her husband are living in WI, but want to move to the west coast. They love gardening, hiking, fishing, hunting and camping yet don’t want to be too far from civilization. They are both teachers and he has many skills, so could probably find work in a larger community up the I-5 toward Olympia. They liked Chehalis when they visited, and are now considering buying a piece of property that has popped up for sale and fits all their criteria. Any insights about the area would be welcome. Thanks!
I should also add that they are non-religious and fairly liberal so the concern is whether they would be fit in comfortably.
I have a customer there that I have not seen in a while. It is still pretty rural. He has a barn and horses on his property. Another guy I used to work with bought a piece of property along the Deschutes River (the rather small WA one, not the more famous OR one), bought a few old RVs, and has it set up as his End of Days survivalist compound. It will have its mix of suburban commuters, pasture-seeking retirees, functioning farms, and heavily armed paranoids. I would knock on neighborhood doors before committing to buying there.
You also have to be mindful of the flood plains. I-5 was shut down from the Chehalis River coming over the interstate 10 years ago.
Thanks, Magnetron, that’s useful info!
WI son and cousin in Seattle area. Can easily see being in western WA state- except for the rainy season (but not WI winters). Good place for liberals.
Respectfully disagree, wis. Only 3 counties surrounding Seattle can be labelled liberal; the rest of the more rural Western WA is pretty conservative, Chehalis area included. Magnetron is completely correct about the flooding - I suspect flood insurance is going to be prohibitively expensive (if anyone will be even willing to issue it). Since properties are quite large, make sure that the immediate neighbors are not some kinds of nuts; they will serve as a buffer against any nutcases that live further up the road. 
Thanks, BunsenBurner, I think they’re starting to waiver a bit.
Perhaps closer to Olympia they will be able to find more liberal crowd. Have they looked at areas north of Seattle? Bellingham? Have they checked what they might need to do to get the required certification to be able to teach in WA?
Agree with BunsenBurner’s comments and suggestions!
Yes, they’ve checked the certifications. Their problem is that they’d like some acreage and don’t have a lot of money,
Yeah, rural OR and WA (like rural parts of virtually every state–even Vermont isn’t all Ben & Jerry’s and Phish) are politically and socially conservative with some individual-liberty Libertarian values thrown in there.
My son lived there for about a year (6 years ago) (working for a former navy seal on scuba equipment). He took up target shooting and rat shooting at the dump for fun… “Not much else to do in the evenings, Mom.” He loved the diving but couldn’t stand Chehalis. Olympia is a lot more interesting and a lot more liberal. If you want lots of land pretty cheaply, it’s definitely a possibility.
I hope I am not scaring them too badly. The survivalist down there would not be a bad neighbor if you can put up with the occasional sounds of gunfire. His neighbor on one side is a heavy equipment operator and a good guy. On the other side is a PTSD soldier with cameras around his property who prefers to be left alone. There is a very nice farmer across the street. It would not be much different from anywhere else if you want acreage, people seeking isolation for a variety of reasons.
About 8 months of the year the land in Western Washington is mud. You either leave it in timber and live in the shade or clear it and fight the battle of the blackberries. I think if I was looking for land down there I would try east of I-5 closer to elevation or farther west out in the rain. Eatonville? Willapa?
As a Wisconsin transfer from the western states, I would warn them that the rural west can be a lot more polarized than what we are used to even in increasingly conservative Wisconsin. The Christianity more fundamental, the anti gov’t sentiment stronger. However there are good people everywhere, and if you can approach folks with tolerance and respect hopefully it would be returned. When you find those who share your values in those areas, you stick together a bit tighter. However with rural land there can be large differences in use philosophies that might grate with immediate neighbors, so really eyeball the neighboring properties.
I adore Washington however, as there is no place prettier or more geographically diverse.
Thanks for the liberal/conservative heads up in #5. My bad…
Yes- my home state of Wisconsin has been going downhill in recent years- we voted and moved but it did no good in 2012 (recall election). Cities are so different than small towns and rural areas.
It looks like discouraging the kids move is in order. The Seattle-Tacoma(?)-Olympia area would be much nicer for liberals (an old college friend is at Evergreen- different).
You can find rural areas/towns with high numbers of liberals in WA (just as you can in other states).
a) near the universities for example. Walla Walla has Whitman, Spokane has a number of universities, Pullman has WSU, Ellensburg has CWU, Bellingham has WWU. All are great areas for hiking, fishing, hunting and camping. The faculty who I know at UIdaho and WSU (both in Pullman area) love the area for the outdoor opportunities.
b) then there are the unexpected rural liberal hotspots like Twisp. Leavenworth and Winthrop are also more liberal perhaps because of the big outdoor recreation industry in those towns. Tiny Mazama (near Winthrop) is another liberal mecca (and big outdoor recreation area though land has become pricey there).
c) Many of the islands (San Juan) tend to be (more) liberal—though land would not be cheap.
I’m fascinated–is it really true that a town with fewer than 1000 residents is a hotspot of something? And that that thing is liberal politics? I’m not kidding–genuinely fascinated. Tell me more!
Agreed.
One of my younger friends who married a local from one of the Seattle suburbs is currently having some tensions with his spouse and in-laws due to the fact they’re much more conservative than the staunch conservatives he knew from his rural NE town growing up and the recent election. Basically, once you get outside of urban Seattle with some exceptions, it gets staunchly conservative pretty fast.
Incidentally, this came up when he confided that his spouse and in-laws were a bit steamed about my sharing FB posts about allegations of the current administration’s Russian contacts and tying it to Valentine’s day and chocolates made jokingly by other friends.
Mrs. T and I spent quite a few years looking seriously at the Chehalis/Centralia area as it is about equidistant between some of our family members. The problem for us was the great disparity in incomes and costs. The NW had huge influx of retiring Californians beginning in the period about 30-40 years ago. This served to drive up housing costs without as big an impact on the price of labor. Hence, costs rose faster than incomes. That whole area used to be a great place to live and raise a family. The influx of Californians also brought in a different brand of liberalism than is native to the Washington area. Native Washingtonians tend to be more of the nature-centered, fiscally moderate types and not really extreme in their viewpoints. The Californians moving in tended to bring in more authoritarian big government views. That had the effect of further polarizing the populace. Remember, Washington is the only ‘Blue’ state that does not have an income tax. This is a remnant of their more conservative past. The area is beautiful and there are good people in abundance regardless of political bent. Don’t be afraid of the fringe-right types. They just want to be left alone. Unless you get in their business, they will be more like your weird uncle than a real threat to anyone.
This conversation has really been informative, thanks all!