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Hello. My husband and I live on the Gulf Coast of Alabama and he is in talks with a company in Vancouver about a job. I am reading this forum to get some general information on the area.
Can someone from the area tell me if there are only apartment rentals or does Vancouver have home rentals too like we do in the U.S.? I know the cost of living is MUCH higher there, but the salary being talked about would be sufficient to live nicely, I think (about $30,000-40,000 more than he is making here). We currently live in a 3 bedroom, 2 bath, 1600 square foot, one level home with a 2-car attached garage and front and back year and only pay $1050.00 a month. I know that is cheap compared to up there.
I wanted to find out about rental HOUSES though and if there are some. I ask because we have two German Shepherd dogs and a one or two bedroom apartment will not cut it. The area of the job is just on the north side of Vancouver Harbor, though I obviously do not know if there are good and bad areas of this city as there are in most cities. That being said, he would not want to work any more than 20 miles from where we live.
You'll be on the north shore? It's a fairly suburban area, actually, and the housing stock is predominantly single family homes (although there are of course thousands of apartments available as well). You can certainly rent a house in North Vancouver or North Vancouver regional district if you can afford to. If not, I'd recommend a townhouse as the next best thing. Avoid the area called West Vancouver, which is on the north shore, it's the regions wealthiest neighbourhood so you won't get good value there, stick to North Van and points east!
Your salary increase of $30-$40K, after tax, may be just enough to cover the additional rental payment on a house you are looking for in Vancouver (with similar feature to what you have currently in Alabama).
International working / living experience is great. Make sure that you don't mind the weather in Vancouver cause it is way different from Alabama. If you cannot stand long period of cloudy / raining weather (Oct to at least end of May), then don't go cause it will drive you crazy especially you are custom to sunny sky most of the year.
The summer are glorious though, and North Vancouver, on the mountains, is a naturally beautiful setting.
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