The Canadian province of British Columbia is a place of extreme beauty. Kelowna real estate is crying out for new listings. This is a good time to put a property up for sale.
What is driving the new "gold rush?" The town has the beautiful, long, narrow Lake Okanagan running through it. British Columbia is on the west coast of Canada and Kelowna, also known as K-town or Orchard City, is right in the middle of the province, on the same latitude as the midpoint of Vancouver Island.
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.
The tourism industry provides most of the jobs here. Visitors flock here for biking, golf, hiking and boating in the summer time. Popular winter sports include Nordic and Alpine skiing at nearby Silver Star and Big White resorts. There is loads to see and do here and no shortage of nice places to stay. Among the attractions are historic sites such as Father Pandosy Mission, Guisachan Heritage Park and Myra Canyon Trestles. Various festivals are held throughout the year, including Parks Alive!, Arts Alive! and Celebrate Canada Day. There are also a number of major social gatherings geared around the town's successful wine industry.
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.
Wine production is another major industry in Kelowna. Most of the vineyards are south of the town, where the climate is most favorable for vineyards. A fire that started in Okanagan Mountain Park demolished two of them in 2003, but they have since been resurrected. In 2014, the area was named one of the ten best wine regions to visit by USA today.
A major manufacturer of a popular range of fruit juices is also located here. This is handy to the 13,000 students of higher education who are based here between the University of British Columbia (8,000) and Okanagan College (5,000). The Okanagan campus of UBC offers degrees in Management, Medicine, Health and Social Development, Applied Science, Education, as well as Creative and Critical Studies.
The quality of life in Kelowna is considered to be very high by organizations who monitor a variety of factors and publish quantitative data. Purchasing power, safety and health care are rated moderate to high, while negative QOL indicators, such as consumer price index, pollution, traffic and the property price to income ratio are all low.
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 bus transportation is provided by the Kelowna Regional Transit System. Despite this, the town is one of the most automobile-dependent areas of Canada. More than 65 percent of the total greenhouse emissions in this city are attributed to its love affair with the car.
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 new "gold rush?" The town has the beautiful, long, narrow Lake Okanagan running through it. British Columbia is on the west coast of Canada and Kelowna, also known as K-town or Orchard City, is right in the middle of the province, on the same latitude as the midpoint of Vancouver Island.
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.
The tourism industry provides most of the jobs here. Visitors flock here for biking, golf, hiking and boating in the summer time. Popular winter sports include Nordic and Alpine skiing at nearby Silver Star and Big White resorts. There is loads to see and do here and no shortage of nice places to stay. Among the attractions are historic sites such as Father Pandosy Mission, Guisachan Heritage Park and Myra Canyon Trestles. Various festivals are held throughout the year, including Parks Alive!, Arts Alive! and Celebrate Canada Day. There are also a number of major social gatherings geared around the town's successful wine industry.
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.
Wine production is another major industry in Kelowna. Most of the vineyards are south of the town, where the climate is most favorable for vineyards. A fire that started in Okanagan Mountain Park demolished two of them in 2003, but they have since been resurrected. In 2014, the area was named one of the ten best wine regions to visit by USA today.
A major manufacturer of a popular range of fruit juices is also located here. This is handy to the 13,000 students of higher education who are based here between the University of British Columbia (8,000) and Okanagan College (5,000). The Okanagan campus of UBC offers degrees in Management, Medicine, Health and Social Development, Applied Science, Education, as well as Creative and Critical Studies.
The quality of life in Kelowna is considered to be very high by organizations who monitor a variety of factors and publish quantitative data. Purchasing power, safety and health care are rated moderate to high, while negative QOL indicators, such as consumer price index, pollution, traffic and the property price to income ratio are all low.
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 bus transportation is provided by the Kelowna Regional Transit System. Despite this, the town is one of the most automobile-dependent areas of Canada. More than 65 percent of the total greenhouse emissions in this city are attributed to its love affair with the car.
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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