My husband may possibly have a job in Vancouver his job would be working for a shipbuilding firm in North Vancouver. We have 2 boys aged 3 and 1 and are wondering what part of Vancouver people would recommend moving to, with not knowing how the roads are or public transport is with timing any information would be a great help, also what areas are good to bring the kids up in as at first i will be at home with them most of the time and will need to get around without a car to begin with.

Thanks

If working in North Vancouver, I would personally suggest living in North Vancouver, commuting from the Vancouver side to North Van can really be a pain driving because of the traffic on the bridges and highways, and public transit to North Vancouver from Vancouver can be time consuming and frustrating.

+1. It's a nice part of Van too, and family friendly.

Good luck with the move.

Do you happen to know what a good price would be in that area for renting for a property with 3 bedrooms?

I agree with the others above. You can commute to North Van but your options are limited to two bridges or a passenger ferry. You will be going against the traffic but North Van is a fine place to live so why put yourself through commuter hell?

The only downsides to North Van are that it rains a lot and housing is not cheap. Prices will start around $2,000 for a small 3 bed townhome but I would budget at least $3,000 for a nice single family (detached) home.

check out Padmapper and Craigslist, that will give you an idea of what's available for NV.

Yes, if you are looking on Craigslist you can click on the tab for North Shore.

the other areas to consider are East Van and North Burnaby. Still good family areas and a bit livelier (imo) than NV. I know a lot of people who choose to live in these areas and work in NV/vice versa, it's a pretty quick commute because you are close to the bridge.

I still don't get this "it rains a lot in north van" thing. I'd heard this many times before moving here 2 years ago and, although I live right up at the tree line, if it's raining here, it's also raining downtown. In fact, there's been a number of times downtown has been fog-bound and cold, and I've been in with blue skies overlooking a sea of cloud with only the tops of tops of the tallest downtown buildings sticking through.

Perhaps if you lived down in Richmond it's dryer, but that would be one hell of a commute.

Also, if you are from the uk, the rain here is nothing unusual.

Anyway, getting back OT, Craigslist is the way to go, and you can filter for north van. Use google street view to get and idea of the what the neighbourhood's like.

It does rain more on the North Shore. It's a fact.

I'm sure it does, but is it so different to other areas within commutable distance to the north shore?

I'm just trying to point out that in my experience, I really can't see any discernible difference between the north shore and downtown and that statistical analysis of rainfall records shouldn't be the deciding factor on where to live if you intend to work in north van.

When it's wet, it's wet in most places.

I understand what you mean. It doesn't really matter whether or not it is raining heavily or very heavily. It is just rain. But there is more than double the annual average rainfall in North Vanouver (2,437mm) than at the airport (1,199mm). http://www.currentresults.com/Weathe...al-average.php

Summers are still great. I am not suggesting a long commute is better than the rain. The opposite in fact. Just giving some, hopefully, useful information.

Wow, thanks. Never realized it was such a difference. But as you say, the quantity is not that important. At some point, you can't get any wetter.

And yes, summers are almost in drought conditions here ( saves time cutting the grass)

The North Vancouver neighbourhoods of Lonsdale and Deep Cove would be convenient to any shipbuilding firms on the North Shore, but they're not cheap. East Vancouver and North Burnaby would also be good areas, especially areas close to the Iron Workers Memorial Bridge for ease of access to the North Shore.

North Shore = the communities of North Vancouver + West Vancouver, both individual cities separate from Vancouver.

Out walking mutt today, took some pics of my walk (North Burnaby, approx 15 mins to NV and Vancouver by car, loads of transit options)