By Jennifer Langston and eric Stevick
Herald Writers
The alarm clock rings at 4 a.m. each weekday in Frank and Ruth Gonzales’ home in Arlington.
"Sometimes on Monday, I say, why do I do this?" said Frank Gonzales, an architect who rises at that hour to get an early start on his 60-mile commute to and from his office in SeaTac.
He knows the answer. Arlington is a nice place to live and raise their two children. The Gonzaleses originally thought they would live in Arlington for a couple of years and then move to a city closer to their work. That was 13 years ago.
Today, they live on the edge of the family farm where his wife grew up.
"We like it up here in Arlington," Frank Gonzales said. "We like the schools and the people up here. We just decided to stay."
More information: Go to Official 2000 Census Web site
Arlington is a microcosm of the changes happening in Snohomish County, according to data for Washington state released Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.
Residents are better educated than they were 10 years ago, household incomes have risen by 17 percent, and home values have skyrocketed by 42 percent after adjusting for inflation.
The once rural community, which saw its population nearly triple from 1990 to 2000, was at the top of the list for increases in commuting times — from 18 to 27 minutes each way.
The fact is, increasing numbers of people are willing to live farther away from work and face a longer commute, said Cliff Strong, planning manager for the city of Arlington.
"We are on the edge of that ever-widening greater Seattle metropolitan area," he said. "As that edge continues to grow, more people find a commute more acceptable."
The new data comes from the 2000 Census long form, which was received by one in six households and about 1 million people in Washington state. It asked 53 questions on everything from income to indoor plumbing, and asked people to estimate their own home values.
Almost all cities and towns in Snohomish and Island counties saw incomes, home values, rents and education levels rise from 1990 to 2000.
Fewer people were getting married, and more than twice as many residents spoke languages other than English at home in the year 2000.
Snohomish and Island counties, with average home values of $196,500 and $174,800, respectively, were the third and fourth highest-ranking counties in the state behind King and San Juan counties.
Snohomish County had the highest average rent in the state, at $766, narrowly edging out King County at $758.
Once rural areas such as Arlington, Monroe and even tiny Index saw home values and income levels increase more dramatically than the more urbanized I-5 corridor.
The average household income in Granite Falls, for example, used to be 37 percent below the county average. In 2000, it was only 10 percent below the county norm.
"It may be that the outlying areas are catching up to the rest of the county," said Snohomish County Demographer Steve Toy. "It looks like they may be closing the gap."
It makes sense that home values haven’t climbed as rapidly in some of the county’s wealthier areas, said Mike Pattison, government affairs director for the Snohomish County-Camano Association of Realtors.
With the dot-com busts of the 1990s and economic uncertainty, there are fewer instant millionaires and a reduced demand for high-end homes, he said.
There’s still strong demand for homes with acreage, which means buyers are flocking to the once rural land around Monroe and Granite Falls. Growth management rules have constricted the amount of land that’s available, so it becomes more expensive.
"I think what you’re seeing evolve is really a gentrification of our rural and suburban areas," he said. "The homes are getting more and more expensive, and the lots are getting large, and lower-income families have no choice but to move to cities."
Indeed, some places with the biggest increases in the numbers of families living below the poverty level followed the I-5 corridor: Marysville, Mukilteo, Mill Creek and Bothell.
Cities such as Darrington, Lake Stevens, Sultan and Snohomish saw the number of families in poverty decline from 1990 to 2000.
Virginia Sprague, program director for the Volunteers of America’s Snohomish County food bank distribution center in Everett, said that mirrors what her organization sees on the ground.
Families on the edge have to follow the jobs, she said. As employment has dried up in rural communities, people have moved to try to pick up construction work, fast-food jobs or entry-level manufacturing jobs in the county’s more urban corridor.
In January 1990, the Marysville Food Bank distributed 18,000 meals to families who didn’t have enough to eat. In 2001, the number of meals had nearly doubled to 34,000.
"For people who are seeking employment, they’re going to go where there’s a buzz in the community about little pockets of employment," she said. "I think for the most part, people are moving out of the rural areas because there’s no jobs there and they’re moving to the towns, where there’s more activity."
The percentage of families in poverty in Snohomish County, which has one of the lowest rates in the state, stayed roughly the same at 4.9 percent in 1990 and 2000. The percentage of families with children living below the poverty level increased slightly during that time.
Island County saw a slight decrease — from 5.4 to 5.1 percent — in families living below the poverty line.
Bo Tunestam, a planner in the Snohomish County Human Services Department who tracks Census data, said the rising average of household incomes in certain pockets of Snohomish County doesn’t mean that everyone is doing well.
In Arlington, Sultan, Monroe and other towns, there’s still probably a gap between affluent commuters moving into new subdivisions and longtime residents who have been more dependent on local jobs, he said.
"With time, we’ll be able to winnow out of the numbers," Tunestam said. "Behind the scenes, you’re probably going to find that … you’ve got these higher-priced, upper-middle-income enclaves within communities that are not that well off."
You can call Herald Writer Jennifer Langston at 425-339-3452
or send e-mail to langston@heraldnet.com.
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