Olympic Peninsula Biggest Open House Weekend

Dealing with Sequim vacation and Moving to Sequim, we could not skip this information. Yesterday, we received a brochure in our mail 'The Biggest Open House Weekend on the Olympic Peninsula' this Saturday June 27 + Sunday 28. The brochure was published by the Peninsula Daily News. What it basically means, Sequim and Port Angeles realtors joined the biggest Washington state wide open house weekend announced for this weekend.


One of the headlines on the front cover of this Open House brochure reads 'Over 100 Open Houses this Saturday and Sunday'! I could not resist and counted all the houses for sale listed in Port Angeles and Sequim with open house dates, hours and realtors: 116 homes + lots all together, 43 of those listings were for Sequim.

This is a great effort by WA and Olympic Peninsula realtors to get the housing market moving again. As in the rest of the nation, not much moved or sold in the past 1 to 1 1/2 years. I myself as a lay person see one reason for the current stagnation in the Sequim real estate market that house prices came down somewhat from the inflated prices yet they are still high (too high), especially, when everybody struggles to make ends meet in these days of economic slowdown.

People who originally wanted to move to Sequim, put their project on hold and rather stay where they live right now. This way saving money on expensive moving costs or house closing costs. Quite a number are not able to sell their homes in CA, AZ or Hawaii because they don't want to take huge losses.

Perusing the 100 homes for sale listings, I noticed that there are not many homes under $200K available for purchase. If so, they are really very old, manufactured homes or really small. First time home buyers might get tempted when viewing those homes, especially with the $8,000 tax credit.


We will have to wait and see whether this biggest Open House Weekend on the Olympic Peninsula will be a stimulus for Sequim home buyers. I hope that Sequim realtors were smart enough to advertise it way ahead on Craigslist or ads in CA and AZ.

Tags: Sequim real estate, WA biggest open house weekend, 100 houses for sale

Biking the Olympic Discovery Trail from Sequim to Port Angeles

Welcome back everybody to Sequim Vacation blog,

With our most recent post 'Sequim Summer Vacation at Best Monthly Rate', we invited everybody from the hot summer state to spend a cool summer vacation in Sequim at our vacation rental.

When you like the Great Outdoors and love being outside walking, hiking, biking like we do, you will love Sequim at first sight. This is not the X-Games. Sequim vacation is for everybody, young and old, the strong athlete or the weekend 'warrior'. Activity levels all depend on what you are up to. The moderate temperatures during summer definitely help to feel good with anything you do in Sequim and the Olympics. Here is our latest activity challenge.

Saturday morning, we decided it's about time to take up the challenge and ride our bikes from Sequim to Port Angeles on the Olympic Discovery Trail, which crosses close-by at Carry Blake Park. Here are a few facts for those who never heard about the Olympic Discovery Trail.

Some Trail Facts

The Olympic Discovery Trail has its history in the old railroads since much of the route is located on historic grades built in 1914 and 1915. Half of its 22-mile way from Sequim to P.A. runs along old railroads. Currently 34 miles are completed with more than 30 miles under construction. Just imagine, eventually, the Olympic Discovery Trail will run nearly 125 miles from Port Townsend on the Puget Sound to LaPush on the Pacific Ocean!

Our Olympic Discovery Trail Adventure in Photos

Saturday morning 10am start of our 22-mile bike ride to PortAngeles from Sequim.

1. Photo:

Eagle Habitat taken from trail entering Railroad Bridge Park. We met our friend Bob with his trike who tells us that he encountered some strong head winds going further down the trail past Railroad Bridge.

2. Photo

Wonderful ever-changing mountain views seen riding the trail westwards. Wind is blowing strong, against us!

3. Photo

Stop at Robin Hill Park for short break and warming up in the sun. We are both in shorts and feel the wind chill factor!

4. Photo

More beautiful scenery with wild flowers (see photo) and lots of bright yellow Scotch broom (looks nice but is invasive weed, my friend Sue told me) from trail leading now along Old Olympic Hwy.

5. No Photos

We did not take any photos of 2 - 3 gulches and steep inclines at other sides, where we had to push our bikes. At this point, we decided to keep going, even though a return half the way along, would have been much better - getting the wind from the back! Well, we followed our destination!

6. + 7. Photo

After 2 hrs biking, we are arriving at the open ocean or better: the Straits of Juan de Fuca. What a difference after riding through the woods for so long. Smelling the fresh ocean air. Enjoying the new scenery. Port Angeles is still 5 - 6 miles away. We take a break in the sun.

7. Photo

The last leg of the Olympic Discovery Trail runs all along the ocean into Port Angeles Harbor. It is a beautiful ride but be aware that the trail is mostly in the shade. With the strong winds facing us, we longed for some long pants on this part of the bike ride.

After about a 3-hr bike ride from Sequim to Port Angeles with several stops resting, drinking water and taking photos, we arrived at the new Gateway bus stop in PA, a few yards from where you enter the Harbor. We were extremely lucky that the Sequim bus was still there and even our bikes would fit on the front bike rack. All for $1.50 for the 15-mile ride from PA to Sequim. It was feeling sooooooo good to finally sit down, relax and be proud of our accomplishment of biking the Olympic Discovery Trail. When we can do, so can you! Give it a try on your next Sequim vacation.

Tags: bike from Sequim to Port Angeles, Sequim vacation, best Sequim things to do

Sequim Summer Vacation Best Sequim Monthly Rate

Hooray Sequim and the Olympic Peninsula are connected with Seattle and everybody else again, as reported in our June 5th post 'Hood Canal Bridege opened early'.

Sequim Marathon last Sunday received a big boost from the early opening of the bridge. About 300 more runners signed up. Sequim weather cooperated with the marathon runners with some cooler temperatures instead of our recent hot Sequim summer weather. Effects of global warming? Who knows. Most Sequim residents don't mind, at least if temperatures don't go much beyond the 80 F.


With summer temperatures rising in states like AZ, HI, CA or TX to temperatures past the 90 F and Sequim's attraction to summer visitors rising as well, we decided to offer our visitors the LOWEST monthly rate for their Sequim vacation at $950/mo. Compare to regular monthly rates offered by other fully equipped Sequim vacation rentals at $1200/mo.


Our fully equipped private 'Bell Hill View' 1Bd/1Ba Sequim vacation rental apartment provides a great home-away-from-home to visitors to explore Sequim, the Olympic Mountains + the Olympic Discovery Trail. Not to forget there is no better time than NOW to look for and find a piece of land as investment, buy a manufactured home for summer stays or for rental income or buy a Sequim Home at the lowest price ever in recent years. Sequim realtors are awaiting your visit. Let's see what else is there to do in Sequim in June.

Sequim Events for June

Today, Friday June 12, starts the Annual Driftwood Show in Carrie Blake Park, which will last till Sunday. Great family fun and free!

The Olympic Explorer Volkssport Club will host a 10-kilometer or 6.2 mile walk along country roads and the Olympic Discovery Trail. You may meet with the group Saturday morning before 9am at QFC.

Sequim Open Aire Market is open for business Sat. June 13 from 9am - 3pm. Located in Cedar St, over 60 farmers and artists are selling their products. Live music is from 11am - 2pm, and there will be lots of food stands to enjoy some breakfast or lunch.

Summer family fun is coming our way with this new season 'Music & Movies in the Park' starting June 23 (more events 6/30, 7/28, 8/28). This is a free event to Sequim residents and visitors alike. Local sponsors make this possible. Thank you!

Last but not least, Sequim Berry season officially opened with Camron Strawberry Farm and Graysmarsh Farm announcing the U-Pick season for strawberries. I made it to Graysmarsh yesterday and picked the biggest and ripest strawberries - took me an hours to pick - which we served our friends with Vanilla ice-cream. No berries from the stores can compete with fresh berries from the field! Another reason for a Sequim vacation!

Tags: Sequim vacation, best monthly rate Sequim, Things to do in Sequim

Hood Canal Bridge Opened Early

Here is some good news for all our visitors to the olympic Peninsula - and not to gorget the ca. 16,000 daily commuters - the Hood Canal Bridge reopened way early before scheduled construction deadline on 6/15. The promised $75,000 to the contractor for each day earlier opening made a miracle happen. The Hood Canal Bridge opened Wednesday night June 2nd at 10:19pm.

Everybody is more than happy that the Hood Canal Bridge is open. Sequim and the Peninsula are connected with rest of the world again! Sequim summer vacation for visitors, hikers and campers to the Olympic National Park can begin! You bet that the Sol Duc Hot Springs Resort appreciates that they can resume business, especially from the Seattle area, as normal.

It might be a little too late for the North Olympic Discovery Marathon from Sequim to Port Angeles this Sunday. There over 13,000 runners/walkers signed up by Tuesday this week, which is considerably less than 2008. The lower numbers are contributed by the organizers to the economic slowdown + the closure of the Hodd Canal Bridge. The marathon organizers still expect some 200 late sign ups from the Poulsbo area due to the early opening of the bridge.

The 26.2 Marathon Walk, Marathon and Relay Teams all start at Sequim's Carrie Blake Park Sunday morning, just a 2-min. walk from our house. Walks start at 7am and Marathon at 9am. All events end at City Pier in PA. Let's hope that the weather will cooperate. Forecasts predict that our 3-week Sequim summer weather spell is supposed to come to an end tomorrow. I kind of got used to the Hawaiian weather in Sequim!
p.s.
For those who consider moving to Sequim, visit our post 'Sequim Homes for Rent' with information on Sequim house rentals and leases.

Tags: Sequim vacation, Sequim Marathon, Hood Canal Bridge open

Sequim Houses for Rent

Summer is here, not just the beautiful Sequim summer weather indicating it but more emails from potential future Sequim residents show that people think again about moving to Sequim. We received the following email today from San Jose, CA. We decided, in agreement with the email writer, to publish it on Sequim Town blog together with our personal response regards the request for help:

"Found your blog and enjoyed reading it.

My son lives in Auburn and has suggested I consider moving to Sequim. He is flying me up in a week or two for a visit and to explore the area. I've been online looking at rentals and have found some possibilities on the Peninsula but nothing in Sequim. I'm not looking for a vacation rental but for a place to live. Do you have any suggestions as to where I should look for listings?

It will take awhile to prepare for the move assuming I'm going to like the area as much as I think I'm going to but I need to have some idea of what's available and at what prices.

Thank you for your time and consideration. Sincerely, Cassandra Andre"

We are always happy to hear that people really appreciate the information on our Sequim Vacation blog. From the above email and our phone conversation, I have the feeling that Cassandra already did plenty of research about Sequim as her future place to live and is just narrowing down her options where to live in Sequim.


As she is not interested in buying a house in Sequim, she is asking for resources where to find adequate Sequim home rentals at affordable prices. Here are our recommendations for her and others who look for a house for rent in Sequim:

Sequim Homes for Rent Resources

It has never been easier and more affordable to find a house for rent in Sequim than NOW. Sequim Gazette is a good place to look. I was not surprised to see how much Sequim house rental rates had come down during the last months! Good for the renters, not good for the owners.

In finding more resources for Cassandra, I also came across this forum where people posted their experience with Sequim. It never hurts to read personal feedbacks about the town you consider to move to.

Here are the current Sequim rentals available for lease by Action Property Management But remember this is a limited resource as not everybody lists his house for rent with a rental management company.

The Classifieds in the Peninsula Daily News always list new places for rent. We recommend to check those on a weekly basis. I just checked the houses for rent in Sequim + Port Angeles area today.

Last but not least, we told Cassandra to come here for a short vacation. Use the above house rental resources and make a list of the ones you take into close consideration: square footage, rate per month, location with physical address. It's so much easier to make a decision when you have had a look at a house from the outside. Upon our arrival in Sequim, we worked through a list of about 12 Sequim houses for sale. In the end, there were only three left which we were interested to have a look at the inside.

It's a little bit different with renting or leasing a home in Sequim compared to buying a house, yet still you want to feel comfortable with the countryside, the neighborhood and whether you can imagine living there.

BTW Cassandra, who is an artist and a writer who works from home, asked me to include her email address with this blog post. Sequim houses for rent owners may write her an email with details and photos about their house for rent. Good luck, Cassandra, for finding a nice house to rent in Sequim!

Tags: Sequim Homes for Rent, Sequim Houses Leases, Sequim Vacation