[pacific breeze]

I still think your rents/house prices are ALL ridiculously cheap compared to Vancouver. Monthly rents for a one-bedroom apt. that isn't in a basement start at around $900 and go up to $1500 or more. Two bedroms are higher...renting a house in a decent area is $2500 plus and often, that is only the top floor of a house. Buying a house is...well let's just say if you are not a millionaire or haven't been in the market for 20 years or more, it's out of the question. Tear-downs all around us routinely sell for $1.5 million. We are renting because of my husband's financial situation re divorce, and we will probably never be able to buy unless we win the lottery. We don't play so...I don't think bigger is always better. Who wants to clean/heat/pay for all that space? Plus, it's environmentally unsound.

I've never been one of those people who believed in going into massive debt to have a bunch of expensive material things. A lot of people here have the big houses, cars, designer furniture etc., and they are also so far in debt that if even ONE thing goes wrong, the whole house of cards comes tumbling down. A friend of mine is a divorce lawyer in this fairly affluent area and she has lots of stories about how it all exists on paper -- bankruptcy is common. People can be left with nothing, or massive debt.

A friend of mine had to have everything -- she divorced, declared bankruptcy and now lives in a tiny, crappy studio apartment in a swank neighbourhood downtown for which she pays $1,350 a month. She has an OK job, but she sure wishes she had lived within her means. She can't fit her designer furniture into her new place, she can't afford to park her BMW, etc. etc. And yeah, her credit rating sucks.