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Contents 1 Introduction 2 Neighbourhoods 3 Commuting 4 Climate 5 Rental Listings 6 Source 7 Related articles

[edit] Introduction

Metro Vancouver includes the City of Vancouver plus several suburban cities. Prices generally fall the further away you get from the centre, but it is only a general rule.

[edit] Neighbourhoods

• Downtown – very hip urban living. There are lots of very expensive condos in the new Yaletown district. The West End has lots of older apartments ($1,000 pm and up). The rest of downtown is predominantly the business heart of BC. There is a big gay community in the West End, and drop dead gorgeous views over sea, mountains and Stanley Park.
• Vancouver Westside. Expensive & exclusive. Close to the University of British Columbia. Apart from the busy arterial roads, (Granville, Oak and Cambie streets and Broadway, Grandview and 70th Avenue) there is not a bad neighborhood.
• The more affordable and enjoyable part of the Westside is called Kitsilano (Kits) and is worth a look. It’s a fun, chic, and lively place to live, plenty of interesting stores, restaurants and coffee houses, and a good place to get some of the Vancouver experience while you explore the area.
• Marpole is the neighborhood in the south and this is a bit like Kitsilano toned down. Older and more sedate, with less of the vibe, but pleasant enough away from the busy streets.
• Kerrisdale is the nearest to a village within Vancouver. Very nice streets, very nice shops, very nice houses and, unfortunately, very nice prices. It is the genteel retreat of upper middle class Vancouverites.
• Dunbar to the west has less of a neighborhood feel but is worth a look-see.
• You will need a very good budget to work with if you are thinking of buying in the Westside, but if you do want to look at real budget busting housing try Point Grey, The University Endowment Lands, Shaughnessy or Southlands. If you intend to ask, “how much” it is probably a good idea to take a seat and a restorative with you.
• An advantage of living on the Westside is that you can commute downtown by bus.
• Vancouver Eastside. It’s definitely a step down in price and status from the Westside, but not necessarily any worse for that. It contains the one area to avoid, called the Downtown Eastside, which is a few blocks around the intersection of Main & Hastings. This is the skid row and drug central. Otherwise, most of Metro Vancouver is quite safe. The Eastside is mixed industrial, commercial, and residential. It is attractive to younger people and creative types who like the very slight edginess. Housing ranges from run down to very good. Wonderful Asian food.
• Burnaby. It is a separate city but, in effect, just a continuation of the Eastside. There are some high-end neighborhoods around Simon Fraser University, otherwise it is very mixed.
• New Westminster – the old capital of BC. A bit faded round the edges these days. Again, a mix of industrial, commercial, and low-end and high-residential. Many homes have river & mountain views.
• North of Burnaby/New West are the Tri Cities of Coquitlam, Port Coquitlam and Port Moody. They have a good mix of housing close up under the mountains.
• East of here is Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. These are the cheapest areas in Metro Vancouver because they are almost cut off from the rest of it. To get anywhere else you have the choice of one bridge, the Pitt River Bridge, or the free ferry to Fort Langley. As you can imagine, these get very busy during the rush hour. The free ferry will be replaced by a toll bridge in the next couple of years.
• Work will be a big factor in deciding if this is the right place to live. If you work in downtown Vancouver then there is a commuter train so you can leave your car at the station. However, to get anywhere else you will face the queue to the bridge or the wait for the ferry. Lots of people do it – it just depends whether you mind or not.
• Pitt Meadows/Maple Ridge covers quite a big area and varies from smallish city centers to very rural. There is reasonable housing available just about everywhere. Many people believe that house prices will rise significantly once the new bridge is completed. No guarantees, but it is a commonly held belief.
• As it is right up against the mountains there is plenty of opportunity to get out into the back country. If you like hiking, boating, fishing, kayaking, or just watching nature and mountain vistas you will have plenty to do in your free time. However, this closeness to the mountains means it gets more than its fair share of rain.
• The facilities are generally good, if a bit small town, and schools are fine. Some people say the air quality is the worst in the Lower Mainland. No one from Maple Ridge says this, but if anyone has respiratory problems this may be something to investigate further.
• Across the Burrard Inlet from Downtown are North Vancouver & West Vancouver. They are connected to Vancouver by two spectacular bridges and one commuter ferry. This is an attractive area to live – good housing, very scenic and close to Downtown. Unfortunately the prices reflect this. West Vancouver has the highest per capita income in Canada and has a plentiful selection of multi-million dollar mountain and waterfront mansions. North Vancouver, while still not exactly cheap, has a more mixed residential composition.
• Just south of Vancouver is Richmond. It is industrialized in the north around the airport but is otherwise a mixed residential and farming area. Central Richmond is known as Asia West and has a stupefying, but very welcome, selection of Asian malls, stores and restaurants. Steveston is a historic fishing village located in Richmond's south west. It's quite different from the rest of Richmond both in demographics and in atmosphere. It offers more of a small town community feeling which is fairly attractive to families. Many family-run businesses thrive here, including many fish n chip shops, a nice variety of restaurants, and a British import store. Lots of tiny heritage sites, fishing boats, and waterfront boardwalks. Very quaint.
• This leaves the four cities south of the Fraser River.
• Delta is mixed residential and agricultural and consists of three main districts: Tsawwassen, Ladner, and North Delta. Tsawwassen is the nicest area near to the ferry terminal to Vancouver Island. It is primarily residential and has some beautiful homes. It has a fantastic beach along Boundary Bay. Ladner is a tiny village north of Tsawwassen along the river surrounded by farmland and is famous for migrating waterfowl. North Delta is more generic. It borders on Surrey and is cut off from Ladner and Tsawwassen by Burns Bog and Hwy 99. Both Tsawwassen and Ladner are less ethnically diverse than most places in Vancouver.
• Surrey is the “Essex” of Greater Vancouver and is also referred to as Slurry or Curry. Actually, it’s not that bad. It’s just that is has a pretty grotty area across the river from New West. The rest is fine. Surrey is also mixed industrial, residential and agricultural. It is the fastest growing city in BC and if you like the idea of living in a new, reasonably priced, sub-division it’s a place to consider. South Surrey is particularly pleasant, though more expensive, as it has many large country estates.
• Surrey is a big city and encompasses the best and the worst places to live in the suburbs. There are six districts: Walley, Guildford, Newton, Fleetwood, Cloverdale and South Surrey.
• The old centre of the city is Walley. Although this is an “improving” area it has a lot of improving to do. Ugly strip malls, run down housing, vagrants and drug problems make it a place to stay clear of. The Sky Train runs from here into Burnaby and Vancouver and so is convenient for commuting without a car. Although it is safe enough during the day, the area around the Sky Train station is one of the very few areas in Metro Vancouver to avoid late at night.
• Guildford is next to Walley and is better but is still very much a blue collar place. Newton is to the south and the population here is predominantly Punjabi. Some teachers in Surrey say that the secondary schools in Walley, Guildford and Newton are the most difficult to teach in. If you have children this will be a consideration in choosing a place to live.
• There is, however, one exception and this is called Fraser Heights. This is a “posh” enclave centered round a fee paying secondary school. Many people think that if you chose your home well the public (state) schools are just fine and so wouldn’t consider a fee paying school, but Fraser Heights is considered by many as a very desirable location.
• Fleetwood and Cloverdale are areas that are being extensively developed as bedroom communities for the Lower Mainland. Cloverdale in particular is centered on the Willowbrook shopping in Langley. You will find lots of all kinds of new houses in this area from apartments through to large detached homes.
• The Cloverdale area of Surrey and the Willowbrook area of Langley are more or less continuous and anything said about Cloverdale also applies to Willowbrook. It is worth a visit and a tour of some open houses during a reccie trip as this is one of the more affordable places to live and there are many houses available. The downside is that the big new subdivisions can be a bit soulless.
• The only way to commute is by car so, depending on where and when you need to travel, you may have to face the line-ups to the Port Mann bridge.
• South Surrey is very nice. Ocean front and view properties command mega million dollar prices and away from the sea are comfortable houses with manicured lawns and well tended gardens. There are three excellent secondary schools serving South Surrey. The downside is, of course, that it is expensive. If prices starting at $700,000 for a detached home are in your budget then you should pay a visit. There is some new housing development but to keep prices in check they are built on very small lots.
• Most of Surrey is served by the General Hospital in Walley. It gets very busy at times with long waits in emergency. South Surrey has its own hospital in White Rock and from Cloverdale Langley General hospital is not far away. Other than this Surrey is convenient for Government services and has many public parks, sports facilities and public recreation centers.
• Langley City is as ugly as sin but it is mostly commercial and shopping with not much residential accommodation. It has all the shopping you are ever likely to need. Outside the City is the Township of Langley and this has seven areas: Willowbook, Brookswood, Walnut Grove, Murrayville, Fort Langley, South Langley and Aldergrove.
• For Willowbrook see Cloverdale. Walnut Grove and Murrayville are newish residential communities. Langley General Hospital is in Murrayville. As places to live they are both fine. Fort Langley was the first town in BC and the fort is a Parks Canada heritage site. It is a pretty place, if a little touristy. The free ferry to Maple Ridge leaves from here.
• Brookswood is to the south of Langley and is an older residential area. As far as the writer knows this is a good place to live. Although there is a certain attraction to a new house the older homes are usually built on much bigger lots. Older homes may need a bit of work to bring them up-to-date but this should be reflected in the price.
• South Langley is very rural and unless you are looking for a place big enough to keep a couple of horses is probably not on the radar for a reccie trip. This brings us to Aldergrove. Aldergrove is as far away from downtown Vancouver as you can get in the Lower Mainland. Prices reflect this although it is close to the freeway and you can be in downtown in less than an hour in off-peak times.
• All the communities in Langley have access to sports and recreation facilities. There are two big country parks in South Langley as well as the smaller community play areas.
• Finally there is White Rock. This is a small, resort town just north of the US border. It can be quiet off season, but on sunny summer weekends the promenade and beaches and the sea front bars and cafes throng with day trippers. White Rock is expensive if you want to buy a place on the hillside with views to the US and Canadian Gulf Islands. The drive to Downtown is about 60 (ish) minutes in the rush hour.

[edit] Commuting

• Vancouver Eastside, Burnaby and New West are linked to downtown by the Sky Train mass transit system. Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows and Coquitlam are linked by a commuter line that runs four trains into town in the morning, and four trains back in the evening. A new Sky Train line is being built that links Richmond and the airport to Downtown that is due to open in 2009. (A light rail system is promised from the Tri Cities area in the next few years.)
• Some people do manage to commute by bus. If you really don't want to drive you can check if there is a bus service from where you are to where you want to be. The trip planner is here. The services from the suburbs tend to run towards downtown and so are not much use getting from one suburban centre to another.
• Apart from these, if you need to commute, the car is the only realistic option.

[edit] Climate

Summer temperatures are at their best in August. Around 25 deg C by the beaches and up to 40 deg C inland. The summer is beautiful, but the autumn and winter are wet. Vancouver receives about double the rain that London, UK receives. Still, you don’t have to shovel rain. The rain is concentrated close to the mountains, so North & West Van and the Tri-Cities are the wettest, Vancouver/Burnaby next, then Surrey/Delta, then White Rock. Residents of White Rock can be out drinking cold beer in the sunshine while Vancouver is soaking in the rain.

[edit] Rental Listings

• The Vancouver Sun/Province has the best classified ads and you can read them online.
• The local freebies also carry extensive rental listings.
• Craig's List is becoming more popular, but you need to be quick - free to advertise as well. Craig's List

[edit] Source

Most of the text in this article has been copied from post #7 in this City / Neighbourhood guides thread on the forum.

[edit] Related articles

There is a Wiki article on North Vancouver, which has more detailed information on that suburb (actually two distinct municipalities).