Currently I live in Vancouver, BC. I like the city and the people, but it’s expensive and I would like to move on and try something new. I used to live in the prairies, so I already know about that.
So I’ve been looking at the East Coast. Specifically the Martimes, as opposed to Toronto or Montreal. I’ve looked at various sites for a few cities (Halifax, St.John, Fredricton), but I figured people here might give more insight into the pro’s and con’s of particular places.
I spent the last four years at University in Halifax, and I love the city. It’s small, but it has a lot of culture and it’s a really unique and fun place to be. Rent is relatively cheap compared to most other cities. For example, a reasonably priced one bedroom apartment in the south end of the city would run from about 600-800 per month (although there are some really expensive ones out there). If you’re sharing with multiple people in student-type accomodations, I’d expect to pay around $450/month. There’s a crappy bus service, but most things are within walking distance if you live in the south end. There’s a fabulous nightlife and some really good restaurants. The only bad part is employment. Wages are fairly low compared to the rest of Canada, and jobs can be hard to come by…but that all depends on what you’re in. Most of my friends (students or recent graduates) who are still there are working fairly crappy, mundance service-type jobs (read: Tim Hortons) and feel fairly happy to have them.