Living, buying or renting in Bellingham, Washington

One wonders where all the money is coming from for this construction.  I think it must be "home equity money."  People, moving to Bellingham, are bringing their home equity with them. 

See more below photos.

Property values have risen very high in places like the San Francisco Bay area.  People who bought houses, back in the 1970s when one could still do this for around $50,000, are now selling for $1.5 million.  Then they are moving to towns like Bellingham and inflating our housing market.  Local houses are inflating from around $100,000 to around $200,000.  There is still money left over for things like "home remodeling."  This is creating quite a few construction jobs county wide. 

Some might say the local economy is fueled on "home equity loans."  Of course many don't have to take out loans.  Some just "write a check for it."  A while back I talked to a person who bought a house and just wrote a check for it, no loan at all.  He is retired and Bellingham is listed high in AARP magazine's retirement cities list.  Some locals would like to burn every copy of AARP magazine fearing Los Angeles headed north. 

There are quite a few folks who have retired early.  Some as early as their 40s.  They have so much money that they don't need to work, though many are cutting it close. 

A few people, I know, moved here and then decided to look for work after they bought their house and settled.  Soon they found the local job market being little but construction jobs, for the strong handed, and dishwasher type employment.  There are a few jobs at places like Western Washington University. 

Many folks have basically retired in their 50s and will coast on until age 62; even though that isn't exactly what they had planned. 

Several large apartment complexes are going in downtown.  This is following a philosophy of "quality" urban development.  Creating space for people to live, with fewer cars;  "pedestrian friendly high density development."  There are about 5 big projects going in now and many more, planned. 

Several years ago I wrote a few letters to the editor of the Bellingham Herald suggesting the concept of pedestrian friendly housing as a way to revitalize downtown.  Since downtown retailing can't compete with all the malls, why can't downtown work as a pedestrian oriented living space?  Also a cultural space. 

I can't claim credit for this happening, but many other people have similar visions.  The city is promoting urban "in filling now."  Also developing bike trails and open spaces.  It is quite exciting to watch this piece together. 

I hope apartment construction will help to keep the vacancy rate high enough so rents don't go through the roof.  Otherwise folks like me, with out lots of money, could get squeezed out. 

On the other hand, we are getting a lot of "show boat," "fake farm" homes in un incorporated parts of the county.  Land use planning and farm preservation are big issues.  Will this county survive, or turn into another LA? 

I remember hearing that Los Angeles started as "the garden city."  There's that "California ranch style house" with emphasis on the word ranch. 

Too many people are having kids so population, world wide, keeps right on growing. 

Meanwhile we try to plan so this doesn't destroy us.  In some ways, I like Bellingham better, now, than when I moved here in the 1970s.  The malls have taken some of the hustle out of downtown.  More bike paths are being built and those kind of things are better appreciated as the city grows.

Comment from a reader

Thanks for your insight on the continuous growth of Bellingham, albeit good and bad.

Please don't forget though that a lot of people are now working out of their homes and "tele-commuting" to work as myself. I still work (contract) for the company in California that I worked for when I lived there, however, I work via the Internet these days. I know quite a few people in Bellingham who do the same thing. This has allowed many people to move where they want to and not have to worry about the commute hassles anymore. And we are contributing to the business and economy of Bellingham even though we don't really work for companies here.

Also, please remember a lot of people made a lot of money in the stock market in the dot.com heyday of the mid to late 90s. I feel this gave many people the ability be become upwardly mobile and many of them are set for life (unles their money is still invested in the stock market which is struggling to recover after this God-awful session with George Bush at the helm). 
Just thought I'd add my two cents worth to your commentary. 

Thanks again for your great articles...Loren