6 Things I WISH I Knew BEFORE Moving to VANCOUVER CANADA

vancouver is a great place to live and for those who choose to try it out it can offer a lot from the beauty of it all to the outdoor activities or the landmarks to the rain but just like when you move anywhere new they'll most likely be a few things that you'd wish you'd known before taking the leap and today i'm sharing with you the six things that i wish i knew before moving to vancouver canada [Music] if you guys are new to the channel i make a lot of videos about vancouver and its lifestyle so if that interests you at all make sure to subscribe to catch the future videos number one is transit now if you aren't familiar with vancouver at all you're probably expecting me to talk about how slow it is and how it takes forever to get places but it's actually the opposite vancouver's public transportation is efficient and convenient the system includes buses the sea bus ferry as well as sky trains all of which run from about 5 am to 1 am every day and are quite reliable now i did miss quite a lot of classes actually last year but only a few of them were because of the buses not coming or the transit being slow most of the reason was because i just didn't want to go just like a lot of people do i get myself through the city and anywhere around it without having to look at my phone for a map public transportation is really everywhere and for those of you wondering how much transit actually costs it's about 100 a month but goes all the way up to 177 a month depending on how broad of an area you need to travel between on top of the transit system being very good vancouver is also ranked 18th as being one of the most bike friendly cities in the world i'm not a cyclist myself but i know several people who replace their car with a bike when they move to vancouver and when they do need a car they rent an evo or something similar for the time needed which is actually quite affordable the main takeaway from this point is that depending on where you live in vancouver you may not need to own a car at all number two weather overreaction people talk about vancouver like rain rain rain sun rain rain rain rain rain rain rain sun and if you look anywhere on the internet for info about vancouver you will undoubtedly come across people warning you about the battle with rain that you're gonna have to face since i moved here two years ago i completely forgot about what i had read on how much it rained because it seemed relatively the same as everywhere else i've lived can it sometimes rain for several days straight yes but is it common only in a couple months of the year for being called raincover or the wet coast from time to time it's not actually as bad as they make it out to be although it can snow in the wintertime the temperatures are never anything crazy for first time vancouverites the amount of snow we get may come as a surprise to some but if you're someone who's familiar with snow or lived in a place that had it before it may not really seem like much here's a photo of my street today in the summertime and here is a photo of what it looked like in the winter it's only a few inches but it could be a lot if you've never dealt with snow before so overall the rain is not as bad as people say it is but if you do plan to move here be prepared for a little bit of snow as well and i just wanted to mention if these videos help you guys at all be sure to let me know in the comments so i actually know to make more of these number three is rental prices now most people who decide to move somewhere new would take a look at the housing expenses before going as they should but if you haven't done that you should start doing some research as vancouver is one of the most expensive places to live in all of canada with the average cost of a one bedroom apartment being one thousand nine hundred and fifty dollars per month i've got a few vancouver apartment tour videos already uploaded on this channel so i'll be sure to link them above and also in the description below since the average rent here is so high it's actually the reason that over seventy percent of people have one or more roommates financial experts say that we should spend around one third or thirty percent of our income on housing expenses and if we do the math quick if you made eighty thousand dollars a year you would be able to afford a 1 950 a month apartment 80 000 minus the tax you pay throughout the year divided by 12 for each month of the year leaves you with around six thousand dollars and six thousand divided by three is two thousand dollars which is about one third of your income a lot of people ask me how much they would need to make to be able to have their own place and i usually show them that equation if you're pretty early on in your career like i am then it's not too realistic to try to find your own place in vancouver yet but if you're near or over that six figure mark then you shouldn't have a problem finding your own place [Music] number four is car insurance and more specifically how insanely pricey it is now i already mentioned earlier in the video that the transit is so good you may not need to own a car at all and this point backs that up even further now some people love their cars and others need them for work so this point is for you the insurance rates are high all over british columbia but for younger drivers it's even worse now as an example i'll show you guys what i paid for my car as you guys know i drive a 2021 lamborghini aventador i'm kidding i haven't had time to order that yet i drive a 2001 dodge ram i'm 21 i've had a full license for three years zero accidents and zero tickets if you guessed 352 dollars per month then you're correct my camera is worth more than my truck really going off the average wage or salary of a 21 year old i technically should not be able to afford my car and we didn't even talk about the cars expenses itself and for those of you who are older or have been driving longer than me say in your 30s or 40s for an example my friend drives a 2015 ram 1500 and pays about 220 dollars a month so if you're relatively young like i am or even a bit older or haven't been driving for that many years be prepared to dish out some cash if you plan to drive here number five making new friends can be difficult now a friend of mine from mexico who recently moved here actually pointed this out to me and i never thought about it because i've known people in vancouver all my life he said it can be actually quite difficult to make new friends outside of work or school and then moving here alone can be tough because of that since rent and expenses are so high here around 80 percent of people who move here do not move alone meaning they already have roommates or friends they're with making them less likely to be on the search for new friends all the time majority of the time people move somewhere new it's either for school or for job opportunities and my experience with both of those has been really good and i did not have a problem making connections at all at the end of the day i think it matters more who you are and just how bad you want to make new friends number six the not so nice area of vancouver this one is something i actually did know before i moved in vancouver but i believe it deserves a spot in the video as it's pretty important the area is east vancouver also known as hastings as hastings street goes directly through the middle of east van i don't want to show too much footage of the area as i don't want to record people who live on the street for our entertainment purposes that's just not right the reason this area is not so nice as i described it is because of the large amount of people living on the streets by no means am i saying all homeless people are bad but it does contribute to the higher crime rate nothing awful has ever happened to me when i've been there but i do know a couple people who have been mugged the streets there contain more garbage than anywhere else in the city and also you have to watch where you're stepping for needles and other things like that i don't want to make this sound worse than it is because i go there and i feel safe at night time i stay way more alert and i won't have my earbuds in things like that but i'm not i don't have my heart pounding and i'm like looking at everyone like they're about to beat me up it's pretty much an area that i don't go to unless i need to go there if you're someone who's been looking at apartments in vancouver you may have come across the east van area and noticed that the prices are more affordable but that's no mistake and even if prices are lower i would recommend you all to avoid this area when looking for a place to live even though i covered more negative things than positive things in this video it's kind of hard to do that when the title is things i wish i knew before i moved here and overall there's a hundred times more reasons to live in vancouver than why you shouldn't because if it wasn't a good place to live then trust me i would not be here anymore if you guys enjoyed this video or found it helpful in any way please let me know in the comments and leave a like on the video so i know to make more of these and help more of you guys more often and also subscribe because it does help me out as well so if you guys have any questions about the points in this video or any other ones you can leave them in the comments below and also dm me on instagram agriz and that's it for this video so i'll see you next week you

Channel: Adam J Bell

Views: 569,758

Keywords: kelly stamps, moving to canada, moving to vancouver, living in canada, is vancouver expensive, moving to vancouver canada, vancouver canada, vancouver apartments, how to move to canada, is vancouver nice, does it rain in vancouver, shelby church, monica church, is vancouver cold, vancouver myths, what i wish i knew before moving to vancouver, vancouver bc, vancouver apartment tour, downtown vancouver, vancity, should i move to vancouver, moving abroad, british columbia, vanc

Id: ZGJrhs2Tb6o

Length: 8min 2sec (482 seconds)

Published: Fri Aug 14 2020