Living comfortably in Vancouver?

Alpine84 wrote: ↑ Thanks! I'll have to check it out, especially the area that already has the addition. I'm only familiar with the stretch along river road near the airport/olympic oval, and the southern tip where I used to pokemon go.
My dad drilled into my head that I should never buy any RE south of marine drive so I guess I am unable to shake his comments even today lol.

Alpine84 wrote: ↑ Thanks! I'll have to check it out, especially the area that already has the addition. I'm only familiar with the stretch along river road near the airport/olympic oval, and the southern tip where I used to pokemon go.
My dad drilled into my head that I should never buy any RE south of marine drive so I guess I am unable to shake his comments even today lol.

Kresher wrote: ↑ Yeah, when the supposedly "Big One" earthquake hits Vancouver, Richmond is done for according to what I was taught more than 10 years ago.

If I'm buying a condo/house, it's definitely north of Marine Drive.

GTA12345 wrote: ↑ Just curious...if I'm looking on a map, I assume the part of Van between False creek and Stanley Park is the dense tall buildings area we are used to seeing in aerial pictures. Is that also where the office buildings are?

And other than W Van, where are the high end areas? The streetview of homes south of False Cr, so Kitsilano, Greektown etc all the way down to the airport seems super nice. Is that where the well off look to live?

GTA12345 wrote: ↑ And other than W Van, where are the high end areas? The streetview of homes south of False Cr, so Kitsilano, Greektown etc all the way down to the airport seems super nice. Is that where the well off look to live?

Alpine84 wrote: ↑ Depends on how well off you are... shaughnessy is probably the most expensive part of Vancouver. It's also become a designated heritage area, so you won't see some of the horrible new construction in a place like the British Properties.

zakarydoks wrote: ↑ I took a few Earth and ocean sciences electives and the only thing I got from them is Richmond liquefaction. The image I get is Richmond and its structures being flushed into the Straight of Georgia lol.

GTA12345 wrote: ↑ Interesting. When I put that in Google, it doesn't identify it like the other neighborhoods. It puts a pin near Granville st and w 29th. But basically the same area as the others I guess.

Being not from there, I've only ever really heard west van cited as super rich. I guess I've heard of Kitsilano before, but to be honest, I couldn't have told you it was any diff from outer areas like burnaby, Richmond, Abbotsford etc (not even sure my examples are relevant as "outer" areas). Never heard of Kitsilano being a rich area, and never heard of these other neighborhoods at all. But looking at the homes, I can see why the avg is so high there. Amazing homes.

Is it fair to say these are old money areas? Is west van new money? Or is west van just way out there and not really considered?

Just hard to know if west van is just media hype but not really part of the city life, like Malibu in LA

Alpine84 wrote: ↑ Granville and 29th would be the right area. The avg home in Shaughnessy is probably 10m. What Zakarydoks said is true, everything west of Cambie (with the exception of Marpole) is where you will find the expensive areas... Others... Point Grey, UBC endowment lands, Dunbar/Southlands, Kerrisdale, Kitsilano, Arbutus, Oakridge, Cambie.... you essentially need 4M before you can even consider living in a newer detached house in the cheapest parts of these areas.

I wouldn't call West Van just media hype. The expensive areas overlook the burrard inlet, stanley park, and downtown Vancouver. If you can afford the holy f*** view, then I don't think the horrible traffic on the bridges to get into DT Vancouver would matter too much because you wouldn't be working class anyways.

All of these areas (including west van) were definitely old money. They used to be the areas where professionals lived while East Side Vancouver was where all the blue-collar workers lived. Today, huge parts of these areas are taken over by foreign capital.

GTA12345 wrote: ↑ Yes, the west van view. Spend time on mls checking those out when I can't sleep.

I've remarked to people how the 10m and up market in Vancouver has far more Wow factor than toronto. Basically here, you get some wow in the bridle path but it's simply monster gated estates. No view, no winding hilltop location, no water. There's water views in Oakville and the beaches area in the city, some wow there, but nothing like the view from west Vancouver. Reminds me very much of the homes up in the Hollywood hills. Both in style and views.

We have some estate property areas that are golf course adjacent, but again, in relative sense, blah.

Basically, spend big multi millions here, get a house in forest hill or Rosedale and it's a boring flat lot. Beautiful homes of course, but no features that pop in the same way. Not a horrible problem to have I guess.