TU90 Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Weird topic, but actually wouldn't mind some opinions. Currently live in Victoria (west shore) with my wife and 1 year old daughter. Considering putting our house up for sale as I could potentially double my down payment right now. It's also pretty small. I can afford up to around $550,000 for a house. That rules out Victoria, Vancouver etc.. Nanaimo is an option. Can catch the boat to North Van to go to Canucks games.. but it's Nanaimo. Grew up in Duncan, not really interested in raising my daughter there. Things important to me are good food, hockey, and now good schools/community. Any other parents out the who love where you're at? Why? Where? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-AJ- Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Not sure how far east you're willing to go, but prices get a heck of a lot cheaper if you can get to Langley or even Abbotsford. I'm not super informed, but as far as I know, 550k can land a solid 4-bedroom home in Abbotsford. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ILL BILL NECRO Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Move out of the Vancouver area and live like a king? If you don't need to be there GTFO. 550k not on the coast will get you anything you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Korea Bob.Loblaw Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 26 minutes ago, ajhockey said: Not sure how far east you're willing to go, but prices get a heck of a lot cheaper if you can get to Langley or even Abbotsford. I'm not super informed, but as far as I know, 550k can land a solid 4-bedroom home in Abbotsford. Abbotsford, maybe. Langley, doubtful. Chilliwack, certainly! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Glory_Days Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Well, not sure if you need to live in a specific location or not. Sunshine Coast - Pros: Affordable, can buy a nice 4 bedroom house with basement suite for around 400k. Close to Vancouver, just a 45min ferry ride away plus only pay one way. Super nice in the spring/summer. - Cons: Can be hard to find work depending on your job. Horrible in the winter months, just nothing to really do for most part. Education/raising youth can be a problem once they reach 6/7 as the schooling over there is hit and miss, plus lot of problems with drugs since well, not a lot to do for the kids over there once there teenagers. Not a lot of variety for restaurants. Kelowna - Pros: Beautiful beaches, fantastic summer weather. Large array of restaurants. Growing community. Is starting to get pricey there, but still cheaper then anything in lower mainland, could be good investment before prices potentially skyrocket. - Cons: Couple really bad traffic choke points. Summer is annoying cause of all the tourists/vacationers. Winter can be hellish. Black Widows *Shudders*. Downtown core becomes a drunken orgy at night during summer...so pro or con depending on your POV lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heretic Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Come to the Okanagan! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cromeslab Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Kamloops,great place to raise a family,more affordable than the coast,good junior hockey(Blazers).only 3 1/2 hr drive to Van for Canuck games and no ferries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghostsof1915 Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Stay in Victoria, and avoid the rat race in the Lower Mainland. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wilbur Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 550K will get you townhouse, perhaps a row home in Langley. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monty Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Leaving Abbotsford airport as we speak and flying back to Manitoba. Even after 12 years away, my father in-law asks when we're going to move back. My response was: "As soon as you can find us a home that was built 12 years ago, that's 3000 square feet, on half an acre, AND will be paid off in 5 years (when we're 39) we'll move back. Otherwise, we're more than happy saving boatloads of money in Manitoba." He understood. Just misses us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alflives Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 I hear Surrey is nice and safe. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toews Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Priority #1 should be to cut down the number of hours you spend commuting. So before you decide to buy the place, find out how much time it takes for you to get to work or any other place where you might need to frequent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Drewismyname Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Live in hell!?? Lol Langford is really trying but youre smart to &^@# off now. It wont get better. Though i think they did a fantastic job cleaning it up it is what it is. A traffic jam. Id move to sooke. Ur daughter will find creeps if she lives anywhere. Get her in self defense classes. Sooke is where i want to move to. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TU90 Posted March 19, 2017 Author Share Posted March 19, 2017 I work from home, so commuting isn't really an issue. Basically the entire lower mainland is out of our price range. Even houses in Chilliwack are 550ish, and then you live in Chilliwack.. I've been looking at the Okanagan, Kamloops, Kelowna etc.. trouble is I have no idea which areas are good or not. Plus my mother in law would try to kill me for taking her grandchild away from her. Could probably get away with it though. Not an easy decision.. basically I just want what's best for my little girl. My parents decision to move to Duncan took my two older brothers in a really shtty direction. Appreciate the thoughts so far Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jägermeister Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Take a look in Squamish. Just as close to Vancouver as Coquitlam/Surrey/Langley. Cheap (550 is way more than enough to get you a very nice townhouse). Cool little town. A lot awesome things to do in the immediate locale. Prices are also moving up quickly as more people working in Vancouver begin to move out that way. Wouldn't surprise me at all to see some of those 550 houses being closer to 700 in the next few years. I'm still a year or 2 away from having the money to put a down payment down for my home, but I've been seriously considering moving up there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-SN- Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 9 hours ago, TU90 said: Nanaimo is an option. Can catch the boat to North Van to go to Canucks games.. but it's Nanaimo. Check out Nanoose Bay, Parksville and Qualicum Beach. Nanaimo but nicer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gurn Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Powell River. low crime rate housing is considerably cheaper than Victoria plenty of outdoor activity- hunting, fishing fresh or salt. hiking and canoe trails, marine diving if you can't get to a lake in under 10 minutes you drive too dang slow relaxed pace rec center has two nhl size ice sheets, a pool that was almost Olympic size till part of it was turned into a kids pool. swirl pool and sauna, 500 seat live theater The Kings- a bcjhl team,they've changed the name of the league, not sure what it is called now but basically 1 step below WHL. lots of local music, blues, rock and even a classical symphony a former elementary school turned into a music academy Choir festival every other year with choirs from around the world - Kathalamixui(sp) Oldest consecutive running movie theater-reasonable price to go People are actually friendly, lots of nods, waves, folk will wait for people to cross the road with out getting pissy about how long it took. Save on Foods, Safeway and Quality foods a long with a fantastic store out in Cranberry- Mitchell bros. A butcher shop with the best sausage rolls ever, and mighty fine meat. But I see I'm starting to ramble Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lionized27 Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Three C''s. Courtenay, Comox, Cumberland. Stay away from Campbell River. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Psylocke Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 Soon-to-be-ex-co-worker of mine is moving back to Penticton with her family (they have 2 boys, ages 6 and 4, I believe). She seems quite excited. Friend of mine was able to get a fairly new 3-level townhouse in PoCo for about $450k. Her and her husband are trying to start a family. But that was about 3 or 4 years ago, so I'm not sure what the prices are now. Another set of friends (their son is 3 and they're expecting their second child) recently moved to New West (Queensborough area) and love it there. The place they got was way newer and bigger than their old place here in Vancouver. Don't know how much they paid, but definitely cheaper. I know 2 other young families in that area that absolutely love it. Both these families have young daughters (one just turned 4 and another is about 18mos). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JM_ Posted March 19, 2017 Share Posted March 19, 2017 @TU90 Have you considered staying put? Adding an addition or opening up the smaller space you have? Over the years the wife and I have had a number of places, raised our daughter in them, and we found that a lot of space is pretty over-rated, at least for us. If you work from home (which I did do a lot of as a consultant) you can also put one of these in the back yard as your office and gain more space in the house: https://www.studio-shed.com Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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