Anyone know anything about these areas? They both look really nice and seem within commutable distance into Vancouver city.
We have two young kids, so any info about the elementary and junior highs would be great. Crime rates and general friendliness of the people would be helpful too.

Not sure I'd want that commute - I drove from the heart of downtown Vancouver on Friday late morning, and it took an hour and 15 minutes to reach Langley. Chilliwack took an additional 20 minutes. Factor in rush hour and you'll be spending a lot of time in a car.

If you can find employment in, or close to, either of those communities, I think that'd be a better bet.

I wouldn't say Chilliwack to Vancouver was commutable, to do that every morning and evening would be horrible.

We just recently stopped there last week while heading to Vancouver on a Road Trip.

I would say that major highway would get very busy in rush hour, it was busy out of rush hour for us. I think it took us 1 and half hours.

Have you looked at New Westminster?

Chilliwack to Vancouver is not a fun commute, I used to do Chilliwack to Surrey during rush hour and I needed to allow 90-120 minutes and thats not even counting the time it would take to cross the port mann bridge if going into Vancouver.

Now Abbotsford to Vancouver is not as bad if your gonna work in Downtown as you can drive to Mission and take the west coast express train in, provided you work a typical M-F 9-5 type schedule, but that can be costly.

Chilliwack has a fair amount of petty crime, but not much violent crime.

If you need to work in Chilliwack good luck, local unemployment is 11% right now, almost double what it is in Abbotsford and metro Vancouver.

We've lived in Abbotsford since the new year when we landed. I don't think I'd like to commute to Vancouver though! It takes about 45 mins in off peak traffic on a good day. Public transport is nearly non-existent here - there aren't any quick links to Vancouver yet either. Do you have work lined up in Vancouver?

I don't have children so can't comment on schools, other than I know people can queue for hours to get their children into a good school on admissions day. There seem to be lots though -and lots of churches if you're into that kind of thing.... but then Abbotsford is sort of the bible belt of BC.

I like Abbotsford because it's fairly quiet. It certainly isn't crime free, being home to the infamous Bacon brothers. There have been quite a few murders in the area recently, all gang related. Saying that, I haven't seen or heard any trouble (and I literally live around the corner from the Bacon's home!!).

All the people I've met in passing seem really friendly and willing to chat, although I haven't made any friends here as such yet (working odd hours doesn't help!).

House prices are reasonable, and you definietely get more for your money the further east you go, so Chilliwack is even cheaper. The east side of Abbotsford tends to be the nicer side (in terms of real estate and desirability). Chilliwack is about a 20 min drive away from Abbotsford, and a little more rural.

we was out that way yesterday and wow! what a couple of places......SOOOOOO beautiful!!!! if work was available for us out there, we would definatley move there.....but as work is downtown, we have to be in stricking distance and abbotsford/chillwack isn't!!!! really wouldn't want to commute, as already said but woweeeeeee! depends on your needs/wants i quess....