North Vancouver was the second fastest growing jurisdiction in Canada in 2020, if one-way trips by U-Hauls are any indication.
The Phoenix-based truck and trailer rental business has released stats showing arrivals accounted for 53.2 per cent of all one-way U-Haul traffic in North Vancouver in 2020, second only to North Bay, Ont.
The number of people unloading and parking a U-Haul here was up seven per cent from the year before, which was already a record year, the company says, although the number of one-way trips leaving North Van also grew by 11 per cent.
Andy Yan, director of The City Program at Simon Fraser University, said U-Haul’s stats hardly amount a census, but they are an interesting data point to ponder.
“There is actually something to be said about this kind of proxy measure of movement around the continent,” he said, adding that the United States does a much better job of tracking population migration patterns than Canada does.
Growth in move-ins would certainly be correlated with growth in North Van property assessments, which were released earlier this week, Yan said.
“It is a really interesting to see the fastest growing value when it comes to condominiums was in the City and District of North Van,” he said. “For a certain population, the promise of being nestled in the forest, and now a job doesn't necessarily require you to cross a bridge or take the SeaBus five days a week, yeah, that might have a certain appeal.”
The corollary, Yan added, is out-migration for North Vancouver residents, which happens for a variety of reasons.
“Certainly the issue of affordability comes into play,” he said.
Much more telling will be the release of annual population estimates from BC Stats, which happens in mid-to-late January, Yan said. According to U-Haul, North Vancouver was the top growth city in Canada the year before in 2019, a time when BC Stats reported the 0.6 per cent population growth in the City of North Vancouver and 0.1 per cent growth in the District of North Vancouver, while the rest of Metro Vancouver’s municipalities were growing at an average of 1.5 per cent.
As for what more one-way trips in than out means for the North Shore, Yan invoked one of its most notable writers.
“My immediate reaction was, ‘Wow, that's a lot of people who want to find their inner Malcolm Lowry,” he said with a laugh. “How many Under the Volcanoes will be written from this move?”
