Quote:
Originally Posted by godwin
I think Vancouver is heavily relied on real estate but it is not quite betting the farm on it. There are quite a lot of lucrative jobs.. (by that I say 80k for a BSc in Chem) Discovery Park(s) have tons of startups and keep expanding, there are a few large multinationals that anchors here eg Mckesson, MDA etc are always looking for EE. AVCorp is always looking for welders. Granted they are not cushy office work and often lab and STEM related, but they pay quite well for a job that only requires a bachelors. A lot of trades (carpenters, welders etc) move back and forth from the gas fields to town for projects already, so if RE going to tank in Vancouver, they are going to stay up North or in Ab for longer stints. They are short on housing up in that area anyways.
I think the problem with Vancouver is we have an over abudance of what Bill Maher called "Cave Drawers", who are hoping for the big break to be handed to them on a silver platter while working at service industries (restaurants, banks, etc etc). If a down turn makes some of them realise trades / making things are much better than selling credit cards in supermarket parking lots and gas statiions; I would say it is actually a good thing.
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We tend to surround ourselves with people who are similar to us and put on our blinders to anyone else outside of our social circle. Most of the people in my social circle are yuppies and several make six figures (or close enough to six-figures), all are bright and innovative, some have equity, most socially adjusted and so on. However, this doesn't mean that the majority of people in Metro Vancouver are like this.
I think we can all agree that companies and organizations pay 10-20% lower in Vancouver than anywhere else in the country... and perhaps 40-50% less than American companies in the US. I think most people can accept a 20% gap in earning power to live in Vancouver: after all, our climate is good, the food is good, the air is clean - all things which help us live longer and more productive lives. However, when a yuppie couple (such as one you described) making a combined income of $150-200K cannot afford a detached home in a near suburb, such as Burnaby or Coquitlam, without significant financial help or better than average returns on their investments (in essence, luck), then there is an issue.