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I want to move from here....but i dont....
Im thinking that its not that great to live in Vancouver.
I mean, yes, it has its pros, but i feel like the cons are outweighing it.
PROS:
- very beautiful....mountains, ocean, etc.
- the climate is perfect (for me anyway)....not too hot and not too cold
CONS:
- i feel like there will be better job opportunities elsewhere
- the people here are very cliquey and rude
- the housing prices are insane...i will never be able to afford to buy a house here unless its in Abbotsford :/ No thanks.
- we have no culture like other cities do
Am i the only one who feels this way? I want to know the truth from you guys, how many of you actually think that you will succeed here the way you want to? Lets say that no one is gonna help you out....its just gonna be you, possibly with or without your significant other....do you guys really think that success is possible here?
And yes, this depends on what you consider to be "successful", but for the sake of this, lets say it is:
- being able to buy your own apartment/house wherever you want to live (ie. Yaletown)
- being able to have a job that makes you enough money in order to buy that beautiful house
- having enough money to support a possible future family
Im thinking that this might not be possible, and ive been thinking it for a while. But god, what are my other options? The rest of Canada is absolutely awful....harsh climates, no beautiful scenery.
But is that worth staying here for? The mountains? The ocean?
What are the rest of yours pros and cons lists?
I mean, yes, it has its pros, but i feel like the cons are outweighing it.
PROS:
- very beautiful....mountains, ocean, etc.
- the climate is perfect (for me anyway)....not too hot and not too cold
CONS:
- i feel like there will be better job opportunities elsewhere
- the people here are very cliquey and rude
- the housing prices are insane...i will never be able to afford to buy a house here unless its in Abbotsford :/ No thanks.
- we have no culture like other cities do
Am i the only one who feels this way? I want to know the truth from you guys, how many of you actually think that you will succeed here the way you want to? Lets say that no one is gonna help you out....its just gonna be you, possibly with or without your significant other....do you guys really think that success is possible here?
And yes, this depends on what you consider to be "successful", but for the sake of this, lets say it is:
- being able to buy your own apartment/house wherever you want to live (ie. Yaletown)
- being able to have a job that makes you enough money in order to buy that beautiful house
- having enough money to support a possible future family
Im thinking that this might not be possible, and ive been thinking it for a while. But god, what are my other options? The rest of Canada is absolutely awful....harsh climates, no beautiful scenery.
But is that worth staying here for? The mountains? The ocean?
What are the rest of yours pros and cons lists?
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
Pros:
good weather
good healthcare
slow-paced
Cons:
taxes
racism
There's much more for both sides, but my mind is too stiff right now.
We have no culture? Vancouver is ALL about multiculturalism. You don't get much more culture than this. We have every possible ethnic group in Vancouver, and a little part of their home town in each city. How much more culture do you want?
Compared to all the other major cities, With Vancouver's rising house prices, it's STILL cheaper than living in Toronto or Montreal. I mean, if you want cheap housing might as well live in Nunavut... or the islands.
If success wasn't possible here, obviously there wouldn't be people still living here. Personally, I wouldn't want to be anywhere else BUT Vancouver.
Sure lots of stuff could improve, ie. transit could get better etc. but I still think Vancouver is a pretty ideal place to live.
Omg do you not know what culture is? Have you ever been to London?? That is culture. We have nothing like that. And no, multiple races all living together does not count as culture.
Oh really, are you really sure that its cheaper to live here than in Toronto or Montreal? You obviously dont watch the news or read the newspaper or do any sort of research before you respond. Heres a link to help you out and show you just how stupid that sentence is that you wrote: http://http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/06/14/bc_house-prices20060614.html Now, show me where Vancouver is on that list, and then look for Toronto.
Id like to know what you consider to be "ideal". Are you really gonna be able to afford a house here on your own (that means, no help from mommy and daddy). No, not likely. And if you can, id really like to know what your great job is that will allow you do this.
I think moving might be the best option. I love it here, but my god, its just too much. The people here are really sucky. Ugh, such a hard decision tho cuz i do like it, but i care about my future more than just living in a "pretty" place. I really hate Ontario (I used to live there and HATED the winters), so i really dont want to go back there. I would really just love to leave this country and live somewhere else to be honest.
You can't just graduate and expect to be able to buy a house, nobody can do that. What you're asking is way too much, don't you think your expectations are little too high? It takes years to be able to afford a house, which is why you start off in small apartments and work your way up. That's how you do it EVERYWHERE else, you just don't want to do it here.
If you started saving up before you thought of this, I'm sure you wouldn't see Vancouver as such a black hole.
Oh, And I HAVE been to London, and I would much prefer the culture here. The people there are definitely not as nice as the people here. Maybe you just have bad luck with strangers...
About housing, first, if you want to prove a point, make sure your link works. Secondly, the article is from 2006. As far as I know, housing prices are rising in all major cities. While it's the highest in Vancouver, Calgary and Edmonton are catching up. Part of the reason for the bump in Vancouver, though, is because of the number of high-end, high-price properties that are being sold, compared to the average.
Other than around east Hastings or whatnot, I have not seen extremely run-down housing in the Greater Vancouver Area. If you've been to the North York (ie. Jane and Finch) area of Toronto, or parts of Scarborough, it's easy to see what's dragging the average housing price of Toronto down. Sure, you can find a cheap house to buy, but would you want to? The average house prices in decent places to live, ie. Mississauga, Richmond Hill, are on par with prices in the GVA, trust me.
http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/20080130/housing_affordable_080130/20080130?hub=Newsletter
The survey was only done on 6 developed countries, but if left out pretty much the rest of Europe, because if you want to live there, forget about it. All that's left is Asia...yeah, no. Africa.....yeah, no. Or South America....probably not. So good luck on finding a place outside of Canada. But you should probably research this a bit more. But hey, the housing IS pretty cheap in Zimbabwe, from what I hear.
I don't know why, just for a change I guess.
Anyways, worst case scenario you can move back, just costs a lot and takes a lot of time, but hey might as well try new things, only live once. Maybe you'll absolutely love it somewhere else.
When my mom and step dad moved there a few years back a nice house was 119k.
I moved out there with them for a change instead of staying with my dad. They moved back though after a year, haha. I loved it, they hated it.
as for the whole debate in this topic, i'm too tired to contribute anything worthwhile.
LOL @ you! God, you're really irritating. I never said that i would expect to get that straight out of school, now did i? No, didnt think so. Anyways, cant be bothered to argue with you cuz you're obviously a little....off.
Oh and ps, theres something really wrong with you if you think Vancouver has more culture than London. Wow. :/
Anyways, the link works for me, not sure why it doesnt work on here for others....i'll try to fix that later. It basically showed the housing prices across the country....Vancouver was the highest (surprise surprise) with the average house costing $500,000. Toronto and Montreal were much further down the list. I'll copy and paste:
Here is a sampling of average MLS home prices in May (with year-over-year changes in brackets):
Vancouver: $518,176 (+23.7%)
Victoria: $515,755 (+15.6%)
Calgary: $358,214 (+43.6%)
Edmonton: $242,936 (+22.9%)
Regina: $142,147 (+10.3%)
Saskatoon: $162,279 (+11.5%)
Winnipeg: $159,801 (+12.5%)
Thunder Bay, Ont.: $118,804 (-9.0%)
Toronto: $365,537 (+5.5%)
Ottawa: $260,219 (+4.7%)
Montreal: $219,433 (+8.2%)
Quebec City: $150,324 (+6.9%)
Saint John, N.B.: $129,844 (+12.3%)
Halifax-Dartmouth: $210,225 (+7.6%)
Nfld. & Lab.: $133,541 (-1.2%)
Canada: $303,836 (+12.9%)
Thats from 2006, but as we all know, its not that much different from now (a year and half after this was done).
You can type in the link yourself if you'd like: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2006/06/14/bc_house-prices20060614.html
I think of change of pace would be nice. A new environment. Thats what im planning on doing after im done uni anyway.
Anyways, back to my original post, I dont see any other PROS other than the climate, and no one has really listed any others. I mean, i think Vancouver is nice, i absolutely love being between the mountains and the water, but im left wondering what its like to live elsewhere and whether there would be more opportunities there. I will probably move, but i just dont know where. Ive had a lot of friends move to Toronto and Montreal and they absolutely love it there saying how great their jobs are and blah blah blah....ugh, i dont want to move to Toronto....but maybe for a little bit to try it out...that i could prolly handle.
I wonder what the Okanagan is like. Anyone ever lived there?
I think trying out another city for a little bit would be good and then i would know whether Vancouver is the right place for me to settle down in or not. But ugh @ all the climate in the rest of Canada. :(
Secondly, whether one city has more culture than the other is quite subjective. One could mean that there's a lot of cultural history, in which, yes, London does have a lot. OR, one could mean that a city has a lot of culture, as in there are many cultures (ie. multicultural) living together, and there's a chance of experiencing the cultures of many different people, in which Vancouver, and many Canadian cities have. So don't shit your pants when you see a different opinion.
Anyway, back to the original point. I think it would be a bit difficult to find a good paying job in a small city, but it really depends on what field you're getting into. There wouldn't be too much office work, or anything of that sort. Sure the housing is cheaper, but there isn't much going on.
Like I said before, all major cities have rising housing prices. And some of the bigger cities like Montreal and Toronto may not have higher average housing prices because of the higher amount of low-income housing in those cities bringing the average price down.
I couldn't have said it better
And what's this about Vancouverites being rude? Generally speaking, large metropolitan areas in first-world countries (e.g. London, Paris, NYC, etc.) have ruder people than other cities. Not only is it the crowdedness, but the fast-paced lives that people maintain has a direct effect on the character of the average inhabitant of the city (of course, no one is inherently rude).
Anyways, on topic, I have thought about moving due to housing prices. I'm undecided though. I love it here, the Canucks play here. More than enough reasons for me to stay :angel:
uh, thats some crappy contribution I guess.
I asked for pros and cons lists. I listed mine and got attacked. I could care less if people agree with my list. I asked for people to post theirs and instead she basically called me a moron asking if ive been to the states because they are supposedly ruder people. Like i fucking care about people in the states, i would never want to live in the US anyway. So i attacked her back for her supposed pros and cons list, which was just her disagreeing with mine but not contributing anything else.
I asked for pros and cons lists. Look back at my original post. Thanks.
Anyways, shes just the typical vancouverite who has prolly travelled a little bit but never actually lived anywhere else and is so brainwashed by our government and "best place to live" ads on tv that she is so narrow-minded that she can not even dream to live in anywhere else or even think that there could be a better place to live other than right here in Vancouver. That is why she couldnt come up with any pros and cons other than just attacking what i wrote :)
.. Case in point?
And I gave it to you. I gave you MY TRUTH.
"But is that worth staying here for? The mountains? The ocean?"
I was giving you a comparison, because you blatantly said that Vancouverites were rude, so I gave you a counter-example.
Right, you also never said you wouldn't live in the States, just that you don't want to live in Vancouver.
I'm sorry I can't assume everything you're thinking, but apparently you can assume everything about me, including my lifestyle and capabilities.
I have traveled to MANY places, and being NOT from a European country has given me a lot of insight into what an ideal place to live is. You also said that I don't know what culture is, and honey, I think I know what culture is. Coming from a Chinese family, I'm pretty sure that I get exposed to a lot more culture in one day than you ever will in a lifetime.
I wasn't attacking you, I was giving you my OPINIONS as to what I thought, because that's EXACTLY what you asked for.
If the oceans and mountains and ''lack of culture'' is not enough, then look elsewhere, it's a big world.
I'm also astonished to hear you say that people here are rude. Maybe it's the way you talk to people, and not the people themselves. You're a Vancouverite yourself if you haven't noticed.
Just don't preach your opinions about things as "fact", because they're not facts.
Ive come to the sad realisation that its not even worth replying to you people anymore. Most of you have just further proven what i was originally talking about, so thanks!
I dont like communicating with narrow-minded people who cant see past their front door. "Vancouver is the best, go Vancouver!" Hahaa. Heaven forbid i mention how shitty the Canucks are doing, world war three would break out.
:/
As for Magnificent Bastard and what he wrote, I looked at your link that was based on 6 countries and this just further proves my point: Canada's least affordable markets were all in British Columbia.
Sorry that i created a thread where i thought that i would get some educated responses. Wrong move on a university forum board, who would have thought it? Instead i got, "are you INSANE?" as a response from people who havent done their research. Hmmm. I guess you've all been brainwashed quite a bit and cant think for youselves at all. Oh well, not my problem :) Carry on.
You know, statistics don't always tell the whole story. But maybe somebody as narrow-minded as yourself can't realize that, because the media tells you everything you need to know about everything, right?
If there's something that I've learned so far in the uni life is to learn to see that opinions and criticisms do give you a reality slap.. a chance to step back and re-evaluate your situation because quite often we do get caught up with our wants and ideals.. secondly.. don't take everything people say to you personally.. it makes you an angrier and less happy person.. which is unhealthy for you.. =)
lastly.. the people here are not narrow-minded (or rude).. we've had some hot debates on very controversial issues and you've been an active participant to it... atleast you can give those and the university some credit...