What are some afordable, close by, decent and safe apartments?

[Alan]

Hello everyone, im trying to move to vancouver from mexico this year. I am fully legal to work and live in canada and have been applying for jobs for the last couple of weeks. I constantly hear that livng in vancouver can be quite pricing. Where can I find an affordable apartment for a single 25 years old with a dog. Or should i consider find a place somewhere in richmond?

[Rollan_Budi]

Define what you mean by affordable? For some people that means $3,000 /mo, others that means $1,200.

http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/ should give you a good idea of the cost of rent here in most areas of town.

[Nellie_Hicks]

I've found this site http://www.navut.com/ very helpful. That's a great way to sort things out about neighborhoods and housing in Vancouver.

[Victoria_Badenas]

It really depends on the neighbourhood. Rental prices are still reasonable outside the Downtown core. The closer you are DT the more expensive it is like in most cities. West Van / Mount pleasant could get expensive but the spaces will be larger than what you could get for the same price in DT.

For reference: studio in DT is around 900-1250, 1 bed 1300-1700. Look into rooms as well for better prices.

Places like Commercial, Burnaby, Richmond, East Van, New West, are still cheaper and good chances you'll be close to a skytrain line.

Consider your transportation routes as commuting here is quite pricey. A monthly pass for 2 zones is 140? and 3 zones 160-180 CAD (not sure about exact figures but you can google Translink). Add taxes and you're close to 200$. If you could live close to where you work, that could save you money as well.

[Katrina_Wiggins]

There are no affordable apartments in Vancouver or the region. Sorry.

That said, you can generally choose between close to the downtown and affordable. Safe and decent is a whole different factor, lol.

The West End of downtown and the area directly east of Chinatown sometimes have lower priced units, and neighbourhoods like Strathcona, or along Fraser Street, Commercial Drive or Victoria Drive, but generally the lower cost units are in extremely bad condition or in kinda scary areas. Something to keep in mind; if you have to pay for any transit, you might as well pay for a 2-3 zone (further distance) transit pass, as they're not that much more expensive, and you both save more on rent and often have a faster commute. It can take the same time to commute from an adjacent city as it does to get from the middle of Vancouver up to downtown by transit.

My 'pro-tip' is to look into units along any of the rapid transit routes: SkyTrain lines through/to Richmond, Burnaby, Coquitlam, Surrey or the WestCoast Express commuter train (if the times work for you) to Port Coquitlam, Maple Ridge, Mission will be a fast shot out to (comparatively) cheaper accommodations. Sometimes you can also find cheaper housing on the North Shore (North and West Vancouver), but the transit out there can be iffy.

Sorry, but they're renting windowless closets ("dens") out for $750-$800 Canadian now in Vancouver. It's hopeless, really...

[naresh]

Go to surrey 2 bedroom aot for 500 all in great food and safe also transit .
Best place