I can attest to that. We moved from Anchorage to Portland and that damp cold is just miserable. For the OP, you might consider the effect of all that dampness on your arthritis. The dry weather of the SW is why a lot of geezers move there.
I haven’t spent too much time in Bellingham so I can’t say much beyond that the weather is similar to Seattle and that you’re on the ocean so you have some boating/beaching options available, as well as quick access to Seattle, Vancouver, and Victoria which are all fairly nice places.
But in terms of SAD, vitamin D pills are readily available and you can vary your intake by how much sun you’ve been getting.
I’m not a fan of desert regions so Santa Fe would be right out for me. I’d get a different sort of SAD from spending so much time inside, unwilling to go bake in the sun.
Ugh, not when I was a kid, I used to get bit all the time when hiking in the woods, and we’d get mosquitos if we left standing water in the summer.
Though it’s much better than other places I live.
Then again, people used to claim that cockroaches didn’t exist in Washington State, yet I lived for 6 months in a low income apartment building on Chester Avenue in Bremerton that was absolutely infested with them. (I kept all my clean dishes in a sealed Tupperware tub and all my food in the fridge, and kept my apartment spotlessly clean, and I’d still see them on occasion.)
No surprise that the apartment building was condemned and thoroughly renovated after I moved out. Oh, and it was supposedly haunted, the local paper even had an article about it.
It wasn’t haunted by anything other than drug addicts. 
It might be different in the woods. We don’t even need screens on our windows (although we’ve added them anyway–keep out the bats and rats). I think it might be because our summers are so dry. Whatever the reason, I love it. Mosquitos really bother me.
Well, that is Bremerton for you. They must be coming in with the Navy. If cockroaches bother you, the SW should be avoided. They have cockroaches of a size that you can hear one crossing the street – also avoid Hawaii, where their cockroaches actually fly.
That, and the place was really badly-maintained. Here is an excerpt from the article I linked:
The complex deteriorated into a “haven for drugs and crime,” according to a Kitsap Sun story 10 years ago. Dunlap, who also recalled a roach infestation
I used to hear cops walk through the halls at night, their little radios going off, and people would be getting arrested all the time. Twice I had second-hand mace which wasn’t fun at all. I was one of the few people there who had a job (I was a computer salesman) and I stuck out like a sore thumb, but it was the best I could afford back then.
And you’re right, it’s Bremerton. My wonderful home town. 
I lived in Hawaii, my brother was born there.
I think you can find things like cockroaches and mosquitos anywhere that is hospitable to them, which means they can be anywhere.
I lived for 3-4 years in Albuquerque NM (about an hour south of Santa Fe) and visited Santa Fe numerous times.
One, critters are largely not an issue. Yeah, you may rarely see a rattler, but they’re damn rare inside any urban area, and most of Santa Fe is full of crackerbox ‘Adobe’ structures as far as the eye can see outside of the old portions of the time.
Two, the climate. If you like dry weather, you’ll enjoy it. Make sure to stay hydrated, and you’ll probably want/need skin lotion for your first 6 months or so. Even the winter months feel warmish because the lack of humidity makes up for a lot. But, it will be brutally, unforgivably hot during the summer. Again, you’ll need to stay hydrated, in the shade when possible and limit outdoor activity during peak temps. However almost every place you go will likely have A/C, so unless you’re a big outdoors person, you’ll probably be fine.
Three, resources. Expect that the majority of doctors (specialists, not generalists), major shopping, and specialty stores will be done by going to Albuquerque. Food (!), arts, and culture abound in Santa Fe, and you’ll have plenty of places to shop for any of your usual needs, but if you want more of everything (again see specialists) you’ll end up in Albuquerque. Admittedly, in the Amazon/Internet shopping age, this is far less of an issue than it was when I was there.
Four, tourists. OMG. Just… well, be prepared. Admittedly, the worst are at the hotspots which are easily found on websites, but they can and will clog various areas of town, and the closer you get to the old city with it’s rather narrow streets and parking will make you crazy. Counterpoint, during the spring and summer there’s almost ALWAYS something interesting involving art and culture going on somewhere in the area, so you’ll rarely be bored.
Just figured I’d buck the trend and talk about NM.
Not just arthritis but my ability to turn any cold into bronchitis might be an issue. Thanks.
I haven’t spent much time in Bellingham, but have a good friend there and my son will start Western Washington University in the fall. I live in the Seattle 'burbs.
First, it is the pacific northwest grey gloomy no sun for months on end. Pretty much as early as Oct through June. The worst is the winter daylight savings time from fall back to spring forward just be ready for no sunlight and a lot of drizzle.
Second, it is a college town, so you get those benefits.
Third, a casual visit showcases that Bellingham is ungentrified. No serious high rise buildings, tons of local businesses in 1950’s or 1960’s buildings that are still affordable. Lots of breweries.
Fourth, it’s less than an hour to Vancouver, so if you like Asian food, this is a pretty awesome feature. Get a NEXUS card to alleviate the border crossing waits. It ain’t that far from Seattle as well. Me, with my Asia background, thinks that Vancouver is superior to Seattle in almost every way.
Fifth, if you like winter sports, Mount Baker and the Northern Cascades national park are nearby. Plus, Vancouver has 3 ski resorts in their 'burbs and tons of hiking.
I’m even contempating selling up here in Bellevue and moving up to Bellingham and/or Vancouver. Stay tuned.
No winter sports for me. I’m 62 and lame. I’m lucky I can walk. From what I’ve heard, Bellingham is where Vancouver goes shopping to find American Stores. Vancouver, BC is where Americans go to eat and shop for shoes.
I have friends in the Vancouver BC area as well as a couple in Vancouver, WA, and Portland, OR area. So, I’ll have places to go, people to see, and plenty to do. But the gray weather is a big concern for me because I have seasonal affective disorder and lack of sunlight can drive me bonkers. But @ParallelLines, so can the summer heat of Santa Fe, because I cannot spend any time in the sun due to allergies and sun sensitivity. I just get to stare at sunny scenery. Being me isn’t easy.
Yeah, don’t. What those people presumably meant to say is that Santa Fe doesn’t have any medically significant scorpions, which is true. There is only one “bad” scorpion in the United States and it makes its way into the northwestern corner of New Mexico, but not near Santa Fe. Mostly it is found in Arizona and across the border in Mexico, with very minor range excursions into CA and NM. But don’t base anything on scorpions - they’re usually a non-hazard on the level of a bee sting or less. There actually are scorpions in Washington state as well, though to be honest probably not in Whatcom county itself 
.
I have a friend and former co-worker who retired to Birch Bay in Johnny’s neck of the woods. He’s a mildly enthusiastic Bellingham booster, so you can count that as another anecdotal vote in favor. Me, I’d be torn. Much prefer the weather in WA (I happen to like cool and wet), but SF has better biodiversity for birding and whatnot. But if tourists, tourist-inflated prices and desert heat bug you more than moderate cold seasons and frequent gray skies, that would tilt towards Bellingham. They’re certainly quite distinctly different areas.
I’ve visited Santa Fe in the spring (late March/Early April), and it snowed. The altitude seems to temper the climate. It’s very dry, with over 300 days of sun a year, so that should help your SAD.
I don’t think it’s as brutally hot as all that–my friends who live there say it rarely gets above 90.
That’s good to know @gnarator as it gets over 90 here in MN in summer. When it does, the humidity is usually pretty high, too.
Yeah I know I’m in St. Paul
I lived in the Mojave Desert as a teen and into my 20s. I live up here now. Generally, I like cooler, wetter weather. But damn I miss the desert sometimes. Often.
In Birch Bay, we have a couple/few power outages a year. They generally don’t last long, though a few years ago the power was out for three days because a tree fell on the lines and also tore up a water line. We have a propane heater, a wood stove fireplace insert, and a 3,000 W generator. Internet usually lasts about three hours after a power failure, so we can use it while it lasts while using the generator. Xfinity is pretty quick about putting a generator on top of the pole after three hours. I think Bellingham’s power is more reliable.
You can page through a Birch Bay birding book here (32 pages).
I heart St. Paul. Lived there for many years before moving to the 'burbs to be closer to a job.
Thank you for that. I really look forward to seeing the ducks as we don’t see those varieties here. Good to know about the power as well.
Maybe you should think about Portland or some of it’s nearby communities. The winters are less harsh than in Bellingham, they almost never get snow, the food is great, as is the public transportation, and you can catch either the train or Flix Bus all the way up to Vancouver. The bus stops in cities along the way, including Seattle and Bellingham. Re: the local transportation, I bought my Mazda in Portland in 2016. As of today it has 17K miles on it. That includes a cross-country trip to MN.
Part of the reason I am looking at Bellingham is that housing costs are lower than Portland. That’s important to me as I am pretty skint. Which route did you take to MN?
Portland proper is expensive, but outlying areas are much less. Look at real estate in McMinnville, for instance.
We drove out I-84, then cut north to Spokane and took the interstate across ID, MT, and ND (I-90/I-94). Montana , despite the a-holes who live there, is a beautiful place to see. We drove all over the state back in 2009. ND is a good place to test the upper limits of your car engine.