Originally Posted by Special K (Post 8594130)

You would be looking at a townhouse in Burnaby at $550k.

My wife and I are also looking at moving to Coquitlam but in Burke Mountain. 25-30km away from DT. This neighbourhood is the only thing we can afford given our criteria.

The new sky train and west coast express shouldn't be too bad. It will be a huge change as I live and work downtown in the past 2 years.

Originally Posted by godwin (Post 8594146)

I would stay away from Burke mountain.. Translink had to cut back a lot of transit service there, now even parking is a problem because they had originally planned to have less parking because they expected to have decent transit. If you look at the land owner records of the area, you will notice a lot of them were provincial and municipal politicians both NDP and Liberals.

Originally Posted by winson604 (Post 8593950)

Please slip to the end for questions if you don't want to read. Thanks!

So my wife and I have been house hunting for a while now and like many, we're born and raised in Vancouver and basically don't travel outside of Van/Burnaby/Richmond. Needless to say, we started our search in Vancouver but the dilemma of location vs square footage keeps coming up. We have a 7 month old and are looking at presales for condos/townhomes so by the time a place is ready, he'll be 1-3 years old. We've always been highway/bridge snobs with a passion but looking at places in Coquitlam recently was an eye opener and the drive wasn't too bad, mind you not during traffic. I think we are willing to make the sacrifice but wanted some opinions regarding the area we're looking at. Needless to say this is a very unknown place for my wife and I. I can count on my hand the amount of times I've been to COQ in the last 10 years.

We're currently looking at North Road and Foster Ave area, not far from Como Lake hood. Drove around the residential hood and it looks great, quiet, wide roads with little cars, all the houses were generally fairly new, feels safe. It's a few min drive or within a 10min walk from Lougheed Mall, the new Evergreen Line station, North Gate Village etc. It looks to be a booming area with high rises, townhomes, new super markets and things going up.

- How safe is this area of Coquitlam (Foster Ave & North Road hood)?
- How do you find living in Coquitlam, either this area specifically or in general?
- For those who work in Van, how's the drive during traffic? From this area I would take Gallardi > #1 West > 1st ave exit. On the weekend the highway portion only took 4 mins no traffic and from the place to the highway was only a few mins as well totally about 8-10 mins to get onto 1st ave. Yes, no traffic I know. Would assuming it might take 3 times that time during rush hour be reasonable?
- Anything I should keep in mind?
- Of course, just an thoughts at all are appreciated!

Originally Posted by ICE BOY (Post 8594283)

Is the added space worth the extra commute?
How much value do you put on the time you would save, staying in Van?
Where would you rather raise your kids?
If you want the space and to stay where you are, is it feasible to rent until you save up for a house in Van?

Also, what's your daycare situation? If your kids go to school in Coquitlam but you work in Van, you might need before/after school daycare. You may not want to be that far away from them everyday. Or if family's watching them and they're in Van, it just makes it that much easier to get them around.

Just some things to consider.

Originally Posted by 6o4__boi (Post 8594331)

I respect that opinion but since leaving Vancouver i absolutely don't miss anything and i'm glad I left. Even if i had $1.5M kicking around the first city i'd look at when buying a house would be Burnaby.

There's nothing to miss in Vancouver. Especially when you're really always half an hour away from Vancouver. Unless you move to somewhere buttfuckfar but that's not the case here.

Originally Posted by winson604 (Post 8594333)

All great points made and after extensive evaluation with my wife we have decided the extra sq footage all be it significant is just not worth the extra travel.

At the end of the day, the extra distance wasn't just about commute to work. It was also the extra time to drop off and pick up our son before and after work. Also being 30 mins in no traffic from family/friends vs 5-15 mins.

Our lifestyle also is very Vancouver and it's ultimately the place where we want to raise our son. Nothing against COQ lifestyle but it isn't for us. In terms of the day to day needs, it has plenty. Malls, grocery stores, Costco etc etc but being Chinese and frequently accessing Chinese restaurants, stores etc I would then have to travel as well.

Originally Posted by Presto (Post 8594066)

Foster and North Road would be one of the lower-end areas of Coquitlam. At least, that's my memory of it from 15 years ago. Unless some rapid gentrification happened, there's clusters of lower-income apartments around there. There were a lot of property crimes.

EDIT: I'm biased, but the neighborhood around Mundy Park is the best area of Coquitlam ;)

Originally Posted by MTV Cribs (Post 8594167)

It is still lower end. North Road on the north side of Lougheed is a shitty area because of the skytrain. The houses around or near Mundy Park is expensive LOL

Originally Posted by MG1 (Post 8594493)

Here's another one......... switching schools. Don't do that to your kids, unless it is absolutely unavoidable. I know. Some of you will say all kinds of shit, but for kids, it is a very, very big deal. I forced my kids to move. They never complained, but a little piece of them got torn away each time we moved. I was going to say, the older they get, the easier it gets - not.