affordability, or the lack thereof, sure is a factor in most people NOT living in Vancouver. Not sure if the criteria for this discussion is just for Vancouver proper, or Metro Vancouver including many suburbs.

Vancouver itself is certainly out of reach for many people, especially for young families. Housing is deplorable. Real estate is ridiculous when you're paying half a million for a run-down house on a very busy street, or paying $1500 a month for a small apartment.

I don't know Seattle very well, but I know that you basically can't exist without a car. The highway system there is incredible. A bit of an eye-sore, but you can certainly get from one place to another fairly quickly barring the heavy traffic.

Vancouver's streets were never designed to accommodate the number of cars we see now, so it doesn't really matter what time of day you travel, it's pretty congested. The government is trying various initiatives to try to get people to use cars less, but it's still difficult when you need to go outside of Vancouver itself.

I personally can't wait to move out of the city. It's lovely, but I've been here since 1986 and it's changed a lot since then. I'm a country girl at heart.