My friend moved to Chilliwack and drives to Richmond for work. House prices were reaching $350,000 in surrey ( now it's $400,000) and he makes approx $57,000 a year as faculty at Kwantlen for the past 3 years, it was a hard choice to make but he would like to save some money and keep his wife at home with the kids, they bought a $180,000 townhouse and can at least save something. He would not even qualify for a house in Surrey without a co-signer at the bank he was with, but another bank would give him the mortgage?
?, and he had $60,000 down. It is a stupid world we live in. We were in the same boat, and decided to move out of the lower mainland. What we wanted which was 1 acre + and needed for our business 1000 sqft minimum would have cost us $600,000 + in the lower mainland, here we got it for cheap, the lake is 1 min and 30 seconds from our house, I can go get a jug of milk and be back in 4 minutes. 5 minutes for a video or a pizza, there are no traffic lights here, a distinct 4 seasons, snow mobiling right out my door up to 1 of Canada's top 5 places.
I live in Sicamous, but Salmon Arm is also a great place, both sets of parents and grand parents are moving up here to Salmon arm and probably 1 sister in-law, they see the relaxed life we have in the Shuswap. The help wanted adds are plentiful for trades people. And if you belong to a union you don't have to go on strike to demand more money because you can actually afford to live up here on 1 income. The only problem is that many people are moving up now, and I'm sure the house prices will continue going up from all the baby boomers wanting to slow down, you only have maybe 3 years max before it is expensinve here too.
Kevin
