My one year lease at the current apartment (and my first year living in Seattle) will be up in just about two months. I’ve been quite happy with the current pad: the rent is much higher than I want to pay (everything decent in Seattle is) which makes buying a boat in the near future much less likely, but it is a nice unit in a good neighborhood and within walking distance of downtown. My lease here was one of those “specials”, however, which basically means that you can count on a rate hike after the lease runs out.
I did not plan on staying in this apartment long term; this place was a snap decision made on a very short apartment hunting trip, and so I assumed that I would find a better deal or another neighborhood that I would prefer once I had been up here a while. Still, I have gotten quite tired of the whole pack-move-unpack routine and was hoping to stay for at least two years before moving on. Basically, I had decided that if the rent raise was $100/month or less then I would definitely stay one more year and if it was $200 or more I would definitely leave.
Well, I got the renewal notice a few days ago and they came down smack in the middle of the grey area between stay and go. I haven’t made a decision yet, but my mind has been frequently wandering to the topic of new areas to try out since I got the notice, so I guess my unconscious mind is already made up and the only real question is where do I move to next?
I am not ready to consider leaving Washington yet, so I can either try to stay in/near the Seattle metro area or try some other part of the state — I definitely want to stay close to the coast, however. I would prefer to stay near Seattle, but the whole reason this apartment is expensive is because everyone else does too and so finding a much better rent (why do the move hassle just to keep the rent the same?) in this area means that I would either be renting a so so apartment in a questionable neighborhood (not interested) or have a long commute whenever I wanted to go downtown (the whole reason to stay close to Seattle). A long commute would not be that bad since it would not be a daily work commute, but if I have to deal with the hassle of driving, traffic jams, and paying for parking when I finally get downtown, then what really is the difference between a 30-60 minute drive and a two hour drive aside from the increased car-radio time? Either way, if I can’t walk to downtown Seattle, I doubt that I will go there more than several times a year rather than several times a month as I do now and so the reason for staying close more or less evaporates.
At the moment, I am doing a little web research on Bellingham and am thinking about making a drive up this week to scope out the town (less than 100,000 people) to see if there is enough of a there there to keep me contented for a while. As for satisfying the occasional need to wander about a large urban center, Bellingham is roughly midway between Seattle and Vancouver so I would actually have two to choose from. Amtrak even has stations in or near the downtown area in all three cities so I should be able to forgo a car on those outings; the commute would still be a couple of hours each way, but I understand that the train hugs the coast for most of the route so it would probably be a very pretty ride. Real estate prices have been increasing fairly rapidly in Bellingham in recent years (apparently leveling off now), but it seems that the rental rates should still be much lower than Seattle which gives me the option of renting a decent place and still being able to buy a boat in the next year or two (the main reason I moved to Washington).
Oh yeah, Bellingham is apparently very close to the San Juan Islands, so it just might have a lot more to offer, not to mention some very very good sailing, than I would normally expect from a city of its size. I’ll just have to check it out and see.
