So is Vancouver strickley for the Uber Wealthy? (apartment, for rent)

[rpontillo]

So is Vancouver for the uber wealthy or what??....I mean can normal folks with normal backgrounds survive say in the suburbs surrounding the Downtown area..or does one have to have a sophisticated PHD and have wordly experience where you command a six figure income to make it in a town like that...for example can one make it working at say a grocery store for a living or driving a truck??? Any feed back would be great..

[ubringliten]

Originally Posted by rpontillo

So is Vancouver for the uber wealthy or what??....I mean can normal folks with normal backgrounds survive say in the suburbs surrounding the Downtown area..or does one have to have a sophisticated PHD and have wordly experience where you command a six figure income to make it in a town like that...for example can one make it working at say a grocery store for a living or driving a truck??? Any feed back would be great..

Just letting you know I am applying for a position at UBC and was interviewed by all PhDs and they weren't making alot at all, around 60-80K and they all lived within walking distance from Vancouver General Hospital. Like many people mentioned on here, Canadians don't get paid much. When I told them my salary, the Directors were blown away, literally blown away. Now, I am afraid they won't match or even come close to my salary which will be a let down for me. I want to move there so badly.
They told me that you can get a decent one bedroom apt. for about 1200s near cityhall/VGH regions and a monthly mass transportation pass for about $72. Those costs are doable to live in Vancouver.

[StarshipPoopers1]

Originally Posted by rpontillo

So is Vancouver for the uber wealthy or what??....I mean can normal folks with normal backgrounds survive say in the suburbs surrounding the Downtown area..or does one have to have a sophisticated PHD and have wordly experience where you command a six figure income to make it in a town like that...for example can one make it working at say a grocery store for a living or driving a truck??? Any feed back would be great..

People of all financial situations manage to live in every North American city. For renting the costs really aren't that different from Toronto, the housing market is really high though. $400,000 for what basically amounts to a shack in Vancouver. If you go on MLS for Vancouver and put in $300,000 it comes back mostly blank haha.

People live in California and NYC with low paying jobs and manage to do fine, and those places are very expensive. So yes, you could get by in Vancouver, it just depends on what kind of lifestyle you want.

Theoretically you could live in a $600 a month apartment and spend $50 on groceries a week, but that wouldn't be a very enjoyable life. If you want to have a comfortable apartment and decent lifestyle then yeah, you have to pay for it. If that is outside of your income then you might want to consider a more rural area.

[Endzone]

Yes

[kkgg7]

I'd be surprised to see many people with worldly experience who choose to work in Vancouver. The city simply doesn't pay a "worldly" salary.