Guest soapyslicer Posted February 25, 2004 Report Share Posted February 25, 2004 Hi Everyone, Spent the weekend in Victoria looking at what it might be like there to buy a house, where the elementary schools are for the kids and just generally what the layout of the school was. Boy I thought living in Van was nice for the weather. Victoria certainly had us beaten, at least it did last weekend. We managed to get everywhere in under 15mins. Looked at what it would be like to commute up to 1hr. All in all it was a great get away for the kids and us. I think despite it being a "working" holiday, the best part was the BC Museum on Monday before coming home. The kids couldn't stop dragging me from display to display. soapy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest natmac Posted February 26, 2004 Report Share Posted February 26, 2004 Oooohhhhh boy do I miss Victoria. We sold our house there in the fall for a lot more than we paid for it... in 24hrs. We were 5 min to downtown and 5 min to UVic (as long as you don't get stuck behind a slooooooow and bad Island driver). The trade? Paid off our student debt. Too bad Victoria doesn't like to foster its young professionals. People moving there are retirees who have made their money. Therefore, there is no incentive to stay where there aren't any positions being created. For those who do stay, you get a significantly lower wage than Van, despite the astronomical cost of living, with the excuse that your trade-off is quality of life. :rolleyes If I get in at UBC, I will definitely try to go back. Glad you had a good weekend soapy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest kirin Posted February 27, 2004 Report Share Posted February 27, 2004 Hi Soapy, Since you like Victoria, are you considering IMP as your first choice? kirin Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest soapyslicer Posted February 27, 2004 Report Share Posted February 27, 2004 Hi Kirin, PG is by far my first choice. As I have a family we wanted to go and see what we thought of Victoria over UBC as a second choice. Ultimately I think the family will go to PG regardless of if/where I get and I will have to work around it. It is just too expensive here to manage much longer. It helps that my husband can transfer to PG. It means we can buy a nice place and still be paying half of what we pay here for rent. I will have to commute home once a month or something like that for the first 4 months of school. Despite the cost of Victoria, it is still significantly cheaper than Vancouver. You can get a "fixer upper" for a little under 300,000 close to school or if you are willing to have a slightly longer commute a nice house for the same or slightly less. Still the commute would be less than most peoples daily trip to UBC. I guess for me I needed to take a look at the options, planning a similar trip to PG. When we know if I am successful we will already have an idea of schools for the kids, where to live, even a Realtor in place who know what we want. There is just too many factors to consider with a family to leave it until June. (It was also an inexpensive little family adventure!) soapy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest physiology Posted February 27, 2004 Report Share Posted February 27, 2004 Are housing prices in Victoria anywhere as ridiculous as they are here in Vancouver? I mean I flip through the newspapers, and I see this dinky little bungalow on sale for $650 000 on the Westside of Vancouver and still there are bidding wars. It's just so stupid. Of course it depends on the area, but when the average cost of a house in the GVRD is $300 000 to $450 000 I think it's getting out of hand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest natmac Posted February 28, 2004 Report Share Posted February 28, 2004 No, Victoria housing prices are slightly lower than that of the Vancouver average, but they are rising very quickly, especially with low interest rates and more people retiring. It is a very hot market. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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