Vancouver
Neighborhoods
Vancouver is one of Canada's most expensive cities in which to live. At the turn of the twenty-first century, modest single-family houses on the less expensive east side of the city hovered around the $300,000 mark. On the west side of Vancouver, the median price for a single-family home was around $500,000. Consequently, condominiums and loft developments with moderate mortgages sprung up throughout the city during the 1990s. In 1997 there were close to 4,000 condos sold on Vancouver's west side. In 1998, near the end of the condo boom, this figure decreased to 2,500. In 1998, Vancouver's apartment vacancy rate hovered just below three percent.
There are a number of neighborhoods in the city whose names are often associated with the cultural or ethnic identity of their residents. Main Street between Forty-ninth Avenue and Fifty-first Avenue is the center of Indo-Pakistani Punjabi culture. In "Little India" one can find many shops, bazaars, and restaurants catering to East Indian residents. "Little Italy" on Commercial Drive is home to many of Vancouver's
Kitsilano, a middle-class neighborhood in the early 1900s, is bordered by Alma Street to the west and Arbutus Street to the east. At its most northern point lies one of Vancouver's most famous beaches, Kits Beach, where sports enthusiasts and sun-worshippers gather during the summer months. The West End, which borders Stanley Park and English Bay, is home to Vancouver's gay community, the largest of its type in Canada.
