Vancouver British Columbia

[Rudee]

Ok, I have an opportunity to transfer my job from Calgary to Vancouver B.C.

Seeing as though I have never visited Vancouver B.C before, I don't know much about it - other than it's on the ocean and it get's plenty of rain throughout the year.

Can someone enlighten me on some of the pro's and con's of Vancouver life? Also, I hear it's expensive to live there. Is it significantly worse than Calgary in reference to Cost of living?

Thanks in advance.

 

[toph99]

i was there for a few days... a word of warning: make sure you get your residence AWAY from the industrial sector. the pollution there is quite bad. also away from any sulfur processing/docks other than that, i thought it was a nice place

 

[Entity]

I visit it once a year, and love the place. Then again, I'm used to the rain. (Seattlite here). I'll see if I can dig up some info for you on living there. Otherwise, bump!

Rob

 

[JayPatel]

yes cost of living is pretty high, expect 650 to 800 bucks a month for your rent, also its turned into a major criminal syndicate....it does rain A LOT there, plus side is that vancouver is a beautiful city, lots of stuff to see and do, it all depends on your lifestyle, if you the type who likes things fast then go for it, i lived there for 15 years and loved every second i was in the city.

 

[lowtech1]

Vancouver is a great place to live.

The summer here is perfectly cool & dry (average 4 days of rain per months), but the winter is miserable (average 4 days of partial sun per month). The temperature is not that cold in the winter (hovering around -2C at night for 2 weeks per year), and the rest of the winter is the cool, damp, rain, grey wispy chill that hover around 6C.

The traffic is horrible, and unlike the well lay out roads of Calgary, Vancouver streets take some time to navigate, but not as bad as Victoria.

And, Vancouver is the best place in North America to get Chinese & Vietnamese food, and we have a great selection of East Indian, West Indian, Italian, Greek, Thai, and any other cultural foods for your adventurous palate...other than the usual CowTown Steak & Burger diet.

Cost of living...uhmmm....The housing in here is about 2X as much as Calgary, and the women/entertainment here are very expensive in more way than one. It is best to bring a women from where you?re from, and hope that they don?t give you as much head ache as the one from the Wet Coast (West Coast)

 

[billandopus]

Vancouver can be rainy although for the last 6 mos or so the weather has been remarkably stable. I think Vancouver has broken records for amount of sunshine for the last half year. El Nino maybe ... I don't know.

Vancouver is an awesome place. Especially during the summer and winter depending on your point of reference. During the summer it doesn't get as muggy as the East but it's very nice. It doesn't get as super cold as the East either. It's tempered by the Pacific ocean mitigating the weather extremes.

If you have the chance to move out here even for a little while I would encourage you to do so. You will see for yourself. If you are an active person then this will be heaven for you. There is so much to do.

Unfortunately, the cost of living in Vancouver is pretty high compared to other cities in Canada and for good reason. People want to be here and are willing to stay here. That's it in a nutshell.

For a decent sized bachelor pad in Vancouver rent will vary from 550 to over a grand easy depending on location. Vancouver has the highest overall average housing prices in Canada I believe. I don't think that's any particular reason to brag about but it just goes to show why people put up with the cost of living ... because it's worth living here.

If anything, just to have the experience of living in different areas of the country is good enough reason to try it. If I had the chance to do it all over again I would make sure that I had experienced living in other areas of the country ... except I got married and had a kid ... that's it baby! No turning back!

Go for it and good luck.


By the way, why don't you just come down for a visit for a short while? I'm sure that ticket prices are relatively cheap enough from Cal to Van. Stay at a hostel if you have to but do check out the city. For all you know you might end up hating the place and then you'd be really screwed if you went all the way to transfer here. Try before you buy is a good policy for the most part.

 

[Aquaman]

Born & Bred Vancouverite here......... great place to live

Not many places in the world were you can:

1. Ski or Snow Board
2. Sail
3. go fishing
4. go to the beach (although our sand sucks)
5. mountain bike in the mountains

in the same day

Also as lowtech said....... the food selection is great

One of my good friends is from Calgary and he said that a 180,000 house in Calgary will cost you around 360,000 here (for something comparable).

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[unxpurg8d]

Awwwwwwww, come on, admit it. The best thing about Vancouver is its closeness to Seattle!






hehehe

 

[Aquaman]

unxpurg8d,

Actually I have a lot of programmer friends that work in Seattle (all Canadians and they really make some great coin down there), but on the weekends for some reason they end up coming back to Vancouver. I asked them why and they say that Seattle has no night life or that theres nothing to do.

Go figure.

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[sandorski]

Yea, the best part of living in Seattle is it's close to Vancouver!

I lived in Vancouver for 8 years and I have to agree, it's a great city. The food is fantastic, people friendly, and really the weather is great(for most Canadians). The only place that I liked better was Victoria.

 

[DABANSHEE]

Also its a pot smokers paradise. Even though its I think still officially illegal all the authorities including the cops turn a blind eye to it. Well from what I've heard.

 

[Rudee]

Thanks for the responses folks. I appreciate it.

I wonder if my $40,000 year salary will be enough to live comfortably there. I plan on renting a 1 bedroom, East Vancouver I believe.

 

[lowtech1]

40k will give a comfortable life in Van.

East Van is the cheapest part of Vancouver, but you could still find good neighborhood to live. The Italian district Hasting/Nanaimo/Venable is one okay area to live and it is within walking distance to very inexpensive Chinese/Italian shops (there are some Korean shop there as well, but you can get the same products at the Chinese shop for 1/2 the price).

If East Van don't suit your style, then you may want to look at Kerrisdale area. It is much nicer than any East Van area, but don't cost that much more...You could also try the hip/yuppy area False Creek or Kitsilano.

L k here to see what in & around Vancouver.

Sub directory of myBC.com housing classifieds.

 

[GL]

I've heard it's beautiful and one day I'll check it out. Rent for a half-decent apartment in Toronto is about $1500 so Vancouver would actually be pretty cheap for me. The housing prices in Toronto suck too. Downtown homes are going for about a half million and much of the outskirts of Toronto are going for a quarter of a million and up. A lot of people live outside of Toronto (i.e. Mississauga, York Region, all the way up to Barrie) and commute to Toronto making traffic a mess. My sister and her fiance were up in Vancouver a few months ago and they couldn't believe how light the traffic was. I guess everything's a matter of perspective but I think everybody agrees Vancouver is a beautiful city (although for night life you just can't beat Toronto ).

-GL

 

[Aquaman]

I take back my earlier statement........ Vancouver is not that great a place to visit & it definately is a bad place to work

Yeah......... thats the ticket.......... so don't bother coming over here j/k

GL....... $1500 for a decent apartment :Q In my dad's apartment complex (3 story low rise unit)in Kitsilano, you can get a 2 bedroom 1200 sq/ft place for around $850 (my dad charges cheaper rent). You can get a modest house for around $1200 a month (2000 sq/ft)

Cheers,
Aquaman

 

[Kaiser__Sose]

wow.. vancouver is cheap compared to Toronto..

my apartment downtown is $1200/month for a 1 bedroom ... and i live in parkdale (crack heads and driveby's every night)...
traffic here is a joke.. that's why i resort to taking the ttc if i'm just going around downtown... in the suburbs traffic is not bad...

i've been to vancouver when i was smaller and it was nice..
the night life can't even come close to Toront's tho.. but no other city in Canada can.. well Montreal is not that far behind...

 

[billandopus]

Whew, that's expensive rent in TO. While home prices are very high here in Vancouver, I believe - highest average price in Canada ... you could get a nice downtown apartment with an amazing view of English bay and beautiful women (or men) all over the place (if you're single).

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

And don't forget that we've got the Canucks (who are kicking ass this year -- so far), Lions, and... well.
the Grizzlies.

I hve to say that the thing I love best about living here is the diverse amount of activities available. Mostly skiing and sailing are my favorite though.