Ok Vancouver area looks like a front runner now..

So what is the cost of living there? How much for a house, car etc?

well you see, there's the catch

British Columbia is one of the most expensive places to live in Canada

i had a house with an indoor pool in Calgary that cost around $220,000.00 but would have been around 1 million in Vancouver and probably 1.5 million in Toronto

you can get a 3000sq foot house on a quarter section of land for as low as 250,000.00 here in Saskatchewan

but since i don't live in BC i will wait for someone to give you some hard numbers

I have friends that live in Vancouver.

Here are some average monthly rental prices for downtown Vancouver:

studio/bachelor = $700 CDN ($450 Euro)

1 bedroom = $850 CDN ($550 Euro)

I know a guy that lives in a nice 2 bedroom apartment for $1,200 CDN ($760 Euro)

Prices would be cheaper outside of downtown. The cheapest would be east vancouver, but I wouldn't recommend living in that part of the city because its a lower income area and not as nice. Either live downtown or on the west side of Vancouver.

House - $250K to $400K canadian. (2000 - 4000 sq feet)
Condo - $100K to $350K canadian. (500 - 1500 sq feet)
Car - $20k - $70K canadian (honda civic - BMW :) )

I pay about $350 per month for food - mostly dining out. Decent meal for two costs about $40, if you dig chinese grub, go get your eat on at a hons for about $12... you can feed two people on that.. I just spent a hundred bucks tonite going to crab fest at the boathouse... I was stuffed, my girl was stuffed and both of us were pleasantly drunk....

My power and phone bills, etc come out to about $300 per month.. car insurance is about $150 - $200 per month for a new car... gas is about $50 - $75 per month...

erm, a 6 pack is about $12-15... I spend about $100 per month on wine and beer - I am not the biggest drinker around :)

what else?

I own a condo downtown that I paid $215k for... 12th floor, 915 sq feet. I rent it out and live in burnaby right now.

Rent here is $435 per month.

burnaby is nice if you dont want to go clubbing every night. I am 15 mins from everywhere I want to go. I can get downtown in 10 mins if there is no traffic...

Burnaby is a decent place to live, some of the other suburbs are decent as well. downtown is definitely more fun tho.

Stay away from east van, north van (it is a nightmare to commute from there) and surrey :)

Yeah I also hear the Nightclubs are a real blast !!! :eek7

you live in Edmonton? i've grew up here, but left for several years. i'm back right now, but am leaving again soon. i'm not much of a fan anymore...

i've lived all over Canada, and my favorite places are interior BC (warmest part of Canada, lots of lakefront property, and killer snowboarding), and Banff National Park - killer snowboarding, the best scenery in Canada (easily) and by the far the best town in Canada to meet interesting people from all over the world.

Vancouver is okay - but it's seriously over-crowded, has brutal traffic, and is expensive. i enjoy visiting, but would never move there.

I'm in Montreal so I can't say if Vancouver has the same stuff but here, we do have Guiness, Kilkenny (my fav), and a bunch of others. We have great local beers but I understand that since you're british, you have different tastes in beers. As for a good bitter, not really. It's not very popular here.

Personally, I'd say where you move to depends a lot on what you want. Do you want a great night life, do you want a lot of outdoors, do you want the big city feel or small town?

Montreal is nice because it is fairly different than the rest of the country. There is a very european atmosphere. For adult stuff, it's a good city to be in. It's no wonder Maxim Magazine (like FHM in the UK, but this is american) rated Montreal as one of the top party cities in North America, especially if you like titty bars.

As for Vancouver, I've never been there so I'll let the other guys say what they want.

As for Toronto, I don't know. It's a city that you love or hate really. Myself, I don't think I'd want to live there myself. I find that it kind of has an identity crisis. Toronto tries to be a mini-New York City. While Montreal, Vancouver and Ottawa are very distinct and individual, Toronto tries to be american. But that's my opinion, some people love it.

As for the cold and snow, bah, you get used to it fairly quickly. I had some friends that lived here for a year. They came from Oxford and want to move back here now permanently. Vancouver's weather is like the UK. rains a lot.

I can vouch for most of this being correct. I'm not sure about "walking past a cop smoking a joint" being ok, but I do know that girls in Montreal just want to fuck like rabbits and the nightlife is there to serve this purpose. I used to go to montreal when I was 15-16 and drink in bars and get laid like crazy. Love that town - I'd move there if the fucking taxes werent' absurd.

hell yeah come to Montreal the girls are hot. The whores are inexpensive.

Daaaaamn... I was just looking through some real estate sites for BC area.. amazing.. big houses on an acre or more of land with spectacular views for the price of a small apartment where I live now! Damm it - a small car over here costs more than a house over there! ;)

I am definitely living in the wrong place!!

Now I just have to find the right place.. nice house, lots of land, great views, easy access to hot babes (content ;) and commuting distance from civilization.. some sun now and then would be nice also..

Suppose I'll have to take a trip over there some day and see whats what..


Anyway, thanks for all the replies and info!! :thumbsup

Yeah, the only thing that really sucks about Canada is the beer. I'm originally from California and the beer here has NO alcohol compared to what I drank in the U.S..

yeah get the fuck outta here