Olympia Real Estate & Homes for Sale in Washington

Olympia Real Estate & Homes for Sale in Washington

The city of Olympia is built on the panoramic southern shores of Puget Sound with the majestic Olympic Mountains as its backdrop and the grand dome of the State Capitol building gracing the town's skyline. Ranked as one of America's most eye-pleasing cities, Olympia is a bustling hub of maritime commerce as well as a sophisticated metropolis, and is home to more than 21,000 professional state government workers. It offers easy access to Interstate 5 between Seattle, 61 miles to the North, and Portland, OR, 113 miles to the South.

Today the modern metropolis of Olympia is a far cry from the wild, unexplored terrain Peter Puget and his crew from the British Vancouver Expedition founded in 1792 as they made their way south in uncharted waters. By 1850, a Maine native named Edmund Sylvester platted the town of Olympia and replicated a New England-style setting complete with a town square, tree-lined streets, land for schools, a Masonic Hall and capitol grounds. Located on the southernmost point of Puget Sound, the peninsula now known as Olympia was the "black bear place" for Native American Indians and named by a local resident for the rugged omnipresence of the Olympic mountain range.

Both the existing home and new-home markets reflect the strength of the economy in Olympia with its low interest rates, low unemployment and its deep and varied housing inventory. Newcomers to the area will enjoy Olympia's close proximity to the regional airport, which is located outside the city on Old Highway 99, and to neighboring cities, such as Vancouver, British Columbia, Tacoma - home to the Point Defiance Zoo, and Aquarium, is a mere 30 miles north.