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Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

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Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#91

Post by kspaans »

zeemonkee3 wrote: post #42
lewisl9029 wrote: post #12

As someone who's lived in Vancouver for more than 10 years, then went to Waterloo for school (and lived in Toronto for most of my co-ops/internships), I think we Canadians should be more worried about highly educated millennials fleeing Canada entirely. Everybody I know from school who were offered the option to work in the US have picked up their Canadian degrees and left. To the Canadian tech industry: How are you…

Is the question that Canadian companies genuinely can't pay more, or just that they won't, for whatever reason?

Or maybe that Canadians are willing to work for less? (I remember reading an article that auto manufacturers charge more for the same cars in Canada simply because Canadians will pay more.)

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#92

Post by imaginenore »

sndean wrote: post #62
mathattack wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the article real estate costs in Vancouver are half that of San Francisco. Are salaries half too?

Based on some quick Googling and Glassdoor, it looks like average salaries are ~110k vs. ~80k. The cost of rent in San Francisco looks to be ~190% higher. Not sure how well those figures line up with reality, though.

Most people here make way above average, and that's when differences increase dramatically. In the US I make close to $300k. In Europe, and London in particular, I get offered under 80k EUR.

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#93

Post by msvan »

ameen wrote: post #84
clickok wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm going to be living in a van (down by the river), I would at least drive it to a river in a warmer climate. One with a higher exchange rate, lower taxes, and faster Internet, say.

Ideally, us tech workers should research such places. Anyone up for creating a Github repo with, * Location * Work Authorization (and/or Visa issues) * Average weather throughout the year - Max temp - Min temp * Exchange rate * Avg. Internet Speed + Prices * Language barriers (or lack of). Something similar to this [1] but with a crowdsourced/community aspect with solid sources. [1] - http://fundersandfounders.com/wh…

https://nomadlist.com/

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#94

Post by jakobegger »

pjc50 wrote: post #79
jakobegger wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not sure if a fix would be so easy. Housing prices have been rising everywhere, even in small cities like my home town, where a decent amount of construction is going on. I think that the biggest reason for growing housing prices are the currently low interest rates. There are two factors that cause rising prices (due to low interest rates): 1) It's more affordable than ever to borrow money, so people are willing…

So I think that housing prices would naturally fall if interest rates went up. The problem is that falling house prices put people "underwater", and rising interest rates put people on variable rate mortgages in arrears. This inflicts a huge amount of pain on middle class floating voters.

Yes, I think this is a huge problem -- if interest rates rise again, a lot of people will suffer. Therefore policy makers have a big incentive to keep interest rates low.

I don't know how this will end, but I don't think that the current low interest situation, which incentivises credit and discourages saving, can be stable in the long run.

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#95

Post by rgawdzik »

lewisl9029 wrote: post #12

As someone who's lived in Vancouver for more than 10 years, then went to Waterloo for school (and lived in Toronto for most of my co-ops/internships), I think we Canadians should be more worried about highly educated millennials fleeing Canada entirely. Everybody I know from school who were offered the option to work in the US have picked up their Canadian degrees and left. To the Canadian tech industry: How are you…

Many Canadians return back to Canada; even Drake lives in Toronto :)

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#96

Post by usaar333 »

jakobegger wrote: post #59
tallanvor wrote: post #47

I see this as a problem all over the world. - San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Vancouver, London, Oslo... Really the list could go on for quite a while. So many of these cities feel like they have to retain their "identity" or the "feel" of the town, so they set restrictions that make it very hard to develop properties that can hold more people. The result is always the same: continually increasing prices in the cen…

I'm not sure if a fix would be so easy. Housing prices have been rising everywhere, even in small cities like my home town, where a decent amount of construction is going on. I think that the biggest reason for growing housing prices are the currently low interest rates. There are two factors that cause rising prices (due to low interest rates): 1) It's more affordable than ever to borrow money, so people are willing…

This is true, but this should have less effect on rents which the article notes are high in Vancouver.

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#97

Post by usaar333 »

jakobegger wrote: post #59
tallanvor wrote: post #47

I see this as a problem all over the world. - San Francisco, Seattle, New York, Vancouver, London, Oslo... Really the list could go on for quite a while. So many of these cities feel like they have to retain their "identity" or the "feel" of the town, so they set restrictions that make it very hard to develop properties that can hold more people. The result is always the same: continually increasing prices in the cen…

I'm not sure if a fix would be so easy. Housing prices have been rising everywhere, even in small cities like my home town, where a decent amount of construction is going on. I think that the biggest reason for growing housing prices are the currently low interest rates. There are two factors that cause rising prices (due to low interest rates): 1) It's more affordable than ever to borrow money, so people are willing…

This is true, but this should have less effect on rents which the article notes are high in Vancouver.

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#98

Post by zeemonkee3 »

kspaans wrote: post #91
zeemonkee3 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the question that Canadian companies genuinely can't pay more, or just that they won't, for whatever reason?

Or maybe that Canadians are willing to work for less? (I remember reading an article that auto manufacturers charge more for the same cars in Canada simply because Canadians will pay more.)

Good point. Perhaps Americans are better negotiators, and haggling over price/salary "isn't done" in Canada (I know nothing about Canadian culture, but fascinated about the possible effects of culture on an economy).

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#99

Post by mabbo »

lewisl9029 wrote: post #12

As someone who's lived in Vancouver for more than 10 years, then went to Waterloo for school (and lived in Toronto for most of my co-ops/internships), I think we Canadians should be more worried about highly educated millennials fleeing Canada entirely. Everybody I know from school who were offered the option to work in the US have picked up their Canadian degrees and left. To the Canadian tech industry: How are you…

Some do leave, yes. Many come back home later.

Amazon opened the Toronto office back in 2011 because there was demand- Canadians who didn't want to live in America anymore- often because of family, friends back home or because they wanted to have kids and not raise them as Americans, culturally.

It started with less than 10 people, plus the hiring they were able to do locally. It's now an office of over 300 people, maybe 100 of which transferred from Seattle. And the transfers back haven't slowed much- lots of folks simply want to come back home after a few years.

Lots of room here to grow. If Trump wins, I expect we'll need it.

Re: Millennials Flee Vancouver for More Affordable Cities

#100

Post by raverbashing »

tomp wrote: post #74
simonbarker87 wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

£35,000 salary in the UK has the same buying power (for want of a better expression as a $60,000 US salary. Adjust for "because London" and you're looking at £45/55K (not hard in London) equating to $75K - $100K. Thinking about it, I know a dozen or so people in the "poor deprived" north east of England earning over £40K who are under 30 years old so we're not all badly paid.

The difference is that Brits feel poor when they come to the US, whereas Americans feel rich when they come to the UK. Sure, PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) comparisions are important (e.g. it's easier to live in Thailand with $1000 per months than in NYC), but absolute values matter as well.

> The difference is that Brits feel poor when they come to the US, whereas Americans feel rich when they come to the UK.

Are you sure about that? For a start, converting USD to GBP will make their money go not as further

Might be just general British negativity, they probably feel miserable at Disneyland.

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