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Certainly Vancouver's winters are milder than anywhere east of the Rockies, but the flipside is that you have to put up with rain, rain and more rain. After liv

by jbarham 12y ago

Certainly Vancouver's winters are milder than anywhere east of the Rockies, but the flipside is that you have to put up with rain, rain and more rain. After living in Vancouver for five years I moved to southern California where the weather was fantastic. I'm now in Melbourne, Australia, which is considered by Aussies to have cold winters but as a Canadian I just laugh whenever I hear that. Apart from the weather I'd say that a more legitimate reason not to move to Vancouver is the insane cost of housing, the most expensive in North America. For this reason alone I would never consider moving my family back to Vancouver.

daviding 12y ago
+1 on the housing, it's a major factor. We came over in 2001, so basically got lucky, but today it's a real issue. More and more people are being pushed out to the suburbs in the Valley, and then having a pretty bad commute into downtown. Mountains and sunshine are nice, but that's a real impact on quality of life for a lot of people.
elchief 12y ago
Hey, it only rains from November to April. Also, rent isn't so crazy here, you just can't buy anything for a reasonable amount.
vacri 12y ago
I've had both Scots and Canadians complain about how cold Melbourne gets. The problem isn't so much that the temperature drop doesn't get below freezing very often, it's that we don't build for the cold. Another friend says that he knows a German who, when she visits someone's house, shakes an inner wall with her fingertips and says "you guys can't build houses for shit". The ironic thing is that we have some of the most expensive housing in the world, in terms of cost vs average annual income. This all being said, the current winter we're in has been particularly weak - lots of warm, sunny days. It's not the usual dreary, rainy Melbourne winter.
- nojvek 12y ago
  I'm from Australia. Can definitely say housing is cheaper than Vancouver. Vancouver has been flooded by Super Rich Asians from China dumping their money in property and sky rocketing the prices for property. Can't get a 2 bedroom for less than $750,000.
  - jarek 12y ago
    > Can't get a 2 bedroom for less than $750,000. Sure you can, maybe not in the tiny downtown peninsula. Mid-rise along Mid-Main or Fraser, or some of the towers around Joyce goes for $500k. (Still a lot, but not that lot. I've moved to London and it's a lot more expensive than Vancouver.)
- cylinder 12y ago
  This. I'll take NYC winters over Melbourne any day. And yes, so many Aussie tradies are flat-out incompetent, don't give a shit and are quite often thieves (have a lot of stories about contractors coming back to the site after completion to steal water heaters and such).

by jbarham 12y ago

daviding 12y ago

+1 on the housing, it's a major factor. We came over in 2001, so basically got lucky, but today it's a real issue. More and more people are being pushed out to the suburbs in the Valley, and then having a pretty bad commute into downtown. Mountains and sunshine are nice, but that's a real impact on quality of life for a lot of people.

elchief 12y ago

Hey, it only rains from November to April. Also, rent isn't so crazy here, you just can't buy anything for a reasonable amount.

vacri 12y ago

I've had both Scots and Canadians complain about how cold Melbourne gets. The problem isn't so much that the temperature drop doesn't get below freezing very often, it's that we don't build for the cold. Another friend says that he knows a German who, when she visits someone's house, shakes an inner wall with her fingertips and says "you guys can't build houses for shit". The ironic thing is that we have some of the most expensive housing in the world, in terms of cost vs average annual income. This all being said, the current winter we're in has been particularly weak - lots of warm, sunny days. It's not the usual dreary, rainy Melbourne winter.

nojvek 12y ago
I'm from Australia. Can definitely say housing is cheaper than Vancouver. Vancouver has been flooded by Super Rich Asians from China dumping their money in property and sky rocketing the prices for property. Can't get a 2 bedroom for less than $750,000.
- jarek 12y ago
  > Can't get a 2 bedroom for less than $750,000. Sure you can, maybe not in the tiny downtown peninsula. Mid-rise along Mid-Main or Fraser, or some of the towers around Joyce goes for $500k. (Still a lot, but not that lot. I've moved to London and it's a lot more expensive than Vancouver.)
cylinder 12y ago
This. I'll take NYC winters over Melbourne any day. And yes, so many Aussie tradies are flat-out incompetent, don't give a shit and are quite often thieves (have a lot of stories about contractors coming back to the site after completion to steal water heaters and such).