Moving from NB to BC, Looking at Langley.

I work in Langley as an RCMP officer, what is your budget for housing? I'll let you know what caliber of neighborhood you can afford.

Also don't forget that BC stands for "bring cash".

"I'm a Massage Therapist with a wife who can't work due to health factors and our 3 year old son. If I want to live in Langley and not feel the same straddling the edge of poverty"

Honestly, the lower mainland is expensive as in REALLY EXPENSIVE. Especially, when factoring in wages, it can be very very tough to make a go of it here. Let's just look at this way, the cheapest house on the MLS right now in Langley is this one....http://m.realtor.ca/PropertyDetails.aspx?PropertyId=16511783 Asking price of $570,000+. Even if this place sold for $10,000 less than listed price (quite rare these days throughout the LM) then you'd have to be making in excess of $80k a year, quite possibly close to $90K per annum. And that's just the housing market. If you are renting, you can also expect to pay a small fortune, our 20+ year old 1200 sq foot townhouse rents for about $1500 per month.

Car insurance for my wife with 18 years no claims is approximately $1800 per year. Then there's the property taxes which just went up, food here isn't cheap either, an average family of 4 could easily spend $500 per month minimum, there's 3 of us in our household and we live frugally and spend close to $400 per month on food.

Thankfully warming our place is pretty inexpensive, as is our electricity roughly $100 per month for average usage. Then there's cable and Internet, $120 per month. Then there's MSP that we have to pay for here, something you won't be used to in NB.

And that's just the basics pretty much. So, per year, if you wouldn't want to feel like you are on the poverty line (or dangerously close there to) living reasonably frugally you'd probably want to be making in the region of $60K per year.

Hope that helps some.

The further you live from Vancouver, the lower the housing costs will be. I rent a smaller one bedroom apartment (in Chilliwack) for $750/mo, and that would easily be 1500+ in Van

Surrey had a reputation but it's got a lot of nice areas.

If I could go back, I would have bought a house in Surrey for what I paid for my townhouse in Burnaby.

Langley is nice enough but it lacks a lot of the beauty of the lowermainland.

Hey there!

I've lived in Langley my whole life so I can maybe answer a few of your questions.

First off, Langley is split into two municipalities: the city and the township. Also, a few recent studies have pointed to Langley as the most expensive place to live in the Lower Mainland. This is probably due to a few things including the crazy housing market here right now, as well as the fact the Skytrain transit system stops in Surrey and the bridge going into Vancouver had a toll put on it recently which means commuting to Vancouver can be damn expensive. However if you're able to work on this side of the Fraser then that won't factor in too much.

What kind of area are you thinking of living in? I mentioned Langley Township earlier because it has a lot more farmland/acreage and is a lot more quiet than the city. This is where I grew up and i quite enjoyed it. Langley is the Horse capital of BC and you can really tell driving around parts of the township. The only issue here is that these areas are a little farther from Surrey.

As for the city, I've been living here for three years and have been enjoying that as well. The downtown area is currently building a new recreation building that should be very nice when it's completed. A new events centre was built not long ago either and seems to be the hub of recreational sports in the area, as well as being the home for the lacrosse team and local BCHL hockey team.

The city and the parts of the township close to the city have been booming lately. If i remember correct Langley has been the fastest growing part of the Lower Mainland in recent years. Every week it seems new town houses are growing up somewhere. Areas like Willoughby and Clayton Heights are changing very rapidly so it'd hard to say what it will be like in 10 years time. I know in Clayton Heights the infrastructure hasn't really been able to keep up with all the new houses and people and things like parking and road construction can be a major pain in the ass. That being said, Clayton Heights straddles the Surrey/Langley border and is a fairly nice area.

I'm afraid I won't be able to give you much advice money-wise, not something I know a lot about. Either way, I hope this gives you a better sense of the area and please let me know if you have any other questions.

I grew up in North Langley and always enjoyed it, I wouldn't say it was always small town feel but it definitely feels like in the last 15 years it has grown immensely. As a kid we used to walk to the farms and feed the horses, play in the woods and the fields, etc. and now it seems like there are condos, strip malls, houses and industrial like buildings going up everywhere. Just the typical urbanization story. That being said you can still get away from the bustle relatively easily, at least for now, if you need some peace and quiet.

As for affordability, my parents bought their house 25 years ago and of course it has probably tripled in value. I don't have high hopes for owning my own place any time soon. When I'm not abroad I am living at home with them because, well, greater Vancouver. Not exactly the place to move if you are looking for affordability.

Langley is a good middle. Its close enough to Vancouver to enjoy the sights but its far enough away for the prices in rent and housing the be cheaper. I live in Abbotsford, the next town over and I personally like it better than Langley. Its much cheaper in rent and housing than Langley is, but its an added 20 minute drive if you wanna get to Vancouver. Abbotsford is quite a bit smaller than Langley and considered the " city in the country" cause its mainly a farmers/christian community. But its much much quieter than Langley. Thats what I love about Abbotsford. Its close enough to still drive to bigger citys like Langley and Vancouver, but you still get the small town feel

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