Living in Bellingham
People who are thinking about moving here ask us what living in Bellingham is like, and what they usually mean is the ordinary days, like what a Wednesday in January looks like and whether they would get bored.
Derek grew up in this corner of Washington, left for Santa Barbara for a while, and came back, so this is a biased account. We have tried to keep it an honest one. The logistics of getting here are in our post on moving to Bellingham. This one is about what happens after the boxes are unpacked.
The outdoors is an ordinary part of the day
The thing that surprises people most is how close everything is. The town sits between the bay and the foothills, and the trails start inside city limits. People ride Galbraith Mountain after work. They walk the loop at Lake Padden with the dog before breakfast, or take the kids to Whatcom Falls on a Sunday with no more planning than putting shoes on. There are kayaks on the bay in the evening when the wind drops.
The bigger trips are there when you want them. Larrabee State Park is just south of town on Chuckanut Drive. The Mount Baker Ski Area is where people spend their winter weekends, and the San Juan Islands and North Cascades National Park are both day trips. We wrote those up in 6 Day Trips From Bellingham, and the parks closer in are covered in our parks guide.
The effect on daily life is that people here tend to have a thing. They ski, or ride, or paddle, or run, and their week is arranged around it to a degree that can seem a little excessive when you first arrive. You do not have to join in, but you may find that you do.
Winter is long and gray
Summers here are dry, mild and light until late, and they are the reason people move. Winters are dark and damp and they go on for a while. It does not usually get very cold in town, but the sky sits low for weeks at a time, and we think people should know that before they buy a house here.
People who do well here treat the weather as something to dress for. They keep going outside, and they have the ski area to look forward to when it is raining at sea level. If you have only ever visited in July, come back in the off season before you decide.
It is a university town, and a small one
Western Washington University sits on the hill above downtown, and it shapes the place more than any other single institution does. It brings students, lectures, concerts and a steady supply of young people working in the coffee shops, and the town is noticeably quieter when school is out. Education and healthcare are a big part of the local economy, along with retail and some technology.
It is still a small city. You will run into people you know at the grocery store, which you will either love or need a few years to get used to. There are galleries, theaters and places to hear live music, but it is a Bellingham-sized amount of each. When you need a big city, Seattle is to the south and Vancouver, BC is to the north, and having both within reach takes a lot of the pressure off.
Fairhaven, on the south end, is the old brick district with the small shops, cafes and restaurants, and it is where our office is. Fairhaven has its own page.
What people show up for
Ski to Sea is the event that explains the town best. It is a relay race that starts up at Mount Baker and finishes on the bay, with teams handing off from skiing to running to biking to paddling along the way, and half of Bellingham is either on a team or standing at the finish with a beer. The Bellingham Bay Marathon is the other big one on the calendar.
Week to week, it is the farmers market. People here care a good deal about where their food comes from. Farm shares are common, the recycling gets sorted properly, and you will see more solar panels on houses than you might be used to. It can tip over into earnestness. Mostly it means that people pay attention to the place they live, and we think the town is better for it.
Families
Families generally find it an easy place to be. There are parks in almost every neighborhood, recreation programs through the city, public and private schools, and a lot of other parents who moved here for the same reasons you are considering. Kids grow up outside. We do not rank schools or make promises about them, but we are glad to tell you how to check what serves a particular address.
The hard part
The hard part of living in Bellingham is housing. A lot of people want to be here, the town is hemmed in by water on one side and hills on the other, and that shows up in what homes cost and how much choice there is at any given moment. The numbers move too quickly to belong in a post like this one. Buying a Home in Bellingham explains how buying works here, and if you want to know what the market looks like this month, ask us and we will tell you.