We moved from Silicon Valley to Toronto 4 years ago. Out story is well documented and it led to the start of the MOV North community.
Now after spending 4 years in this amazing city we’re moving to Vancouver. We are very excited about the move, its fast approaching and can’t wait to share with you about our new city.
For folks who are wondering why we are moving, below are some of the reasons:
Seeking change: We’ve been in Toronto for 4 years and lived very close to downtown. We’ve seen and did everything the city had to offer. After 4 years there is nothing more for us to explore. Change is refreshing and if we can why not
We miss the West Coast: We were spoilt by California with everything if offered - beautiful hikes, landscape, farmers market etc and have been longing to go back to the West Coast lifestyle.
Weather: Toronto is a great city but the long winter gets to us. Moreover we have two kids and it becomes a real struggle to get them out of the house in the winter. Their outdoor time reduces drastically. We feel at such young age they should be running around without a thought and not be confined by the weather.
Work: We’ve always worked from home, even before the pandemic. We weren’t in Toronto for a job. @vik is still invested in Silicon Valley, his network and work is still back there. With Vancouver we’ll be closer to the Bay Area a short 2 hrs flight as compared to 5.
Toronto is an awesome city. We are so grateful to have experienced this place. I’m going to miss the hustle bustle of this city, the walk to everything setup we have going right now. We found a wonderful neighbourhood and lived in a Victorian. Kids went to a great school, made many friends. We had the most wonderful summers, I bet there is no other city that can beat Toronto summers. It was a hard decision…making it in the thick of winter is easier than in the summer
I’ll do another post on the logistics of moving and on Vancouver as we experience it.
Jai Shri Ram madam, I guess some people will have this question - Did you also consider moving back to the Silicon Valley (assuming you’ve obtained Canadian citizenship by now?), for the better weather?
When all is said and done, long winters aren’t really enjoyable. That was the primary reason that we moved to the west coast of Canada too. While the winters here are definitely better than anywhere else in Canada, expect a lot of rain (a lot of it), access to outdoors is somewhat restricted due to it as well (though by no means to what it’s restricted to in the rest of Canada).
@panditji actually we didn’t move to Vancouver coz of the amount of rain it gets; IMO rain limits outdoor access more than anything- like trails etc turn super muddy and you get drenched eventually. Winter/snow not so much, with the right clothes you can be outside most days, at least in southern Ontario. But certainly everyone has their preferences.
I’m glad you asked this question. We like Canada its a great place to raise kids. We will definitely travel more often in the winter to California. We’ve always got mixed feedback on the Vancouver weather some people like it others not so much. All I know in March it starts warming up and I’m excited for that.
Good luck with your move. Movnorth is an amazing community and has helped me decide a lot of things. Looking forward to your experience after your move. Cheers!
Welcome to Vancouver. My wife and I moved from California to Vancouver in November, last year. It rained a lot then but now the weather is a lot nicer, days are starting to get longer and definitely less rain. Vancouver has a lot to offer, you can ski until 10 pm in winters and the closest mountains is less than 20 mins drive. There are so many hiking trails that’s open year round. Even during winters, we stepped out almost everyday for a walk, imagine doing that in Toronto. We are still exploring but we went to Whistler last week and the views were breathtaking. From what I heard Summer is going to be super nice.
Also there is movnorth Vancouver WhatsApp group. Let me know if you would like to join.
I’d love to join the WhatsApp group, I’ll DM you my number. As for Toronto we actually step out every single day, multiple times. We are fully geared for Toronto winter. Easy access to nature matters to us and we are excited to have that in Vancouver.
Congratulations on your move! My family is planning a move from California to Vancouver soon. I had to ask a questions regarding work - can you work for a USA company from Canada (provided people are anyways working from home these days?). Should the company be registered in Canada? Can i still be on the US payroll and work in CA if company does not have an office there?
Congratulations and Best Wishes for the move. You have inspired so many to move north, and I am sure we will be following you soon on MovWest (Fingers Crossed).
I’m curious as to how the real estate is in Vancouver and its suburbs. From all the research, I somehow got a feeling that Vancouver housing is expensive but Toronto real estate is comparably expensive too from what I see.
The real estate market in Vancouver is expensive then Toronto for sure and it has been crazy in the last few months. ATM it is quite common to offer 10-15% over asking price as the market is so competitive. I can provide some insights on the kind of houses I have researched. These are the numbers I have come up with according to recent market trends and could be wrong. For a single family home in 5000+ sq ft lot with 3+ beds and 2+baths, renovated 25-40 years old
Burnaby: 1.6M +
Coquitlam: 1.3M+
Langley: Walnut Grove. WILLOUGHBY :
1.2M+
South Surrey: 1.3M+
In GTA, most don’t check the sqft for lot… usually it is built area which is like 1500-1800 to 2300sqft normally and some prefer bigger ones from 2500-3000 sqft
I didn’t do the post on logistics but below are two services we used to move our stuff from Toronto to Vancouver
For car shipping https://www.lhf.com/
For household items https://herculesmoving.ca/
We had really good experience with both, highly professional and on time. If you want to know anything more feel free to message me.
