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Ocean lure: Why doesn't Washington's coast have
even more homeowners?
Northwest Life: Sunday, July 14, 2002
Home / Real Estate
By Elizabeth Rhodes
Seattle Times staff reporter
OCEAN SHORES — So
it's summertime — finally — and you're thinking that just
maybe you'd like to own a place on the ocean. Goodbye freeway
traffic, hello bracing surf!
Let's talk about that.
Maple Valley's Gary and Sandy
Hines have. Their dream retirement home is near beachfront here and
just days from being finished.
Virginia and John Stewart of Kent
also have talked about it ... and continue to do so as they try to
sell their waterfront Ocean Shores getaway. "There isn't any
place you want to be other than the ocean when the weather is
nice," she sighs.
But the truth is, Washington's
coast, from Ocean Shores north to Moclips, is surprisingly
unpopulated given the primal lure of the sea and the coastline's
rugged beauty. Unlike much of California, Florida or the Northeast,
where buyers fight to own oceanfront homes costing well into the
millions, buyers here can easily snap up an oceanfront getaway for
$125,000 to $250,000. And we're not talking a worn-out cabin, either.
Alternately, Ocean Shores
waterfront lots can be had for $60,000 or so.
And guess who's buying these
properties: mostly people from the Seattle/Tacoma area, for whom the
drive down is three hours or less.
"They want out of the rat
race," reports Barbara Locke, whose Ocean Shores firm, Locke
Construction, does steady business housing them. "What everyone
tells me is they're tired of the traffic."
What's available
Want to see what's available in
Ocean Shores and the towns north? Go to nwrealestate.com and search
Grays Harbor County listings. Information is also available on
various real-estate companies' Web sites.
This stretch of coast is in Grays
Harbor, a once-mighty timber and fishing county that in recent years
has struggled with hard economic times. North of Moclips is the
Quinault Indian Reservation. The miles from Moclips south are dotted
with tiny beachfront towns — Pacific Beach, Copalis Beach, Ocean
City — strung like pearls along a winding, forested highway that
occasionally reveals exquisite ocean views. Still, boarded-up
businesses attest to better days gone by. Only in Ocean Shores, a
flat, six-mile-long spit of land with a full-time population of
3,900, is development pronounced. There's the new Quinault Beach
Resort and Casino, the new multiplex movie theater, the go-cart
track, golf course, strip-mall shopping and dining.
Ocean Shores also has 1,000-plus
motel rooms, a library, seven churches and a thriving convention
center that hosts kite festivals, chain-saw woodcarving contests,
even a tow-truck exhibition. As a result, the weekend population can
swell to 10,000 or more.
Until the late 1950s, when a
group of investors envisioned a grand resort community to be named
Ocean Shores, the area was an isolated cattle ranch. Then development
— fueled by huge amounts of hype — began.
Utilizing the area's abundant
fresh-water sources, developers dredged out Duck Lake and a web of
canals. This gave Ocean Shores 23 miles of lake and canal frontage,
on top of its six miles of ocean coastline and 12 miles along Grays
Harbor Bay. Early estimates were that 80 percent of the town's lots
would be waterfront of one sort or another.
Soon the land rush was on. The
first lots sold for $1,700 to $10,600 on contract, sometimes at the
rate of 150 a month to Seattleites convinced that Ocean Shores, an
easy 132-mile drive away, was positioned to quickly become the
Northwest's premier playground.
It was not to be.
In 1970 the development company
went bankrupt, leaving property owners with only empty promises
instead of completed roads and utilities. Two years later, 20 percent
of property owners were in default, and investors were offering as
little as $50 to take their real-estate contracts off their hands.
But no matter what, nobody could
roll up the beach, so the essential lure remains.
Today Ocean Shores has clearly
rebounded, but because it's such a new city it's still small. The
town counts 3,200 private dwellings; most are houses built from the
'70s onward, with a few condominiums thrown in (some are time
shares). About a third of these are seasonal or recreational homes;
the rest are full-time residences.
Over the 1990s, the town's
resident population grew 83 percent. Utilities, including a sewer
system, went in and that induced folks like Gary and Sandy Hines to
finally build their dream home. Seventeen years ago, when they bought
their lot across the street from the beach, they talked the seller
down from $6,500 to $5,000 because the lot lacked even electricity.
This couple's situation is
typical of several trends that drive Ocean Shores real estate.
First, they're older. Anchor
Savings Bank's Bob Clark says his typical new mortgage customers are
Seattle-area residents either in their 50s and planning for
retirement or in their 60s and already there.
Gary Hines is 62 and recently
hung up his hat after 31 years with Boeing; he was a
quality-assurance manager. Sandy Hines, 60, is a bookkeeper nearing retirement.
According to the most recent U.S.
Census, the majority of residents are over 35, with the largest
single group — 18 percent of the population — between 65
and 74. Some 92 percent are white.
The Hineses are also typical in
that they bought their lot, one of about 12,000, many years before
building. Indeed, vacant lots are almost as common as seagrass at
Ocean Shores, but that doesn't mean they're available.
Thorn Ward, who owns the local
John L. Scott real estate office, says homeowners typically get
involved first as lot owners. "Buying a house is a commitment
you can't take lightly. But they can buy a lot for $1,000 down and
$100 a month."
This gives them a place to park
their camper (for up to 90 days per year) and dream about the home
they'll someday build. Today ocean or bayfront lots can be had for
about $60,000, with lake lots somewhat cheaper. Inland parcels run as
low as $6,000.
The Hineses also typify another
trend noted by Clark. He says many mortgages he writes go to
stock-shocked folks, who've watched the market decline for 27 months
and are seeking a good investment.
And indeed, Ocean Shores property
may be that. In the last four years, homes in this town have
appreciated 24 percent — 1 percent more than King County
residences — while the rest of Grays Harbor County has coasted
to a modest 7.5 percent, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service.
Also according to the Multiple
Listing Service, the current average price of Ocean Shores homes is
$113,000, with two bedrooms averaging a modest $84,000.
The Hineses were "just going
to build a summer cabin," says Gary. "But our 401(k) was
going down, down, down," says Sandy, "so we decided to put
our money in real estate."
Their new home, customized from
plans just for them, is a 1,600-square-foot chalet with a
second-floor ocean view. (Numerous oceanfront homes here have water
views only from the upper floors; building regulations mandate a
minimum of 250 to 450 feet from the shoreline, thus placing them
behind dunes. Bayfront homes, however, are truly waterfront.)
In opting for new construction,
the Hineses also typify another Ocean Shores trend.
"Usually you can build
something new for almost the same as you can buy one that's been
there for a while, and everything is updated," says builder
Locke. "The windows are better, the roofing is better, the
energy code is better. They're just better-built homes than they were
several years ago."
Locke estimates the average
construction cost per square foot ranges from $70 to $100, depending
on how customized the home is. And make no mistake about it, recently
built homes are just that. No jerry-built cabins these, they're full-service
residences with multiple bedrooms, bathrooms, often skylights,
sometimes jetted tubs, even an occasional swimming pool or elevator.
Those within Ocean Shores proper
have cable television and high-speed Internet access. Almost all have
electric heat; natural gas isn't available.
Although the Hineses also had a
vacation place at Moses Lake, they say Ocean Shores easily won out
for retirement.
"We like the town, and we've
always loved the beach," says Gary Hines, who also mentions the
amenity-rich community club available to homeowners. "It doesn't
matter what's on our minds. If something's bad, you spend about half
an hour on the beach and it all goes away."
Indeed, the couple likes the area
so much they've often visited in winter. "We just love the
winter storms," he says. "It doesn't matter whether it's
snowing or blowing."
Snow is rare, but wind is a near
constant, followed in short order by clouds and rain. Lots of rain.
Seattleites grumble that November
and December are gruesome because they deliver a combined 11 inches
of precipitation. Ocean Shores gets twice that in those two months
alone, and no matter the month, it never really warms up.
In July and August, Seattle
enjoys average highs of 75 degrees. Ocean Shores can boast only 67
windy degrees.
"There are only two seasons
— the wet and cloudy one and the dry and cloudy one," notes
National Weather Service meteorologist Chris Burke. He says the ocean
temperature — 50s in the winter, 60s in the summer —
controls the air temperature, making both about the same. "Plus
the entire Pacific is covered with marine clouds in the summer,"
and winter might deliver gale-force winds about twice a week.
Before folks put down roots, they
should consider whether they can tolerate the climate. "That's
probably the big issue," says Gary Hines.
Virginia and John Stewart aren't
put off by the weather. But the Kent retirees have decided for other
reasons that Ocean Shores won't become their permanent home. Thus
they put their two-bedroom waterfront getaway of five years on the
market in April. The price: $169,000.
"We see all the whales, the
bird life, deer run through our yard," says Virginia Stewart,
who says she and her husband "absolutely love being down
there." Nevertheless, the Stewarts have decided Ocean Shores is,
in her words, "a little bit too isolated," particularly
since the town's only physician left recently, plus their grandkids
no longer relish the trek out there.
As a result, "we don't use
it that much," she admits. Still, every time they visit, they
are reminded of why, after searching the entire Washington coastline,
they chose this beach hamlet.
The people are friendly. The
views, of the water, Mount Rainier, the Olympics, are glorious.
And best of all, "the prices
are so cheap compared to what you pay up here (King County) for
waterfront," she says.
Upon reflection, she makes a
confession: "We don't want to sell that bad."
So maybe Ocean Shores will keep
the Stewarts after all. |
If you want
to get away from it all, head toward Moclips
Northwest Life:
Sunday, July 14, 2002
Home / Real Estate
By Elizabeth Rhodes
Seattle
Times staff reporter
Isolated as Ocean Shores may seem, it's cosmopolitan
compared to the beach communities to the north of it — both a
plus and a minus for them.
For years, vacationers have been drawn to this area's
wild beauty, particularly to camp at two state parks or stay in the
few lodgings, which range from funky to deluxe.
Many love to dig for clams, or drive on sections of
the beach. Yes, that's been allowed for many decades, the result of a
state government ruling that the beach constitutes a highway.
Yet there's been little development along this 20-mile
stretch from Ocean Shores through Ocean City, Copalis Beach, Iron
Springs, Pacific Beach and Moclips.
"People who don't want density head for Ocean
City and up north," notes Thorn Ward, who owns John L. Scott's
Ocean Shores real estate office. He estimates there are 1,000 or
fewer homes along this stretch, and rarely are they for sale.
In fact, last week just a dozen were available in
Copalis Beach, Pacific Beach and Moclips combined. Some were blocks
from the ocean and had no view. The prices of those fronting the
Pacific can top $250,000.
Ward says he's seen little interest in building more
because the area is so remote and the obstacles so great.
For starters, it's impossible to build on much of the
beachfront land because of cliffs, water problems, shoreline
regulations or state ownership.
Then the lumber companies and others who own much of
the rest rarely sell. And the parcels that are offered, like the 15
prime acres currently available for $835,000, are completely raw.
Which means they're off-limits to all but the very rich or developers
who have the funds to divide the land into building lots and bring in
services, like roads and electricity.
Even the available individual lots can be a challenge,
says Ward. "You might have to put in a septic tank or drill a well."
And be prepared to act as your own fire department.
There isn't one along this stretch.
Currently a handful of view lots are available in
Ocean City for $45,000 to $60,000. While they have power and water
available, there is no sewer — meaning buyers must invest
another $15,000 or so in a septic system.
Those rare oceanfront lots that do have full amenities
can easily sell for $100,000, says Dana Richards, an agent at Beach Realty.
But as the area slowly grows more popular, it's a good
bet sellers will get their prices.
"One reason people buy (lots) is because it's
getting more and more difficult to get into state parks,"
reports Meg Kennedy, who's also a Beach Realty agent. "People
tell me, 'I just want a place to park my motor home.' "
And then the process begins.
They buy a lot and start building their perfect place
in their heads.
Then years from now the walls go up, and they become
beach homeowners for real.
Property agents say that's the coast way.
Copyright © 2002 The Seattle Times Company
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