As an established middle-aged software developer with a family living in Burnaby who cannot move now because of custody issues, I&#x27;m going to give you the same advice I give to all of the engineering co-ops I work with. You should move out of the 
Vancouver area as soon as you get your degree.<p>I don&#x27;t think that you&#x27;re ever going to have a problem finding 1 bedroom accommodations in Vancouver because that&#x27;s what developers predominantly build. Eventually you&#x27;ll probably want to get married and have kids, and then you&#x27;ll realize that the GVRD has nothing for you.<p>The detached home market now largely belongs to rich Chinese immigrants who made their millions outside the country; you&#x27;ll never be able to compete with these folks working in the Canadian economy and paying Canadian taxes. That will largely rule out Vancouver, Burnaby, and by the time you graduate, New West, Coquitlam, Poco, and Port Moody. This isn&#x27;t even a matter of stretching anymore - this market is completely isolated from CHMC policy now because the prices are beyond what Canadian home buyers could ever leverage.<p>Developers have little incentive to build 3 bedroom family-friendly condos, so you&#x27;ll have a hard time finding those, too. I wanted to buy one recently and it was going to cost about $700000. My current 2 bedroom would sell for about $400k, but I don&#x27;t think that I want to stretch that far on a single income, even though it would mean I could get my kids their own rooms.<p>And really, is Vancouver so great? The mountains are nice, and the downtown is nice if you&#x27;re young. But it&#x27;s a trap for the young - through well-intentioned tolerance and bad public policy we&#x27;ve created a city that is hostile to young families. Live anywhere else in North America and you&#x27;ll enjoy a more favourable cost of living and&#x2F;or a better lifestyle.<p>I&#x27;d leave in a minute if I could.