Long before 1792
The year Captain George Vancouver sailed into a bay that just one year prior the Spaniards had labeled "Seno Gaston," the Lhaq'temish people set camp under the long morning shadow of Koma Kulshan. Just as they'd done for millennia, the Lummi once more awaited the return of the kings – the countless salmon that would soon arrive and begin gathering much needed strength in the basin beneath this series of rumbling falls.
Before it was a town, a county, or a charted creek; before mountains had been overlayed with names of Lieutenants and bays of accountants; before a group of towns would merge to become Bellingham, Washington; when Spain, Russia and England were still a collection of tribes themselves; this land was called Whatcom – the place of noisy waters.
It still is today.
Around Bellingham.
.png)
A perfect day in Whatcom.
It's hard to fully articulate what a perfect day in Bellingham, WA might look like. You can go east to Mt. Baker and the Cascades for climbing, hiking, biking, off-roading, skiing & snowboarding; west to the Salish Sea, for swimming, paddling, kiting and sailing around the San Juan Islands; north to the international towns, cities, and ski resorts of British Columbia, or south to the islands, towns and cities surrounding Seattle... or you can stay nearby and mountain bike, forage, clam dig, rot on the beach, drink a beer on the bay (or while supporting local theater), tour local farms and collect charcuterie for a sunset picnic atop Samish Overlook.
To describe Bellingham in a single word would be this: outside. All seasons.
This paragraph hardly scratches the surface, so be sure to dig into our neighborhood guides below.
Real estate guides.
.png)
We know this market.
Whether you're trying to break into Bellingham's tough housing market, or make your next move as seamless and profitable as possible, we know what it takes to win in Bellingham.
Share your contact info and we'll send over our guide to Bellingham real estate.
Featured Neighborhoods.
Austin Hudspeth | Licensed Broker
Lettered Streets, Bellingham
John L. Scott Real Estate
About me.
I didn't know what home felt like before moving to Bellingham.
I was born in Arkansas, came of age in Chicago, met my wife Kelly in Denver, took a brief aside through Mexico, and then landed in Bellingham to be near Kel's family.
It was a whirlwind that ended with us living in the most incredible place on earth, while being trapped behind screens working mentally and emotionally taxing tech jobs.
Real estate was the perfect career change, turning this wonderful city into an office and the hard work of building genuine community into a living.
Currently, I'm interested in...
-
Dreaming about the future of the Birchwood Neighborhood and how to keep it wild, but grown and grocer'd (if you know anyone who wants to sell there, hit me up – I want to be your neighbor)
-
Meeting artists, makers, farmers and small business owners who are contributing to the health and humanity of our region and highlighting them in my real estate app.
-
Helping first-time homebuyers access homes they thought were out of reach through programs like Kulshan Community Land Trust, Habitat for Humanity, and off-market opportunities.
-
Meeting leaders of non-profits and neighborhood associations around town to better understand how contributions on real estate commissions might be put to use to impact our community.
-
Educating myself on the history of Whatcom; our tribal neighbors in the Lummi, Nooksack, and Semiahmoo (now north of the border); the work they're currently doing; and what partnering together looks like now as we live in the shadow of resource extraction, ecological and life disruption. Their lands don't stop at the 49th parallel like ours do, and I'm just beginning to understand the land and water underneath these invisible lines and what it means for all of us.
Alright, thanks for listening... on that note, I'll say: