Where to live in Vancouver??

cdl1605 · Dec 16, 2006

Whereabouts in surrey do your family live as I need a decent area to move to with my family when I come over and would appreciate some advice.

Thanks

beehive8 · Dec 29, 2006

Dibleydale,

I'm not sure if I'm too late in replying to this thread but I lived in between BC Children and VGH (worked at VGH) and I would highly recommend that you live in Vancouver to avoid the long commutes. I lived on West 16th and rent was on the high side but there are also some small apt buildings on Oak that aren't too pricey (at least that's what I was told). I would suggest living in the Oak St/Cambie neighbourhood so that you're somewhat close to work. It's also a great neighbourhood. Some of my colleagues also lived with roommates (if you're willing to consider it).

Good luck with your search.

bcnewbie · Jan 3, 2007

Hi there!

I want to respond to both people who have posted questions about where to live on this...

To the OP: I don't know where you are moving from, I came from the US and I know that NAFTA makes our requirements and restrictions on our work visas different from others, but be clear on whether you can change jobs, etc if you will be on a work visa. I say this because I came last summer originally intending to work at BC Womens. I came with my husband, teenage daughter and 2 dogs. The place we finally found to live that had room for us, would take our dogs, and was a place we would actually want to live in (no mold, no broken windows, a kitchen larger than a hotplate) is in New Westminster. I started their orientation and my preceptorship and it quickly became very clear to me that there were some VERY unhappy nurses there. There also seemed to be alot of back stabbing and not much teamwork. It could have just been me, but it wasn't a very pleasant situation. I was also not given credit for my 15 years of high-risk experience and was expected to work my way through the same levels of training as the new grads I was orienting with. This atmosphere combined with my long commute (sometimes up to an hour each way) was enough to make me look for something new. I was able to change jobs and found something much closer with a better environment.

If you find you like it there, and it sounds like it's just you so an apartment would work, the neighborhood around the hospital (Oak, Broadway) is very fun and has alot of apartments/flats. In spite of what some have said, Vancouver has very good transit. You could live in Burnaby - if you were close to the skytrain you could get there with a short skytrain ride and one bus. They have a discount transit pass program, wchich comes out cheaper than the $4/day for parking. I like Kerrisdale but its a more complicated commute, I think. Yaletown is expensive. We want to buy something eventually, but we had to start over with credit here - our US credit doesn't transfer.

To the poster asking about Surrey - when we were getting ready to move everyone told us anywhere was fine to live.... except Surrey! We thought "it can't be that bad...". We did look at a few places there, and it's just a very dicey area still. You could really take a chance and end up in a bad spot. I would look in Delta or New Westminster/Coquitlam area instead. You could still get a house big enough for your kids and live in a better/safer area.

To both of you - look on craigslist for rental listings. There tend to be pictures and more info. Also, the Vancouver transit system Translink has a website and you can find out how much of a commute any place will be from your job - TransLink - The Greater Vancouver Transportation Authority

Good luck!

k084 · Jan 4, 2007

Whereabouts in surrey do your family live as I need a decent area to move to with my family when I come over and would appreciate some advice.
Thanks

Hi there!

Despite all the negative things you're probably reading about Surrey, it's not so bad - in fact, I personally think it's no worse than any other city out here (Vancouver, Richmond, etc). I grew up in Burnaby and while it was a great place to live, no matter where you go in BC, you're always going to run into some problems - gangs in schools, for example. Someone mentioned how there's more East Indians out in Surrey. I don't see why that should be a problem and why it's even worth mentioning. Richmond has more Asians, that doesn't mean anything either.

I moved to a nicer area of Surrey and we haven't had many problems at all in the past couple of years. We live in a more private area (larger properties), so that might be why.

Here's some advice:

1) in Surrey, stay away from Whalley. It has a higher crime rate, not so nice neighbourhoods, etc.

2) Surrey Memorial is located right by the skytrain station. About a 5 min walk. You could easily live in Burnaby or elsewhere and skytrain/bus it.

3) Delta is a great place in my opinion - a city right next to Surrey. If you were driving to Surrey Memorial, you'd be there in 15minutes! I don't know how old your kids are, but I wouldn't exactly send them to most of the Surrey high schools. However, North Delta Secondary, Seaquam, etc are decent high schools in Delta.

4) All elementary schools in Surrey are fine in my opinion because the real problems with kids don't really start until high school anyways - just my opinion!

5) Try the Fleetwood area in Surrey - a nice, well-priced area!

Hope this helps! :)