Remote worker and Vancouver resident here. Vancouver is the second most expensive city in the world, measured by cost of living to prevailing wage. Only Hong Ko

Remote worker and Vancouver resident here. Vancouver is the second most expensive city in the world, measured by cost of living to prevailing wage. Only Hong Kong scores higher. If, like me, you work in tech with American funding, it's conceivable to have a "normal" life in the downtown core, including buying property. But everyone else is fleeing the downtown core, the Greater Vancouver Area, or even the entire province. Anecdote: I know an arts administrator who moved to semi-rural Nova Scotia. She went from barely being able to afford a basement apartment to buying a pretty large house. It's pretty weird to imagine arts administration even being possible from a town in nowheresville... but the pandemic has created strange situations. She just flies into cities when she has an actual event or performance to manage.