Summer in Vancouver BC [LIVING IN VANCOUVER]

this week's video is all about summer in Vancouver what is it actually like in summer in Vancouver what's it like to live here both the good and the bad I'm going to give you a hint just based on the scenery behind me it's pretty darn spectacular in Vancouver in the summer but what is it like to move here is this a good time to be moving into the city what's the real estate market like in Vancouver during the summer months those are also topics I'm going to be getting into in this video let's get into all of that right now [Music] hey it's Sebastian alre from the living in Vancouver BC team back with yet another video and this week as I mentioned we're talking about summer in Vancouver but I put out videos just like this one about living in and moving to Vancouver every single week so you don't want to miss a single one as I said this week summer in Vancouver quite literally this is my favorite season of the year in Vancouver I mean what's not to love really look behind me how gorgeous is this city this is when the city really truly shines and it comes out its best the days are long they're warm they're bright there's a lot of sunshine for a place that's kind of known to be dark and rainy this puts a lie to that reputation the city is vibrant it's full of life there's people on the streets really what people do in the summer here in Vancouver people go out and they make the most of it you want to make the most of these long summer days before the cold before the rain comes back so you do see people out everywhere and we have a fairly long lengthy summer running from sort of mid June late June to the end of September um a little Beyond sort of the exact period of the summer months and it really does extend into the late from the late spring to the early fall we get some really really nice weather even into October not as warm as it is today here at the end of August it's 27° right now it's a little a little bit windy so there's not as many people on the beach as there normally would be when the weather is this warm but you can see lots of boats out in the harbor lots of people sort of enjoying there's tons of people on the seaw wall running and cycling and lots of people just out on cafes and patios this is the time of year you want to make the most of it and let me get into more of that right now so let's talk weather May June things start to warm up it's definitely Summer's on the horizon but you still got some chilly nights you can still get quite a bit of rain there's usually a period in May that gets pretty warm and then the spring comes back and there's quite a bit of rain usually until towards the end of of June mid June to late June is really when the summer sets in and we don't really see much rain again until well into September so it's a very long period a dry period but we do get some cooler weather at the at the beginning of June um it's very consistently sunny as I said very little rain very little cloud cover lots of sun the temperatures really warm up for the most part average temperatures are in the low 20s that's kind of the the the average for the summer months we do get temperatures that rise up into the 30s but it's pretty unusual it lasts maybe a week possibly two weeks it's been extending a little bit in recent years where we've gone up to say about 35 degrees but again that is incredibly unusual and recognize that by the lack of air conditioners in Vancouver it's not something that most houses have in Vancouver it's only something that we've started to develop it's really that period of one to two weeks a year where temperatures rise up into the 30s is really the one time a year where you could really use an air conditioner in terms of rain mostly our rain is concentrated in the winter months as I said is very dry in the summer months and it can very much be a Dro um lots of things turn brown we have restrictions through the summer months so very little rain falls and sometimes that can be a problem the average is somewhere in the 30 to 40 millimeter range it's very very little that's per month I should say and the days are long and if you're coming not from the Northern Hemisphere if you're coming from the south somewhere that's going to be something that's new to you at the peak of Summer the sun rises as early as 5:00 a.m. and it sets at 9:30 p.m. that's at over 8 hours more sunshine in the middle of summer than we get in the middle of winter I got a little story for you I went camping this year uh with my four kids and our youngest twin they're twins they're 3 years old and so it was the first time they were out camping we're used to putting them to bed around 8:00 p.m. and as I said sun doesn't set until 9:30 and it's not really dark until 10:30 almost 11:00 so we're trying to get them to bed we're doing everything we can to get them to bed and their sweet little voices they're like Daddy can you turn off the lights they had no idea that I wasn't in control of the lights that it was Mother Nature that was keeping them awake not bad but you know the reality is in Vancouver we have a very long-standing tradition of complaining and We complain about all sorts of things the Vancouver Canucks would be one of them but weather is another big thing that we complain about and so in the winter We complain about all the rain and in the summer you're not a Vancouver R if you don't complain about the lack of rain and about how hot it gets and about how much Sunshine there is I try not to complain myself I try to remember what is coming in the winter months and make the most of what we have in the summer and really really enjoy but like I said you're not a true vancouverite unless you complain even a little bit about the weather all right so now we understand what the weather is actually like during the summer months in Vancouver I did want to point out that it's also very mild also I am a real estate agent that has helped hundreds of people just like you move to Vancouver if you need some help moving to Vancouver or finding the best possible home in Vancouver I can help you with that my contact information is right there on the screen reach out anytime and we can get that conversation started but other cool things about Vancouver in the summer months things that you want to note about what it's like to live here you do want to know this isn't the time to be leaving Vancouver this is as I said probably the nicest time of year to be in Vancouver and I always find it crazy when people actually leave this region entirely I mean sure I understand going to the Sunshine Coast going over to Vancouver Island or the Gulf Islands or going into the interior of BC for a little bit but you don't want to go to Mexico you don't want to go to Hawaii don't even go to Europe spend your time here in Vancouver and that's what so many Vancouver RS really do they take advantage of the amazing weather that we do have but one of the downsides is that it can be really dry in the summer months we can go weeks without any rain whatsoever and so we can have periods of drought there are forest fires in the interior of BC we're not really susceptible to them right here in the Vancouver area but on the outskirts of Vancouver and certainly only 100 kilometers away we can have forest fires we've had some really really bad ones in and months the downside aside from the province being on fire not that that's a laughing matter but is really that we get we can have a lot of smoke in the summer that comes from the interior fires the result is that you can get a little bit of overcast a little bit of haze the sky might not be really clear and if you're susceptible to some issues with your lungs uh that can be problematic for a little bit during the summer months we do have fire bands as a result of that danger so if you're out in the parks in the middle of summer like we went camping a few weeks ago we weren't allowed to light any fires and so that is something that you have to live with when you're here in this part of the world another great thing is all of the outdoor activities that are available to you I mean right now as you can see behind me I'm at the at the beach in a park you know we live in a region that is full of outdoor space this is the time to really be able to take advantage of it not just because of the better weather but also because of the longer hours of the day so you have a lot of time a lot more time to be out enjoying it and then of course Al also the mountains and the lakes that surround us and you can see the NorthShore mountains there in behind me this is the perfect time to go exploring do some camping get out into the countryside and explore what this part of the world has to offer and then if you want to stay in the city we have a lot of fun stuff going on lots of concerts there's sporting events still but there's also tons of festivals and this is a time of year where the festivals come out and so almost every week there's something to do in and around the city but it's also patio season and Park season I mean not you don't have to go onto a patio to have a drink and enjoy some social time with your friends there are parks now where you're allowed to drink in Vancouver and not that you have to drink but just to be out and enjoy and be an adult and have some fun with your friends you do see in a lot of parks the park right behind me is a little empty right now been a little bit uh wet unusually so in the last week or so and it's a little bit windy so a lot of people I think plus it's the middle of the day on a weekday on the weekend this place is going to be packed it's going to be Labor Day weekend up ahead and this beach this park is going to be full of people uh because this is the time of year as the days are warm the days are longer uh you get out you enjoy it and that is the way that you take advantage of a Vancouver summer and I brought you here to what is one of my favorite places in all of Vancouver it's the Museum of anthropology right in behind me and my understanding was that they the renovation they were doing was completed it is a apparently on the inside now it's all safe from earthquakes but on the outside this is a really spectacular sort of um example or artistic rendering of a West Coast native Village normally but right now it's still a construction zone but I don't know maybe this is the perfect opportunity the perfect place to be talking about some of the disappointments of Vancouver Summers because I'm feeling a little disappointed about what's behind me right now for one Vancouver Summers aren't really for introverts if you don't like people you don't want to be around Vancouver when it's summer because everybody is outside everybody is doing stuff and interacting and so it's a pretty tough place to be especially at the city center and really just outside in general during the summer month heat can be overwhelming and for people that are sensitive to heat even in such a mild climate for people from northern climates in particular Vancouver can get warm it's not hot but it can get warm and if you really want cool cool temperatures you're not going to really find them in Vancouver as I said temperatures are on average in the low 20s but they can certainly Spike up into the 30s and we can have a period of 1 to two weeks where we get into almost the mid-30s and it can be real hot another big downside if you have children and if you're coming from the south moving North is that kids don't sleep as much they sleep with the sun and so it can be difficult unless you have excellent blackout blinds we're really struggling in our house to get the kids to sleep at night and then not to have them wake up too early in the morning so that can be an unexpected downside of being in the so far north there's also just the fact that because we don't get a lot of rain in the summer months if you have a home if you have a garden you're going to need to spend a lot of time gardening you don't H sorry watering not gardening you don't have to do so much mowing the lawn because the lawn just isn't going to grow but things kind of turn brown and there's a lot of Brown in this part of the world uh during the summer months we've had a fair amount of rain unusually in the last 2 weeks or so more rain than I think uh We've we ever had in the month of August or at least for a very long time so that's why some of the shots you've seen that I've taken today are actually pretty green but at this time of the year usually so much of Vancouver is pretty brown and definitely our grass is brown and that's not necessarily the most attractive but it's the one time of year where you don't see as much green you see a little more Brown another downside and this is a bit uh subjective but this is tourist season and you do get a lot of tourists all around Vancouver and in particular in the city itself and sort of in the most popular destinations whether you're at the beach or on the seaw wall or in the downtown core uh you're going to see a lot of tourists around this cruise ship season we got huge cruise ships that leave from Vancouver and go up to Alaska I love tourists I love the fact that people are coming here and visiting and spending money and enjoying the city and falling in love with the city and moving to the city just like my parents did 40 almost 50 well 50 years ago yeah 50 years ago wow so I welcome all those tourists but that's not for everyone and if you're coming from smaller towns and less tourist oriented places that might be something that you're not really used to but the summer months are when we see the most tourists coming and it's also as a result the time where things become a little more expensive and especially hotel rooms airbnbs are hard to find but definitely hotel rooms are at a premium at this time of year that's really it those are the downsides of Summer and Vancouver that's all I can come up with I mean for the most part Summers and Vancouver are absolutely spectacular as I keep saying my favorite time of year and really the best time of year to be enjoying Vancouver so I've gone through just about everything about Vancouver in the summer months except for Real Estate so what is the real estate market like in Vancouver if you're thinking of moving here from somewhere else of course you want to know what is the best time a year to do that well the truth is summer summer is a slower time in our Market the busiest time where we see the most transactions is actually spring that's where we see the most number of buyers in the market but also the most number of listings so you're going to have the most options available to you in sort of the April May June period things start to Trail off as we get further into the summer it doesn't go right off a cliff so early summer can also be a really great time I mean as we've talked about the summer is a spectacular time in the city plus you also have an abundance of listings usually in that June July period but August is a very slow time there's not a lot of new listings that come on to the market in fact it's probably the second slowest period in Vancouver's real estate market next to the holiday period next to like around Christmas mid December to mid January the month of August is the second slowest period of time and really if you think about it it kind of makes sense as I've been talking about making the most of the outdoors making the most of the weather that's what most people here are doing in July and August and so they're distracted they're focused on other things just like we get in the middle uh sorry in the holiday period around Christmas in the winter people get distracted with other things uh away from Real Estate but they come back to it in the fall and so the month of August is slow July is pretty good June is great uh but September is also a great time so just try and avoid focusing on August as an ideal time to be buying something there's stuff out there though if you need to buy something there will be product out there and one of the distinct advantages I as a as a good salesman I can tell you a good reason and a bad reason to do anything I can turn a negative into a positive well the positive about August is that you have a lot less competition and that can be a really big advant Vantage in Vancouver's real estate market so even when things are a little bit slow there's a there's a positive spin that we can put on it and that there's a lot of opportunity for you just not to have to compete with a lot of other buyers and something to consider if you're coming here and thinking of renting first is also that summer could be an ideal time especially the early part of the summer because all the students leave the city and not that you're necessarily going to be renting student housing but they soak up a lot of the product and push every else to something else so the competition is actually highest for September 1st when all the students come back to the city and all of the secondary postsecondary education starts again they're looking for places to rent and places to buy sometimes but most commonly uh renting and so September 1st is probably the hardest time to be renting for so if you're coming to the city in August be prepared for a bit of a dog fight when it comes to rentals I do think still that summer can really make sense for people to move to Vancouver you want to take advantage you want to be here for this gorgeous weather you want to see what Vancouver looks like at its best this is the time to be here um there's a lot less competition as I said through the summer months which can make buying a lot easier and then also you get the advantage of being able to rent taking up some of that space that the students are exiting towards the late spring and early summer it becomes sort of a perfect timing in a lot of ways plus the school year hasn't begun so you can kind of get settled into your new home if you have kids and you want your kids to go to school here they can get settled in have some fun go to the beach enjoy the parks enjoy the outdoors make the most of Vancouver fall in love with the city and then hit the ground running in September when school begins again this video was so much easier to put together than the one that I did uh on Winters in Vancouver man I chose the coldest day of the year for that one today it was 27 degrees it's a beautiful day it's kind of perfect summer weather I love this weather this is so much of what Vancouver is like in the summer months I really hope you got a lot out of this video and you got an understanding of what it can be like to live in Vancouver and maybe one day move to Vancouver uh and if you are ready to move to Vancouver and buy a home that's something that I can help you with I am a real ested agent I've helped hundreds of families settle into Vancouver and I can help you and your family do just that as well but if you're not quite ready for that well of course you know that I put out videos just like this one about living in and moving to Vancouver every single week week I have dozens and dozens of videos covering almost every single possible topic about living in Vancouver that you can think of so be sure to explore my entire back catalog in the meantime I have a couple I think you're going to want to check out though this one over here is all about this is a playlist all about the weather in Vancouver this isn't just about the summer it's all year round this is the true reality of living in Vancouver right here and over on this side I have a video for you all about the mistakes of buying a towos the mistakes I've seen people make when buying tow houses that's a video you're going to want to check out if you're thinking of moving here thank you so much for watching I appreciate you watching this one all the way to the end and I'll see you on next week's video