The Towns In The Pacific Northwest Where Retirees Are Actually Moving To
A lot of Northwest retirement moves are about one river crossing long. Portland households cross the Columbia into Clark County, home to Camas, and Spokane households drive east over the Idaho line into Kootenai County, home to Coeur d'Alene. Either way, they end up with a new tax bill and much the same climate. Idaho is where the region's older movers add up, with about 1,400 more households headed by someone 65 or older moving in than moving out in the IRS figures for 2022 and 2023, while more such households left Washington and Oregon than arrived.
The towns these newcomers pick are less alike than they look on a map. A typical house costs about $350,000 in Madras and more than twice that in Hood River or Camas. Jefferson County, around Port Townsend, has the oldest population in the Northwest, and Ellensburg, with a university in town, has a median age of 25.
Camas, Washington
In Camas, the Columbia River is also a tax line, with Oregon's top income tax rate of 9.9% on the far bank and no income tax for nearly every retiree on the Washington side. Shopping across the river still means no sales tax at the registers in Portland stores, although use tax is owed in Washington on those purchases. About 2,300 people 65 and older move into Clark County from another state in a typical year, and in the latest IRS count roughly 2,900 households moved into the county from Portland's Multnomah County, far more than from anywhere else.
Every weekday at 7:45 a.m., walkers with the Osprey Walking Group gather in the Lacamas Lake Park lot on Everett Street, near the 312-acre Lacamas Regional Park, where camas lilies bloom blue in mid-April along 9.5 miles of trail. The Lacamas Heritage Trail, a 6.9-mile out-and-back walk beside Lacamas Lake with a boat launch at Heritage Park, is open all year and rated for every skill level.
Downtown is a few compact blocks of NE Fourth Avenue, with Autumn Leaf Books a short walk from the Liberty Theatre, where beer and wine are sold at matinees. The average Camas home was valued at about $747,000 at the end of August. PeaceHealth Southwest Medical Center, a Level II trauma center, is a short drive away in Vancouver. People 60 and older can get lunch Monday through Thursday one town east, at the Washougal Community Center. The 50th Camas Days was held this July, with a grand parade at 11 a.m. and, two and a half hours later, the Bathtub Races.
Hood River, Oregon
Friday admission at the Hood River Valley Harvest Festival is $5 for those 65 and older, and this October more than 80 artists and craftspeople set up at the waterfront Event Site beside a farmers market with local cider and wine. Hood River County's count of residents on Medicare because of their age grew 24% between 2019 and 2025, faster than in any other Oregon county. The Fruit Loop, a 35-mile drive past more than 30 farms and vineyards below Mount Hood, is where apples and pears are bought straight from the orchard in the fall, at stops such as Draper Girls Country Farm and Kiyokawa Family Orchards, and many stands are closed by the end of November. The paved 4.5-mile stretch of the Historic Columbia River Highway State Trail toward Mosier is an everyday walk that is accessible to wheelchairs. The median sale price in town was $762,500 over the summer months. Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital has a 24-hour emergency department, and through Circles of Care, a free program of the Hood River Valley Adult Center, people 55 and older can get help with errands and rides.
Madras, Oregon
A house in Madras costs less than half of one in Hood River, about $350,000 at the median in the three months through September. In the latest IRS count, 261 households came up U.S. 97 from Deschutes County, home to Bend, more than five times the number from any other county, and roughly one in ten residents of Oregon's Jefferson County past 65 had moved in from another county or state within the past year. In Oregon, Social Security is not taxed and there is no sales tax, though pensions and IRA withdrawals are taxed at rates up to 9.9%. The hospital is St. Charles Madras, with 25 beds, and community education classes are held at Central Oregon Community College's Madras campus. A B-17 Flying Fortress is among the planes at the Erickson Aircraft Collection, where senior admission is $8. Cascade Lavender Farm is free to visit during the bloom, late June into early August.
Lake Billy Chinook, in Cove Palisades State Park a short drive southwest of town, is a lot of water for a place that gets about 10 inches of precipitation a year. The day-use areas have swim beaches, with parking at $10 a day for Oregon residents, and boats and houseboats can be rented at the marina April through October. Campers can stay year-round in the north loop of the Crooked River Campground, and above the water the Tam-a-láu Trail is a hike of about 6 miles round trip with 600 feet of climbing.
McMinnville, Oregon
Third Street in McMinnville is a six-block walk beginning at City Park, and it was named one of the country's Great Streets by the American Planning Association in 2015. Along the way is McMenamins Hotel Oregon, home base each May for the UFO Festival, when a UFO parade and a costume contest are held in the middle of Pinot Noir country. At First and Cowls, more than 60 vendors gather for the farmers market on Thursday afternoons, May through October. Cooks at the McMinnville Senior Center on NE McDaniel Lane make more than 200 hot meals three days a week, with Farm to Senior Center produce boxes and a monthly Around the World lunch added to the schedule. The 65-and-older share of Yamhill County was about 20% in 2024, and the summer's median sale price in McMinnville was $463,000. Willamette Valley Medical Center's emergency department is open around the clock. East of town, the Spruce Goose and an SR-71 Blackbird are on display indoors at the North American Aerospace Museum, called the Evergreen Aviation & Space Museum until this August, with a $22 senior ticket.
Ellensburg, Washington
Over Labor Day weekend, the Ellensburg Rodeo and the Kittitas County Fair are held side by side, with bronc riding and steer wrestling in the arena and a carnival on the fairgrounds. On a summer float through the Yakima River Canyon, a 27-mile stretch just south of town, the four-hour run below Bighorn Campground ends at Red's Fly Shop. Bighorn sheep and elk can be seen along the banks, and the canyon has five BLM campgrounds for overnight trips.
Ellensburg's median age is 25 because of Central Washington University, but the older population is growing fast, and Medicare enrollment among Kittitas County residents 65 and older has risen 26% since 2019, more than in any other Washington county. Houses sold for a median of about $427,000 in the three months ending in August. Kittitas Valley Healthcare's critical access hospital is on South Chestnut Street. Ellensburg's Saturday-morning farmers market on East Fourth Avenue lasts May through October, and on the first Friday of each month the Clymer Museum and other downtown galleries are open between 5 and 7 p.m. for the art walk. The Ellensburg Pickleball Club had 226 members when its four courts at West Ellensburg Park opened in 2024. Winters average about 27 inches of snow, and the Adult Activity Center on South Pine Street, open weekdays to adults 50 and up, has Tai Ji Quan classes and Tuesday-morning duplicate bridge all year.
Port Townsend, Washington
For three days each September, Point Hudson is crowded with boats for the Wooden Boat Festival, with a $28 senior day ticket for touring the boats and watching the sail-bys. A short drive away, the beach at Fort Worden State Park is a flat 2.5-mile round trip along the sand to the Point Wilson Lighthouse, walkable at any tide, with Mount Baker and the San Juan Islands across the water. The lighthouse is open for tours on weekends, May through September, and parking at the fort requires a Discover Pass, $45 for the year.
In Jefferson County, nearly 43% of residents were 65 or older in 2024, the highest share of any county in the Northwest, so a newcomer will have plenty of company at the Saturday farmers market. The Port Townsend Senior Association's lunch at the community center is a five-day-a-week fixture, and Centrum's concerts and the Port Townsend Marine Science Center are both inside Fort Worden. The town is in the Olympic rain shadow, where rainfall averages about 19 inches a year. The only hospital in the county is Jefferson Healthcare's 25-bed critical access hospital, and a Port Townsend home averaged about $627,000 in value in September.
Coeur d'Alene, Idaho
Tubbs Hill is a 165-acre natural area at the edge of downtown Coeur d'Alene, with Lake Coeur d'Alene on three sides. Its west trailhead is in the southwest corner of McEuen Park, and the 2.2-mile perimeter trail is free and open to anyone. The paved North Idaho Centennial Trail is 23 miles long, and its western end is the Washington line, the same border crossed by 969 households that moved into Kootenai County from Spokane County in the latest IRS count, nearly four times the next-largest flow.
Art on the Green is held on the North Idaho College grounds each summer, July 31 through August 2 this year, with a juried art show and free music on two stages. In a late-2023 Coeur d'Alene Press report, about 60% of the county's recent growth had come among residents 65 and older. In Idaho, income is taxed at a flat 5.3% and Social Security is not taxed at all. The median sale in Coeur d'Alene was about $569,000 in the third quarter. Kootenai Health, the city's hospital, has a verified trauma center and a cardiac surgery program. Cherry Hill Park has 12 pickleball courts, converted from six tennis courts in 2024. At the Coeur d'Alene Resort golf course, the 14th green floats in the lake and can be moved to a different distance from the tee each day.
Sandpoint, Idaho
The rule at the Farmers' Market at Sandpoint is that everything sold has to be made or grown by the vendor. The roster has more than 70 vendors, who fill Farmin Park and a closed stretch of Oak Street, and at the height of the season there are stalls in Jeff Jones Town Square too. The market is held early May through mid-October, on Saturday mornings and Wednesday afternoons. City Beach is a short walk away, near the trailhead of the flat, 1.7-mile Pend d'Oreille Bay Trail along the shore.
Schweitzer averages about 300 inches of snow, against about 63 in town, and Prime Timers, the mountain's club for skiers 50 and older, get a discounted season pass once they turn 65. Bonner County had about 3,000 more people on Medicare by age in 2025 than in 2019, a rise of 27%. A median-priced house in Sandpoint went for about $575,000 this summer. Hospital care is at Bonner General Health, a critical access hospital, and Travers Park has 16 pickleball courts plus free indoor walking. Meals are served Monday through Thursday at the Sandpoint Senior Center on Main Street, with bridge and ballroom dancing on the schedule, and as its director, Lisa Bond, said in 2024, "You don't have to be pushing a wheelchair to visit the senior center."
Caldwell, Idaho
Caldwell summers are hot, with average July highs near 93 degrees, and several of the town's big summer events are held in the evening. The Farm to Fork Market is downtown on Tuesday evenings, May through September, and the Caldwell Night Rodeo is held in mid-August. Idaho State Opens have been played at Purple Sage, the city's 18-hole municipal course. On the Sunnyslope Wine Trail south of town, wine is poured in a converted milking parlor at Dunning Estates, and Williamson Orchards, with 16 grape varieties, has U-pick fruit.
Caldwell's summer median sale price was about $418,000, and Canyon County's newcomers from other states include about 1,600 people 65 and older in a typical year. Caldwell has its own 150-bed hospital, West Valley Medical Center. At the College of Western Idaho, students 60 and older pay half tuition for lower-division classes. In winter, Indian Creek Plaza downtown has an ice ribbon for skating, open mid-November through mid-February, with helmets and skate aids free to borrow. Winter Wonderland opens November 20 this year, with more than a million lights along Indian Creek and free admission.
Weighing a Short Move
Because most of these moves are short, retirees end up weighing a few trades inside familiar country. A Portland couple who crosses into Camas keeps the same metro area and leaves the Oregon income tax behind, and someone who sells near Bend and buys in Madras gets Lake Billy Chinook a short drive away for about $350,000. Over the Idaho line, a pension is taxed at a flat 5.3%, lighter than Oregon's rates, and Social Security is exempt, though that tax is a new bill for anyone coming from Washington. Port Townsend has the Fort Worden beach walk and one 25-bed hospital for the whole county. Whichever side of the river or the state line a newcomer lands on, settling in is easier with a standing date on the calendar, whether that is the Osprey Walking Group at 7:45 on a weekday morning in Camas or a bridge table at the Sandpoint Senior Center.
