US Citizens might be moving to Vancouver

[Shari 6]

Oh I'm not moving, but after seeing how much you pay for your place there, I want to move there. I pay almost as much for a 1 bedroom apt here in Colorado, plus you don't get winter there. Even better and you have 'Bama Football too.

Oh, ha ha. Gotcha. And yes, ROLL TIDE!!!!

Yes we gout out of our verizon contract as we moved out of the USA. Took a bit of talking, but got it done!!

Ok, that is GREAT to know.

[VeeNDee 44]

So what are you guessing for a commute in time? Blaine is supposed to be (by Google maps) a 30 minute drive to Vancourver. What realistically would it be with the commuter traffic you think? And again, the gas is sooooo high in Canada - YUCK! I just seems like we would have more $ living in Washington between housing costs and gas costs.

Okay, I will look into those suburbs. Thanks for the names, it helps.

I cross the border to Blaine frequently to visit my fiance further down in Washington. There are two border crossings you can use about 5 minutes apart from each other - one is the Peace Arch crossing and the other is the Pacific Highway / Truck Crossing. The problem with living in Blaine and driving to work in Vancouver is twofold.

First, the traffic to Vancouver in the mornings is indeed terrible. The thing with Vancouver is, it's crammed into a narrow line between the border to the south, the mountains to the north and east, and the ocean to the west. There are also several rivers notably the Fraser River in particular that crosscross the area. Long story short there are tunnels and bridges you have to cross and they always create large bottlenecks. Commuting to Vancouver in the evening on a quiet day can take me 45 minutes from where I live in Surrey, but if I was to drive in to a possible job around 8am it could easily take me over one and a half hours, if not more. If you take the bus from here it would easily take over 2 hours.

Then there is the problem of the border crossing - you are never ever guaranteed to have a quick crossing and unless your husband's job is okay if he shows up for work late often or maybe comes in early often that will be an issue. Rarely, I can cross down to WA in 10 minutes but it's usually at least half an hour for me and lately it's been more like an hour. Now mind you I'm going south in the morning so I can't really say what the crossing up north is like but it's usually a decent wait for me in the evenings when I come back too.

If you had a Nexus card, they are open from I believe 7am to midnight and it will only take you at the most 5 or 10 minutes to cross - so if you can get Nexus that might be an option. But just be aware.

Your best bet is as the other poster said to look up neighbouring communities a little closer than mine. It might be a little more expensive than Surrey but you would have to deal with a little bit less of a commute as well.

Edited October 11, 2012 by VeeNDee

[Shari 6]

I cross the border to Blaine frequently to visit my fiance further down in Washington. There are two border crossings you can use about 5 minutes apart from each other - one is the Peace Arch crossing and the other is the Pacific Highway / Truck Crossing. The problem with living in Blaine and driving to work in Vancouver is twofold.

First, the traffic to Vancouver in the mornings is indeed terrible. The thing with Vancouver is, it's crammed into a narrow line between the border to the south, the mountains to the north and east, and the ocean to the west. There are also several rivers notably the Fraser River in particular that crosscross the area. Long story short there are tunnels and bridges you have to cross and they always create large bottlenecks. Commuting to Vancouver in the evening on a quiet day can take me 45 minutes from where I live in Surrey, but if I was to drive in to a possible job around 8am it could easily take me over one and a half hours, if not more. If you take the bus from here it would easily take over 2 hours.

Then there is the problem of the border crossing - you are never ever guaranteed to have a quick crossing and unless your husband's job is okay if he shows up for work late often or maybe comes in early often that will be an issue. Rarely, I can cross down to WA in 10 minutes but it's usually at least half an hour for me and lately it's been more like an hour. Now mind you I'm going south in the morning so I can't really say what the crossing up north is like but it's usually a decent wait for me in the evenings when I come back too.

If you had a Nexus card, they are open from I believe 7am to midnight and it will only take you at the most 5 or 10 minutes to cross - so if you can get Nexus that might be an option. But just be aware.

Your best bet is as the other poster said to look up neighbouring communities a little closer than mine. It might be a little more expensive than Surrey but you would have to deal with a little bit less of a commute as well.

I appreciate the input. I suppose I will look into Vancouver area now. The location of the job is in North Van, just over the Harbour. Someone suggested the areas of Coquitlam, Burnaby and/or Richmond. Would you concur with those since the job in in North Van? Thanks!

[VeeNDee 44]

I appreciate the input. I suppose I will look into Vancouver area now. The location of the job is in North Van, just over the Harbour. Someone suggested the areas of Coquitlam, Burnaby and/or Richmond. Would you concur with those since the job in in North Van? Thanks!

Ohhh ouch North Vancouver is the part of Vancouver about the farthest away from the border you can get so you would've had to get to Vancouver, drive through it, and then cross another bridge to get over the Fraser River again to get to North Vancouver. You could probably commute from those three areas but Richmond is basically on the opposite side of Vancouver - I think Coquitlam and Burnaby would be a better option since they are along Highway 1 that heads to North Vancouver eventually. But I wonder if it might be even better to live in a community close to North Van on the other side of the river instead.... not sure what communities are around there to be honest. Could be time to stare at Google maps!

[VeeNDee 44]

For reference, here are the two government websites I use that tell me the border wait times.

When I drive down to Washington I use:

http://www.th.gov.bc.ca/ATIS/index.htm

Currently at 10am the ETA is about 30 minutes.

When I drive up to British Columbia I use:

http://www.wsdot.com/traffic/border/default.aspx?cam=1214

Currently the wait time is about 5-10 minutes -not bad.

The problem is, the wait time gets worse at certain periods of the day. If you know when you would have to cross you could check the website weekly around that time and see what the average wait is.

Remember: Fridays and weekends are always busier and there are peak crossing times. On a holiday weekend you can sometimes wait over 2 hours. When it's terrible weather and the right time of the day you can get across instantly because no one wants to go anywhere. So you need to factor all of that in.

[Shari 6]

Ohhh ouch North Vancouver is the part of Vancouver about the farthest away from the border you can get so you would've had to get to Vancouver, drive through it, and then cross another bridge to get over the Fraser River again to get to North Vancouver. You could probably commute from those three areas but Richmond is basically on the opposite side of Vancouver - I think Coquitlam and Burnaby would be a better option since they are along Highway 1 that heads to North Vancouver eventually. But I wonder if it might be even better to live in a community close to North Van on the other side of the river instead.... not sure what communities are around there to be honest. Could be time to stare at Google maps!

Yes, pretty much ruled out Washington State now. Thanks so much for all the suggestions.

[Krikit 1,163]

Oh, North Van is lovely. Don't even think of Burnaby or Coquitlam. Crazy traffic. Look for something on the North Van side.

[Shari 6]

Oh, North Van is lovely. Don't even think of Burnaby or Coquitlam. Crazy traffic. Look for something on the North Van side.

Ok. Thank you!

[JnJ13 13]

If work is going to be in North Van your likely best to live in North van or somewhere in East Van. Living in Burnaby and Coquitlam would be a nightmare. The traffic from the South near the border to North Van would also be horrible and take over an hour daily. I worked downtown for one summer and had co-workers who lived in Delta.. After living in their car and never seeing their families they moved out of Vancouver entirely!

Don't get me wrong Van is an awesome place to live with a lot of stuff to do but living closer to North Van would be recommended.

Edited October 11, 2012 by JnJ13

[VeeNDee 44]

Just saw this article today:

"Vancouver second most traffic congested city in North America: report"

http://www.vancouversun.com/news/metro/Vancouver+second+most+traffic+congested+city+North+America/7374883/story.html

Ok so it doesn't just seem bad - it really is. Ugh.

[dukeandduchess 141]

If it's in North Van, then you probably want to look at North Van houses. Coquitlam/Richmond would be an hour/hour and a half drive away. North Burnaby wouldn't be too bad, maybe an hour at the most.