Letters to the editor
Published 1:30 am Saturday, September 6, 2025
Outsiders have bought up our beach properties
Sometime “someone” could write about the fact that both beaches have sold most properties to Airbnbs and other short term rental programs.
When I first moved home from New York City, I met with hundreds of people in my job as a financial advisor, stationed at branches at TwinStar, between Olympia and Vancouver so, I met a lot of people.
I went independent in 2007 and joined the country’s largest independent broker dealer in the country. I spent a large part of my budget on The Daily World so people knew where I went, as my non-compete was in effect, they came and their families and friends came. Back then, everyone subscribed.
Fast forward, I am 100% remote and work here in rural McCleary on land in my family for 100 years.
It means something to have a home, especially land that ancestors paid taxes on and fought weather and politics and everything else to keep.
In the course of all this, I met many families that hold vast amounts of real estate, here in Grays Harbor, not the usual names you hear, not the five families, if you will but people that own between 12 and 22 houses and this was over 10 years ago.
So there are plenty of homes around, it’s just that some little piggies have used the generous 1031 Exchange laws to build their empires. They can raise the rent, sell the houses, play monopoly when most folks just want a place to call home. The particular two couples I knew fairly well, had millions and millions of dollars in real estate back then, before the 2020 lift to all boats.
I don’t deny people getting wealthy or staying wealthy using existing laws, it just grates on me when no one mentions the fact that a few families own all the housing along with the Californians, New York residents and other states that bought up our beaches.
This has all happened in the 23 years since returning from 19 years in New York City.
Has anyone else noticed?
Thanks for reading, I liked reading your discovery of my home area.
Dee Harrington
McCleary
Trump’s tariffs are paid by you and me
Tariffs are paid by you and me. When goods arrive at U.S. ports a tariff is charged on those goods. It is not paid by the country that is exporting those goods, it is paid by the business that is importing them.
The reason it matters to those countries, whose goods are being tariffed, is because the cost of those goods will rise, and the demand for those goods will decrease (you can’t afford it). This is why foreign countries are so eager to make deals on tariffs. Not because they will pay more but because they will sell less.
What business out there is going to eat the cost? Would you? This is a big globe, and as we are seeing, countries can trade elsewhere.
If you listen to Donald Trump, you would think that foreign countries are paying the tariffs, not you and me. After listening to his recent press conference, and even though I knew better, I looked it up again. He says things so convincingly that you wonder — am I crazy? Do I have the facts mixed up? Check the facts. Always check the facts. I checked, and I’m not the one who was crazy.
I am writing this because I think there are plenty of people who don’t understand how tariffs work. If you listen to Donald Trump, you certainly aren’t going to understand how they work.
I was a cashier for 10 years and watched the price of goods from China almost double because of his tariffs in his last term. It took almost a year to see the damage but it was evident. This doesn’t even address the tariffs that other countries have levied on us in retaliation.
I don’t understand why there isn’t more outrage over the war on tariffs that Donald Trump continues to wage. If he’s mad at a country, for whatever reason, he raises the tariffs, but the one who ultimately pays the price is you and me. There are other ways to bring industry back home.
Trump said it himself — you are going to experience some pain — short term pain — and then it will get better.
I say, how about if it just gets better, and better and we don’t suffer over his politics at all.
Elaine Rydman
Aberdeen
