What Characteristics Are Driving The Kelowna Real Estate Boom
British Columbia is mouth-wateringly beautiful. Clear skies, beautiful scenery and a low population density (1,434 per square mile) are combining to make the Kelowna real estate market hot, hot, hot, with a huge lack of inventory. For people toying with putting their homes up for sale, now would be a good time to take the plunge.
What is driving the explosive demand for homes in Kelowna? It doesn't hurt that the town has a lake, Okanagan, running through it. Orchard City, or K-town, is on the same line of latitude as Vancouver Island on the pacific coast. Kelowna is right in the middle of the province.
The area was first settled by the French in the middle of the 19th century. It was nearly half a century later before the city was incorporated. Here, the climate is classified as humid continental. Roughly translated, this means it experiences four discrete seasons, dry, sunny summers and cold, cloudy winters. The elevation of the area is 344 metres. Famous people to have come from Kelowna include sports figures Tyler Shelast, Mike and Jason Crumb and Byron Dafoe. The late Premier of British Columbia, W. A. C. Bennett, was also a local.
Tourism forms the bulk of the local economy. Visitors are attracted by places of local historic interest, such as Myra Canyon Trestles, Father Pandosy Mission and Guisachan Heritage Park. Numerous festivals, organized through the auspices of Festivals Kelowna, attract visitors. Among these are Celebrate Canada Day and Arts Alive! Outdoor pursuits such as golf, biking, hiking and boating attract people in the summer, while skiing is a major attraction in the winter time. The area is served by two main ski resorts, Big White and Silver Star. The cultural district, located in downtown Kelowna, was once the center of the fruit packing industry in Okanagan.
Kelowna is seriously saturated with oxygen, boasting major parks and protected areas at all four corners. North and South of the city lie Fintry and Myra-Bellevue provincial parks, whereas the east-west axis is marked by Trepanier and Greystone protected areas.
Locally-produced wines have received recognition at the international level. Vineyards are clustered in the south of the region, where the climate is ideal for growing grapes. The Okanagan Mountain Park fire destroyed two of these wineries in 2003. These have since been rebuilt. USA Today dubbed the area one of the 10 best wine regions to visit in 2014.
The city is also home to a popular soft drink manufacturer. The city is also home to two institutions of higher learning, the University of British Columbia, home to 8,000 students, and Okanagan College, which boasts 5,000 students. Faculties at the Okanagan campus of UBC include Creative and Critical Studies, Education, Applied Science, Health and Social Development, Management and Medicine.
The quality of life in Kelowna has been quantified by statistical organizations, who rate it very high. The positive QOL indicators, in which the town is rated either moderate or high, include safety, health care and purchasing power. The negative indicators, in which the town is rated low, are pollution, traffic, consumer price index and the ratio of property prices to income. A low property price to income ratio means that rents or mortgage payments occupy a smaller proportion of household income than areas with a high ratio.
The town has also appeared in a number of movies. Shed and Shed 2, both snowboarding films, were filmed at Big White. In 2006, the movie, "Fido, " was launched at the Toronto Film Festival. Fido was a thriller/horror/comedy/zombie film set in an alternate universe where a cloud of space radiation turned dead people into nearly dead people.
Public transportation is limited, probably owing to the local devotion to the automobile, which is responsible for two-thirds of the total greenhouse emissions in Kelowna. What bus services there are are overseen by the Kelowna Regional Transit System (KRTS).
Kelowna is idyllic by anyone's estimation. Wherever you look, there is nature. There is plenty of room to move and an obviously high quality of life. Crime rates are low. They seem to be associated with misbehavior at events where alcohol is served and even these are few and far between. The high demand for homes is hardly surprising and this is a good time to sell. However, the place is bound to increase in popularity, making it also a good time to invest, either as a first or second home or as an investment.
What is driving the explosive demand for homes in Kelowna? It doesn't hurt that the town has a lake, Okanagan, running through it. Orchard City, or K-town, is on the same line of latitude as Vancouver Island on the pacific coast. Kelowna is right in the middle of the province.
The area was first settled by the French in the middle of the 19th century. It was nearly half a century later before the city was incorporated. Here, the climate is classified as humid continental. Roughly translated, this means it experiences four discrete seasons, dry, sunny summers and cold, cloudy winters. The elevation of the area is 344 metres. Famous people to have come from Kelowna include sports figures Tyler Shelast, Mike and Jason Crumb and Byron Dafoe. The late Premier of British Columbia, W. A. C. Bennett, was also a local.
Tourism forms the bulk of the local economy. Visitors are attracted by places of local historic interest, such as Myra Canyon Trestles, Father Pandosy Mission and Guisachan Heritage Park. Numerous festivals, organized through the auspices of Festivals Kelowna, attract visitors. Among these are Celebrate Canada Day and Arts Alive! Outdoor pursuits such as golf, biking, hiking and boating attract people in the summer, while skiing is a major attraction in the winter time. The area is served by two main ski resorts, Big White and Silver Star. The cultural district, located in downtown Kelowna, was once the center of the fruit packing industry in Okanagan.
Kelowna is seriously saturated with oxygen, boasting major parks and protected areas at all four corners. North and South of the city lie Fintry and Myra-Bellevue provincial parks, whereas the east-west axis is marked by Trepanier and Greystone protected areas.
Locally-produced wines have received recognition at the international level. Vineyards are clustered in the south of the region, where the climate is ideal for growing grapes. The Okanagan Mountain Park fire destroyed two of these wineries in 2003. These have since been rebuilt. USA Today dubbed the area one of the 10 best wine regions to visit in 2014.
The city is also home to a popular soft drink manufacturer. The city is also home to two institutions of higher learning, the University of British Columbia, home to 8,000 students, and Okanagan College, which boasts 5,000 students. Faculties at the Okanagan campus of UBC include Creative and Critical Studies, Education, Applied Science, Health and Social Development, Management and Medicine.
The quality of life in Kelowna has been quantified by statistical organizations, who rate it very high. The positive QOL indicators, in which the town is rated either moderate or high, include safety, health care and purchasing power. The negative indicators, in which the town is rated low, are pollution, traffic, consumer price index and the ratio of property prices to income. A low property price to income ratio means that rents or mortgage payments occupy a smaller proportion of household income than areas with a high ratio.
The town has also appeared in a number of movies. Shed and Shed 2, both snowboarding films, were filmed at Big White. In 2006, the movie, "Fido, " was launched at the Toronto Film Festival. Fido was a thriller/horror/comedy/zombie film set in an alternate universe where a cloud of space radiation turned dead people into nearly dead people.
Public transportation is limited, probably owing to the local devotion to the automobile, which is responsible for two-thirds of the total greenhouse emissions in Kelowna. What bus services there are are overseen by the Kelowna Regional Transit System (KRTS).
Kelowna is idyllic by anyone's estimation. Wherever you look, there is nature. There is plenty of room to move and an obviously high quality of life. Crime rates are low. They seem to be associated with misbehavior at events where alcohol is served and even these are few and far between. The high demand for homes is hardly surprising and this is a good time to sell. However, the place is bound to increase in popularity, making it also a good time to invest, either as a first or second home or as an investment.
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