200k a year to live in YVR? Ya'll are nuts. You can easily live in the area of YVR for Jazz starting pay. No, you won't be living the fanciest of lifestyles but if I was able to do it pretty comfortably for $40k/yr before I got into aviation you can do it too.
You don't need to live in the penthouse of the Shangri La. YVR is about a 30-45 min drive from many different sutable places. I for one lived in South Surrey near White Rock. A mere 30-40min drive and you're at YVR. Yeah it's not next door but hey you're doing the drive once a week there and back on average, no? I wouldn't want to live that far away if I was driving every day to work 703. If pilots commute to different bases to work a 30-40min drive should not be a problem.
You can rent a very nice apartment in that area for under $1000/mo. You can buy a townhouse or apartment for mid 200's. Working at YVR dosent' mean living in downtown Vancouver. There are many many other options that in my opinion give a better quality of life. South Langley, White Rock, South Surrey all are great places to live. Close to the beach, close to transit and a short hop to go downtown if you want to.
There are other options in Richmond as well. Apartments for $600-$1000 within a 5-10min drive of the main terminal or 5 min walk to the Skytrain which takes you direct to the airport.
Another option is the Cambie corridor, which you can expect to see a lot of low rise apartment blocks being built in the next few years. The Canada Line is right on Cambie St and goes right to the Airport.
edit; ok I missed the "buy a house" comment for $200,000k. Which is true and also not. The whole GVRD is a pretty dynamic place where prices can range significantly. If you wanted to buy a house in Vancouver, yeah $200,000k would be nice.
I'm an hour and fifteen away and suffered the commute working in 703 daily. This is much more civilized. Maybe twice a week I make the drive now. Many others commute further distances.
I think the reason we're seeing all the open YVR spots is the folk at the top of the FO list moving to AC or taking Captain spots in YYC/YYZ etc in prep for the move to AC (and the pay bump for the PML)
