Limey at vancouvercondo.info 12 Jun 2010 5:31 pm -
“People are comparing Vancouver to San Francisco and San Diego. I work in Design and Advertising and the industry is a good litmus test to how much money can be made in a city. My position in SF & SD starts at around 225-250k – in a big agency you might be looking at 300k. In Vancouver I would be groveling to get 150k. Bear in mind that I would also be paying a lot less tax in the states. Plus if I contracted, I could also write some of my mortgage off my taxes. 100k+ a year makes a lot of difference when you buy a house. Let’s compare apples to apples. I do like Vancouver – but putting it up against SF, SD, and NY is like putting your lime green Vespa scooter next to a GSX [a very fast motorcycle -ed.]. It comes with a lot of hype and looks pretty in pictures – but when you hit the road you are left standing.
P.S. Why not move to the states I hear you ask? Well my wonderful wife is from Vancouver, and like most people from the 604, regard it as some sort of gift from god to the rest of the world. Also, someone filled the US with Americans, and there’s only so long I can put up with that crowd.”
The credit rating in California is the lowest in the US. About two steps above junk. Check out Bloomberg.
So the taxes are too low, crime is higher, unemployment is at 12.5%, maybe thats why people need a gun.
The interest rates are cheaper here. Banks are more stable. Air is cleaner.
If you can incorporate, you can pay less taxes than your US friends…so start your own agency. Your take home pay will be better.
This is my story too. Except I got an offer at a firm in SF and move in 4 weeks. Goodbye no-fun-city. Hello San Francisco.
I call bullshit on that salary. That a fucking scrub advertising exec would earn more annually than a mid level investment banker or lawyer in London, UK is a baldfaced lie. Hell, that’s even more than a director level in advertising here. To comprehend the subtext just substitute “advertising” with “grow op operations manager”.
Bears just love making up stories.
genxr -> Occasionally, some ‘bear stories’ just may be fabricated, granted. Those fade into insignificance, however, when one considers the huge stories that Vancouver RE bulls have been telling themselves and each other through this gigantic bubble. (BTW, the stories above seem entirely plausible).
The taxes are a fallacy, having lived on both sides of the border I can say from personal experience that I paid more in the US than I did in Canada.
The difference? In the US they nickle and dime you to death, at every turn it’s a few percentage points. In Canada it mostly comes in one lump sum and you’re done.
At the end of the day, taxes are a wash, but if you add to this what you get for you taxes Canada wins.
SF is a major league and Vancouver the minors, the salaries follow this difference. While the positions may be the same the games are different. It’s not that there isn’t great creative tallent here- we simply don’t have the major league clients.
Is it generally true that the “top talent” migrates to the US leaving Vancouver with the “dregs?” I haven’t heard much on the brain drain angle since 1999.
Just after graduation from university, I was offered entry level positions worth 90K USD in California vs. 45K CDN here.
I believe it. I moved back here from Ireland, where I was making 225k EUR as a second-line sales manager. It is difficult to find a company that pays that much here- there just isn’t the number of companies looking for talent to drive up salaries.
We were in software and had to compete for talent with all these companies- (all located in Dublin with roughly same or less pop than Vancouver) – Google, Yahoo, IBM, Salesforce.com, BMC, Adobe, Oracle, SAP, Microsoft, Dell, HP….
all brand name players and all paying good wages.
the lack of big companies is one of the reasons for high RE prices- influential citizens have turned it into their own “mini-industry” to replace the real industries that should be here but are not.
>> influential citizens have turned it into their own “mini-industry” to replace the real industries that should be here but are not.
1. Maybe replace “mini” with “pseudo”?
2. Because RE (along with the stock market) is a substitute for an economy: no value is produced, yet every transaction generates a few new zeroes.
Interesting that some of these salespeople or ad men complain as if decisions are out of their control. You should be ashamed to admit that you’re in that line of work – you sound like someone without any influence.
I, too, have spent 7-8 years in California and can atest to life being better here. Wages right now are pretty equal to what I made in the states considering the exchange rate. It won’t stay like this forever, but there is opportunity here.
being a dual citizen thats lived in both LA and vancouver ,LA is far better Cant wait to go back