“10-12 health care professionals in my office arriving to Vancouver in the past two years from Vancouver Island, Alberta, UK, Australia, and Denmark. Far more arriving than leaving in my line of work – others might have different experience.”
– eyesthebye at RETalks 20 Oct 2011 8:49am
“I met a couple of people last night who had recently moved here. One was from Montreal, one Australia. Both in their early 20s. Neither of them are what you would call skilled, one a labourer and the other just got a job at a sandwich joint downtown; but they were both set on spending some time in Vancouver.
I asked them both what brought them here, the Montrealer said he wanted to stay in Canada and the winters back home were a bit much. He had been here 2 months and he said he already met some great friends and thinks Vancouver is one of the friendliest big cities he has ever been to (he recently travelled Australia for a year and Europe for 6 months).
The Aussi had originally planned to head around Canada for a year spending 3-4 months in a few cities, but after 2 weeks in Vancouver she is looking for an apartment and plans to spend her full year here.
Neither of these people will replace the people in the prior anecdote that are leaving, and they may not even be permanent, but I was pretty surprised to hear how highly they spoke of Vancouver compared to their hometowns of Montreal and Sidney.”
– davers at VREAA 9 Dec 2011 12:26pm
“We know a young married couple that is moving to Vancouver from Victoria. He’s an IT manager, she works in admin. They have been checking out condos in Vancouver. They think renting is a waste of money so they are looking to buy.”
– Victoria Gal at VREAA 11 Dec 2011 12:00am
Vancouver Real Estate Anecdote Archive 
My office (professional services firm).
– Numerous young single people coming from other parts of Canada
– Some (ill-informed) people coming back after stints out of the country but still these are singles.
– Some foreigners coming to Canada after being laid-off in USA from their positions.
– Foreigners here on short-term assignment before expecting to go home.
– A couple of very experienced senior partners who are relocating here (close to retirement and buying medium-high end condos to retire in).
Very few people in our office between ages of 28-38. It would not be feasible to have any young professionals here with a young family. They could never make it and we don’t pay enough.
There are also people who are leaving the country – it has increased in the past 18 months mainly because the opportunities here are poor now.
There are no people buying SFH. The newcomers from the east are ill-informed and are buying condos downtown. You just want to warn them but they are young and have made some money on their other locations and just don’t understand that our cap rates are so low that owning is nothing more than a speculative bet right now.
One of the relocated partners (who is young) finally caved and bought something but just said West Side was too expensive. Bought on North Shore.
Of course there are examples of people moving away from and to Vancouver.
Idiots are born everywhere.
I work at a research facility. I know of three “new” people who’ve been hired as lead investigators over the last few years. These positions are well paid. Of the two I know well, one has bought a SFH.
Now the reality: all three of these people did part of their earlier training here AND have family in the area. The two I know well are putting out feelers on leaving (can’t say about the 3rd).
I am also familiar with about a dozen other people who trained here and moved on to top shelf later training in the best labs/at the best institutes in our field. A few of them would like to return. The biggest hurdle? Few positions. ~2/3 of the people occupying lead investigator jobs are >55. Huge problem, but whatever. Second issue? After achieving what they’ve achieved, they already have WAY better offers in much more affordable cities. Even with family here, they don’t think they’ll come.
Oh, and the one who bought the SFH has a pretty nasty commute.
Regarding people moving to Vancouver…
Count among them a few hundred online poker players.
For those not familiar, it has been possible for about a decade to play poker over the internet and make significant money (if you are skilled enough). In April of this year the US Department of Justice effectively shut down the two largest sites, which meant that many American online professionals had to either give up playing online professionally or move out of the country where they could continue to access these sites and earn their living.
Anecdotally, Canada was the number one destination, and within Canada Vancouver seems to have drawn the bulk of these migrants. This is in spite of Van being the most expensive city in Canada by a significant margin.
Locals may be blase about the virtues of Vancouver, but it seems that outsiders see something worthwhile in the city’s vibe.
Fascinating. There are, however, some other compelling ‘attractions’ in YVR underpinning the migratory patterns of champion ‘PokeMen’&Women (many of whom eschew virtual tables for the RealDeal)… Just ask Lorenzo…
“Forty percent of the population in Vancouver is Asian – We have a huge Chinese population. The city has direct flights to Macau. All of the big gaming companies have branch offices in Vancouver, which tells you something about the potential of the market.” – Lorenzo Creighton, CEO Gateway Casinos & Entertainment
[GlobalGamingBusiness] – Northern Exposure
http://tinyurl.com/872483g
PS – don’t forget, DearReaders, unlike YVR RE… in gaming, ‘TheHouse’ always wins…