The Bellingham Real Estate Podcast
The Bellingham Real Estate Podcast
Ferndale Washington. Offering Small Town Living With Big Access. With Vanessa Treadway
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Ferndale offers a small town feel with quick access to North Bellingham, and we explain why that mix keeps pulling buyers north. We share what locals know, what newcomers miss, and the real-world factors that matter most when you’re choosing a Ferndale neighborhood.
• reasons families move to Ferndale for location, schools, and neighborhood life
• the biggest pros and cons, including amenities, dining, and small town pace
• how the Portal Way overpass changes traffic and daily routes
• east side versus west side trade-offs for commuting and convenience
• local lore like the Ferndale fox and the Metallica bridge
• the “Fernducky” misconception, plus demographics and housing variety
• what to watch for in flood zones near downtown and low-lying areas
• market performance, appreciation trends, and how prices compare to Bellingham
If you got more questions about Ferndale, you can reach out to Vanessa Treadway at vanessatreadway@johnlscott.com
Welcome And Why Ferndale Matters
SPEAKER_01Hello and welcome to the Billingheim Roll Estate Podcast. I'm Paul Walzati. I'm here with Vanessa Treadway. Welcome back, Vanessa.
SPEAKER_00Thank you.
SPEAKER_01And today we are going to talk about what is going on in Ferndale. And I wanted to have you on because I know you live in Ferndale. Of course I do. So that makes it pretty simple and a good reason to talk to you. And um, and I know you've sold several homes in Ferndale. And um, you know, Ferndale has been um it's been one of the, I think it's the second, the second most populous uh city in Whatcom County, and it's our northern, what northwestern and you know, bordering town, right? So it's it's very relevant to Bellingham. Um, you you moved to Ferndale a few years ago. Talk to us about why you moved to Ferndale.
SPEAKER_00Uh
Why Vanessa Moved To Ferndale
SPEAKER_00previously, so I grew up in Southern California. I moved up here about 10 years ago. We moved out to Bellingham County on Acridge. We were looking for that, you know, get out of the urban living sort of thing. Um, but then a few years later we decided I have young kids and we wanted to be more in a neighborhood with other kids for them to play with. And so we chose Ferndale because it's in between my parents. I have one, you know, my father lives in Bellingham County, um, and my mother lives in Blaine. So Ferndale is right in between the two. It's 15 minutes to my dad, it's 15 minutes to my mom. So um convenience, um, right near the I-5 corridor and um quick hop, skip and a jump to the Canadian border. So prime location.
SPEAKER_01And would you say, so when you when you why people move to Ferndale, why people are moving to Ferndale when they do, um, in general, what would be the would you think it's a lot of the same reasons you did, kind of for convenience, different things, or um yeah, well, I I can't really speak for everybody, but I would think a lot of folks move to Fernale because the home prices are a little bit less than Bellingham.
SPEAKER_00Um there is, you know, the convenience you have you're close to Bellingham, so you can access all of those amenities, the restaurants, the shopping, the waterfront, all of that. Um, but you're kind of removed from the per se big city of Bellingham and all that goes on in there, right? So it's a little more small town feel. And I really liked that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's kind of funny because you know, if you're not from Bellingham, you may not realize it, but if most of Ferndale, if you're looking at the North Bellingham amenities, like the mall and Costco and and some of the even some of the breweries on the north side of Bellingham, if you lived in South, or if you live in South Bellingham or like south of Fairhaven or in Fairhaven, Ferndale is actually closer, you know, to some of those amenities than you are if you're on the other side of town.
SPEAKER_0010 to 15 minutes.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So you really are very close to a lot of the North Bellingham amenities in particular or anything really off the Bellingham I5.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. It's a really it's a straight shot south down the five freeway.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So
Pros And Cons Of Small Town Life
SPEAKER_01what would you say are some of the pros and cons of living in Ferndale?
SPEAKER_00Uh, the pros of Ferndale, it is a small town feel. There's a lot of community. Um, it's Ferndale's huge. Yeah. I think people forget that, right? There's you have access to the water. Uh my family and I go to what we call Cherry Point or Glass Beach. Um, there's like a little kind of hidden beach, you know, just down. If you keep going west down Main Street, you eventually just hit it. Um there's a lot of rural properties and great parks, you get views of Baker.
SPEAKER_01Um that's some of the pros. That's really give us some give us some cons.
SPEAKER_00Some of the cons. They're again growing up in Southern California, right? I'm used to amenities and access to good food and entertainment at all times of day or night. Ferndale is truly a small town. I think it literally has five stoplights in town. Um, there's not a lot of dining options, there's not a lot of shopping, um, but it's changing.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, there's probably there's a couple newer restaurants too, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Um, so it's slowly the pandemic, just like every town, right? The pandemic really kind of hit Ferndale um pretty hard. But there's a lot of um rehabilitation going and art public arts movement, and they're really bringing in more businesses.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So things are slowly changing.
SPEAKER_01So basically you're saying the con would just be like less amenities essentially compared to like Bellingham even or whatever, except for that, yeah. That's right in Ferndale per se.
SPEAKER_00Right. But and again, it's not a huge con because you just 10, 15 minutes to Bellingham and you have all the shopping and dining you want. So it's kind of nice that a huge proportion of people are not coming into Ferndale. Yeah. Because it keeps the traffic down and and things like that, the small town feel.
SPEAKER_01Yeah,
Traffic Changes And East Side Choices
SPEAKER_01and you know, I also think it's important uh to bring up the kind of the the way Bellingham or Ferndale set up before they added that, before they added that um Fortnite overpass. The overpass um just would that be off port away essentially. Yes. Before they added this overpass on Port Away to go west, you used to have to either go down Slater and then go up, or you'd have to go through Main Street and straight. And during the busy, you know, at traffic hours, it was like it was like a one-way corridor in and out of Ferndale. And I used to find that to be, you know, quite an ordeal. Yeah. And um as far as like really could add to that short commute if you were driving to Bellingham. But now they've added this overpass, yeah, which is a really game changer for that whole section of Ferndale, I'd imagine.
SPEAKER_00It did lighten up the traffic through Main Street for sure and downtown. Um, because a lot of the residential is up if you know, if you go off Portal Way and up the Thornton Avenue bypass, yeah, all the residential is up on the hill, and you can go around, you know, downtown altogether. Yeah. So that's helped tremendously. I personally live on the east side of the freeway. So Ferndale, um, right, that five freeway splits right in between. So you have east side and the west side, and most the majority of Ferndale is on the west side of the freeway. Um, I chose to live on the east side because of the convenience and because of the traffic. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, yeah, and I mean the east side is like you you don't have as many as many close by, and the schools are further away and stuff like that. Yeah. But you you are you are literally closer to Bellingham, and um, and you're kind of almost that like North Bellingham Meridian, East Ferndale, it's kind of all meshes together a little bit.
SPEAKER_00It really does, yeah. I think I'm probably three blocks from the border of Bellingham and Ferndale. So yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yes. Well,
Local Secrets And The Metallica Bridge
SPEAKER_01what's something that you only locals uh in Ferndale would know, or people that live in Ferndale would know that people who are considering moving there um, you know, wouldn't know?
SPEAKER_00Um, that they would or would not know. Some of the things only locals know.
SPEAKER_01Sorry. That's a bad thing.
SPEAKER_00Some of the things only Ferndale locals know. We have a Ferndale fox.
SPEAKER_01Oh.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. I didn't know that. Yeah. My my daughter's very excited about that. She loves foxes. Um, so there's fox sightings. There's apparently a few little, I don't know what they call, little families of foxes that live there, and every once in a while they'll catch a glimpse, they're cutting through town. Um, we have some great parks. We have the Metallica Bridge. There is a train trestles bridge that's right in the center of town and it goes over the Nooksack River. And I guess for years since the 70s, someone has been painting um, you know, the Metallica emblem. Yeah, and this is uh one of the local, one of the little local lures. So Fernando is a cool thing. Yes, and every time someone has painted over it in the middle of the night, Metallica reappears on the bridge. Really?
SPEAKER_01Yes. That is awesome.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, for like the last 30, 40 years.
SPEAKER_01They gotta stop painting over that.
SPEAKER_00I know, it's fantastic, and the locals love it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, that's great.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
Busting Myths With Real Numbers
SPEAKER_01Um, and then what is uh misconception about Ferndale?
SPEAKER_00Uh Fernducky. Uh many people, I hear that often when I move to Ferndale, everyone's like, oh, you live in Fernducky. And I think it's a big misconception because we're not all rednecks. There's a lot of transplants from other places, and even folks from Bellingham are moving to Ferndale. Um, because you know it's close enough, but it feels like a world away, and home prices are better. Um the population of Ferndale is only about 18,000. I think the median age is 35. Uh, median income is about 87,000 a year. So, and they have a variety of housing options. You have, of course, the single-family homes, the acreage properties, the farms, multifamily housing. Um, you have waterfront living. I think a lot of folks forget about um you know the the peninsula, salt springs.
SPEAKER_01The unincorporated Ferndale. Yeah, that's just that's kind of going out to Sandy Point, not by the waterfront.
SPEAKER_00There's even a little pocket of Ferndale way up towards Linden off Guide Meridian, which is fascinating. So Ferndale really has a lot of reach.
SPEAKER_01Well, and I think that the Fernducky thing comes from the fact that you know Ferndale historically was more of a farm town. And and if you're looking for homes on acreage, there's a lot of selection and there's a lot of options out there. So, and the the suburban development has really been just like the last 30 years. Yeah. So I think probably a lot of the you know, the commun families that have been there a long time probably are more rural farming, more blue-collar kind of um, you know, community. And then also you have the refinery, yes, that's that direction, which is mostly more blue-collar jobs. And so you kind of have um, you know, you have a lot of the population that works at the refinery or works at a farm. Yeah, or did at least, you know, you know, so that's probably but now you're right, now it's just it's it's more so a big suburb essentially.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. The the main, I guess I would call it downtown or the main, like Ferndale, Main, right? Ferndale proper is uh very like not urban, I guess, but yeah, a lot of single family homes, multifamily housing, uh very populous. And then you kind of go outside of that and a lot of a lot of farms and larger properties for sure. But my understanding is in in the 50s after World War II, um, with the refinery, a lot of construction was built. So we have you know homes built in the in the 50s and stuff. Um I also heard, right, because Ferndale has a rich like pioneer um logging uh history. So there's a park in Ferndale right downtown, Pioneer Village, and they have all these old log cabins.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's so cool.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, hundreds of years old. Um very cool. Sits right along the river, and Ferndale has a great like communities program, and they do all these free events and during the holidays and the summertime, and it just really brings the community together.
SPEAKER_01No, that's super cool. I've seen that's really neat.
Flood Zones To Watch Downtown
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Um, while we're talking about kind of near that downtown area, for somebody considered moving to Ferndale, we um do you want to talk about kind of what sections incorporate into the flood zone? Because I know there is, you know, there is a not all of Ferndale, most of Ferndale's technically not, but there is a good section that's in the hundred year and has flooded before.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, so I I've been there six years. Yeah. And in the time that I've been there twice, uh, downtown has flooded. Um there's some low-lying areas, the plains off of Slater, um near the Lummy Reservation. It's all farmland, those have flooded. Um, you have some tributaries, so like Deer Creek, Barrett Lake, and the Nooksack, and they all kind of converge right around downtown. Um, and unfortunately, in 2021, it flooded, and then again uh last year.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00So, but again, the majority of Ferndale and all the homes are up on hills. Um, Ferndale has a lot of varying landscapes and topographies, so there's plenty of housing outside of those floodplains. But that is something to be aware of.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I think the way they they were able to build things up a little bit along the river, river. Um, the downtown area, it it's not quite like what happened with Sumas, you know, to that level, you know, especially more recently, but it's definitely something to be aware of is to check to see if the area you're looking at in Ferndale is in the flood zone for sure. Correct, absolutely. Um,
Prices, Appreciation, And New Builds
SPEAKER_01and then we should also mention, you know, Ferndale has for just investment purposes, it's performed pretty well um over the last 10, 20 years. Um, what are you seeing for the numbers?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, statistically about 3% year over year.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00Uh it's been a little flat this past year, I think, just as everywhere has been. Um, but yeah, Ferndale's performing quite well. I'm having bought during 2021 and the pandemic, I'm quite happy with the appreciation of my own home in our neighborhood. Um, I've helped sell some of my neighbors' houses. Um, they've they've done quite well.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, it it's really, I think that speaks to the population growth. Um, since it is become the second most populous, you know, city in the county. Um, it's that demand um has continued. There was a big, there was a big boom about what maybe five years ago where there was a ton of new construction, five to ten years ago. Yeah in 2015 through 2022, where you saw a lot of new development. Yeah. So there's a lot of newer homes, which is cool. Like if somebody's looking for new or newer, yeah. Um, a lot of really nice store development. And that's staying all about 100 to 150,000 below what a similar house would be like in Bellingham. Right. You know, like a nearly new house for maybe 650, 700, which is still a lot of money. But uh a pretty much new home in Bellingham would be probably more like 850, something like that.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, for brand new construction, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01I mean, there's and there's just not as much of it. So um, so that's so the appreciation's been pretty solid. Although, yeah, of course, everyone's been pretty pretty flat as of this recording, which is in June of 2026. It's been it's been pretty flat. But um, yeah, so anything else you wanted to add?
Final Thoughts And How To Reach Us
SPEAKER_00Um no, I I I love Ferndale.
SPEAKER_01All right, you're a fan of Ferndale.
SPEAKER_00I am.
SPEAKER_01Um, and yeah, so if you got more questions about Ferndale, you can reach out to Vanessa. But um appreciate having you on.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, thank you.
SPEAKER_01And uh thank you for watching and listening, you guys.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.