Is White Rock, British Columbia, Canada, a good place to live? Well, I’m not going to make that decision for you. I’m going to give you all the information you need to make that decision for yourself.

What makes somewhere a great place to live anyway?

There’s obviously an incredible amount of factors to consider when choosing a place to call home or to relocate to. in thinking about this, I went to ChatGPT and said:

What does make a community a good place to live? What does that even mean?

Now, sure enough, in good AI fashion, ChatGPT spat out a bunch of different things to consider when choosing a neighbourhood. So what I’ve done is I’ve gone ahead and cherry-picked many of those and collected all of the data and all of the information that you need to make a great decision.

It took hours and hours to research this information to put into this blog post to make sure that you can get what you need if you’re considering relocating or moving to White Rock and figuring out whether it is a good place to live. Let’s get into it.

My name is Darin, the team leader with the Germyn Group, with Macdonald Realty, a REALTOR in Surrey, British Columbia.

If this is your first time reading our blogs, we are here to educate you on everything there is to know about living in Surrey or White Rock, British Columbia. If you’re looking to make a move in the next 9 days, 90 days or 9 months, shoot us a text, give us a call, or book an in-person zoom meeting with us so we can learn a little bit more about your situation and let you know what we can do to help you. This way, we can make sure your move to Surrey or White Rock is a smooth one

Thanks for the introduction, where were we?

All right, so as we jump into this post, I want to make sure I give you a little bit of a caveat because some of this information might be a little more detail than what you’re looking for.

I’m going to promise to you to keep it as short and concise as possible.

We have included 7 categories when it comes to living in White Rock, without further ado, let’s get into it!

Is White Rock safe to live in?

Well, White Rock has its own RCMP detachment on Pacific Avenue, actually really in the city of White Rock. The estimated population of the city of White Rock is only just over 20,000 people, which means White Rock isn’t overly big.

That’s 20,000 people, give or take, over about 5 square kilometres.

Now, a real quick caveat about that is obviously White Rock borders onto the South Surrey area as well. So crime doesn’t just stop at the border because it’s either White Rock or Surrey. You’re going to want to take that into consideration as I share these numbers with you.

Checking on the Canada Crime Index website, the crime severity index for 2022 is at 81.1, down 2.6% from 2021.

Violent crime in White Rock is at 58.7, down 21.2% from 2021 to 2022

Non-violent crime is at 90.7, up 3.7% from 2021 to 2022.

It’s worth noting that generally, White Rock is better than the national average. This is also true for violent crime. However, for non-violent crime, well, White Rock is actually slightly higher than the national average.

So what is Violent Crime and what is non-violent crime?

Violent crimes can include things like homicide, attempted murder, sexual assault, assault, robbery, criminal harassment, uttering threats, and other violent violations.

Non-violent crimes can include things like drug violations, anything related to federal statutes, and traffic crime.

Compared to the national average, living in White Rock is SAFER and LESS violent than MOST other areas of Canada.

Of course, being in a safe community doesn’t just come down to whether you have good protection from police services or what the crime is like, it also comes down to fire as well. And luckily enough, White Rock actually has its own fire detachment as well, and there is other ones in the neighbouring South Surrey community, so you’re covered there, too

Is White Rock affordable?

For the purpose of this, we’re going to be talking about purchasing a home in the area.

For a detached home in White Rock, the median price per square foot is $675. This is higher when compared to the average in the Fraser Valley at $547 per square foot.

The same for townhomes at $547 per square foot compared to $541 for the Fraser Valley.

And lastly, condominiums, similar to townhomes at $686 per square foot in White Rock, whereas Fraser Valley median is $669 per square foot.

So clearly, the detached homes in the city of White Rock are more expensive than that of the remainder of the average of the Fraser Valley. But townhomes and condominiums are somewhat similar. What does this actually mean for property size compared to actual property prices though?

If you’ll focus your attention to the graph below, we’re going to check out the Home Price Index.

A detached home in White Rock, came in almost $334,000 more expensive than the benchmark the price of a home in the Fraser Valley.

A townhome in White Rock came in at $113,700 more expensive than its counterparts across the Fraser Valley.

Apartments was at almost $58,100 more expensive than its Fraser Valley counterparts. Backing this up just a little bit, we can clearly see that homes are more expensive in White Rock, but affordability really comes down to how much you personally can afford to spend when you purchase a home.

Local data from realtor.ca, regarding the area of White Rock, taken from Statistics Canada, shows that the average individual in the area makes about $71,0800 per year, and the average family or household in the area brings in about $157,600 per year. If you find yourself somewhere in those numbers, then perhaps this is a great affordable place for you to call home as well.

Does White Rock have quality education?

Moving on to quality education. We’re going to talk about the Fraser Institute’s ratings of the schools in the area of White Rock.

Now, there is 5 elementary schools that are serviced within and on the outskirts of the city of White Rock that service the residents of White Rock, and there’s 3 high schools. Now, this seems crazy for the size, 5 square kilometres It’s crazy for the size of how big White Rock is, but yeah, you’ve got 8 schools in total.

For the five elementary schools that you have servicing the city of White Rock, well, you got the following:

1. Bayridge Elementary: 72/932
2. Ray Sheppard Elementary: 475/932.
3. Peace Arch Elementary: 642/932
4. H.T Thrift: 680/932,
5. White Rock Elementary: 791/932

The five elementary schools averaging in the 532 spot out of 932 schools.

So clearly, Bayridge Elementary is the one that stands out in the community across all the elementary schools that are available to go to.

For the three high schools that you have servicing the city of White Rock, well, you got the following:

1. Semiahmoo Secondary: 55/252
2. Elgin Park Secondary: 82/252
3. Earl Marriott Secondary: 131/252

The three secondary schools averaging in the 89 spot out of 252 schools.

But here’s three things that I want you to know directly from the Fraser Institute’s website when we’re talking about comparing schools.

Number One: What is the overall rating based on?

In BC, the elementary school ratings are based on province-wide test results in reading, writing, and math. These tests are written by students in grade 4 and grade 7.

The secondary school ratings are based on province-wide test results in language, arts, math, and science during grade 10, 11, and 12.

Number Two: Should I choose a school based on these results?

The rankings reflect how the school is doing academically compared to others in the report card. But there are lots of other aspects of a school and its programs that you may wish to consider. You can get a better idea about what the school will offer your child by visiting the school’s website and by talking to the principal, teachers, and other parents.

Number Three: Should I consider an overall rating of under 6 out of 10 a complete failure?

No. The rating is designed to have an average value of 6. The school’s rating does not reflect a loss or a fail. It simply reflects how far above or below the average of all the rated schools it is performing.

What is health care like in White Rock?

White Rock is governed by the Fraser Health Authority, and there’s a lot of services out this way. The reason for that? Well, White Rock is a senior-orientated town.

Let me explain that.

The average age of a in the city of White Rock is 53.3 years old when compared to the BC average in the population of 42. This is a difference of over 13 years.

Furthermore, almost 1/4 of the residents that reside in the city of White Rock are over the age of 60. This means that you’ll find a lot of services for not only seniors in the area, but health care in general. As of last count, there was 22 family clinics just in the peninsula, which is South Surrey and White Rock.

There’s also a maternity clinic, a primary care clinic, a youth clinic. Of course, you’ve got Peace Arch hospital and emergency services.

You can find a long list on the Fraser Health website of additional services. Feel free to check them out

What are the job opportunities available?

When it comes to job opportunities in the city of White Rock, there is a plethora of opportunity available.

After doing just a quick check on the website Indeed, which is one of many job posting websites that is frequently used in British Columbia, there were 698 positions within 5 kilometres of White Rock available at the time of filming this video.

Of those positions available, 523 of them are full-time positions. You had 477 paying $20+/hour, 158 paying $30+/hour, 70 paying $40+/hour, 25 $50+/hour and $14 – $60+/hour.

And that’s just within 5 kilometers. Obviously, you could commute into the city of Surrey or other areas of the lower mainland. You could also consider work from home opportunities, which have become more prevalent after the COVID-19 pandemic.

What is the culture and recreation in White Rock?

Let’s jump into culture and recreation now, and we’ll start maybe with culture.

What makes culture? What even makes a good community culture exist?

Well, I’m excited to say that White Rock has it in spades. You’re going to find things like live music venues, museums, playhouses, art galleries, street entertainment, farmers markets, and the renowned festivals White Rock is known for, like Canada Day Down by the Bay, the White Rock Sea Festival and Semiahmoo Days, the White Rock Arts Festival, and the Wintertime Bright Walk in Memorial Park.

Believe me when I tell you this, it’s got it all.

If you want to explore that further, you can simply just jump onto the city of White Rocks website.

Let’s jump into recreation now. If you’ve got kids or you love getting outside, we’ve got summer and winter absolutely covered in this city.

White Rock features various gyms in both the White Rock and South Surrey neighborhoods. You’ve got multiple ice rinks, multiple swimming pools, tons of outdoor activities like tennis and pickleball, the incredible and absolutely humongous South Surrey Athletic Park, nature trails galore, and of course, the beach.

Don’t worry, the kids are covered, too, between skating, locations to host birthday parties, summer camps, and after-school care and activities. It’s all there.

For any seniors in your family as well, you’ve got tons of senior activities available at the Kent Street Activity Center. If you’re watching this and you’re a golfer, it’s probably worth mentioning as well that there’s five golf courses in the peninsula. That’s just in the peninsula. You can go into Surrey and Langley and see even more. That’s got you covered there, too.

What is the transportation like in White Rock?

Let’s wrap this blog post up by talking a little bit about transit to make sure that whether you have to commute to work using public transit or you’ve got your own vehicle, that you’re going to be covered.

It’s probably no secret to anybody reading this blog post, that White Rock is tucked away on the peninsula, pretty much buried by the city of Surrey and the ocean on the other side.

This means it’s not a pass-through city. It’s not located in the middle of anywhere. If you’re not going to pick up one of the many job opportunities that were mentioned earlier in the video, and you do need to commute for whatever reason, White Rock, for the most part, has you covered.

There isn’t any rapid transit like there is in other areas of the Lower Mainland. When I say rapid transit, I mean essentially the Skytrain.

The Skytrain can get you to many locations throughout the Lower Mainland really, really quickly and quite easily. So with no rapid transit, there really just leaves bus service in the city of White Rock, and it’s relatively frequent.

You can catch a bus quite easily, but that’s really the only way of taking public transit in this area for now. It was just announced in November 2023 that Surrey is getting one of three rapid bus transit routes announced for Metro Vancouver by the Mayor’s Council on Regional Transportation, which will feature service running along King George Boulevard from the Wally area to White Rock. The bus rapid transit routes will feature traffic operated lanes and signal priority at intersections.

This is awesome news because now you could take the rapid transit bus and you could take it directly to North Surrey to catch the sky train if you’ve got to commute and get to other areas of the lower mainland.

But let’s say you’re not taking public transportation. Let’s say you own a vehicle. To paint a little bit of a picture for you, driving from White Rock to Vancouver can take you well over an hour, especially if there’s traffic or it’s raining outside.

Even just getting to North Surrey, the highest point north in Surrey, where the downtown area of Surrey is, can easily take you 30-45 minutes. The good news is that you got major highway access in three areas within the peninsula to jump on Highway 99 to get out of town quickly.

If you find yourself heading east towards Abbotsford, towards the mountains or the Okanagan, most White Rock residents will take 16th Avenue, which moves relatively quick to be able to take you to Abbotsford to easily jump on Highway One to get out of town and go enjoy your holiday.

Conclusion

That basically sums up everything I wanted you to know about whether White Rock is a good place to live.

In my opinion, well, I love it here. I think it is one of the best places in all the lower mainland, if not British Columbia, if not Canada, to call home.

Leave a comment below and let us know, was there anything we missed? Was there anything you wanted to have expanded upon? Or if you’re someone that lives in the neighborhood or the area, let us know all the reasons that you absolutely love to live here.

What if I have any questions about moving to White Rock, BC?

Selecting an excellent real estate professional is key to a successful home purchase. The Germyn Group, with our deep understanding of White Rock and its real estate dynamics, is committed to guiding you every step of the way.

We invite you to book a consultation with us. During our meeting, we’ll discuss your needs, preferences, and any questions you might have about the Surrey real estate market.

As you embark on this exciting journey, remember that the right home in Surrey is more than just a property; it’s a foundation for your future. With the Germyn Group by your side, let’s make your dream of homeownership in Surrey a beautiful reality.