Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
I mean if your only concern about Vancouver is the housing market, there are ways around that, e.g. move to Squamish and commute (and then you get to live in Squamish which is pretty badass). Or somewhere else where you can get a house for less than a million bucks. Even Bowen has lots you can get for about 300k, but then you're faced with the same problem I am in terms of building on one. Still, it's not West End Condo pricing.
But if that's not feasible and you really hate everything about it then obviously you should move. You shouldn't live somewhere you hate. You've been to Calgary before so you should presumably know if you like it here or not. It's got better restaurants than it did ten years ago... I would say that the city's growth and development, culturally, stalled around 2015 when everything went in the toilet industry-wise. So if you know what it was like in 2015, you've got a pretty good sense of what it's like now.
I dunno, I'm going the other way... I'm not moving, but I'm trying to give myself the ability to spend more of my time out west. I like Calgary, but I don't have kids and I think if you're in that situation, it's a better place to live if you're under 35 than over 35. Just my opinion though, and I don't mind rain.
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All strong points.
Maybe we are a bit too Goldilocks, but we really aren't willing to move to neighbourhoods that would entail a long commute for either of us. So obviously, we are bidding in neighbourhoods that are extremely high demand and we shouldn't expect lower prices. That said, this current boom has seen condo and townhouse bidding wars that are just ridiculous.
We bid on a two bed, one bath condo that was close to Granville Island. Asking was 800, we put in 840, and it ended up going for NINE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS.
If you want to talk about cultural development, Vancouver has taken massive steps backwards. Arts and cultural space is being shuttered at breakneck speed. There is almost nothing in the way of local music or art anymore.
As for restaurants and shops, it's fine here. Again, high commercial property taxes and rents mean that most of the high streets have a lot of vacancy. There was a block on 4th Ave in Kits (where I first lived in Van) which always had around 80% vacancy.