Monday, April 13, 2015

Which Reasons Are Responsible For The Kelowna Real Estate Boom

By M Walker


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 this interest in property? Perhaps it is the long, meandering Lake Okanagan passing through the city. The province is on the west coast of Canada. Kelowna, aka Orchard City or K-town, is in the middle of BC on a line of latitude that bisects Vancouver Island.

The first Europeans to settle here were from France. They came in the middle of the 19th century. It was nearly half a century before the city was incorporated, in 1905. The area has cold, cloudy winters and dry, sunny summers and enjoys four obvious seasons. This is described by weather experts as humid continental climate. Famous figures from here include cyclist Axel Merck, Olympic rower, Scott Frandsen, and Josh Gorges, professional hockey player.

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.

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.

There are organizations that quantify key indicators of quality of life in cities all over the world. Here, Kelowna comes out looking very attractive. Factors that should be low are low (crime, pollution, traffic and property price to income ratio) and positive characteristics that should be high, are high. These are purchasing power, health care and safety. The property price to income ratio is a key indicator in real estate. A low ratio means that keeping a roof over a person's head does not gobble up a huge amount of the monthly paycheck. A high ratio means the opposite. Low is good.

The town has been immortalized on the silver screen. Both Shed and Shed 2, snowboarding films, were both shot at Big White ski resort, as was the cult thriller/horror/comedy/zombie film, Fido. The latter film was set in the 1950s and involved a cloud of cosmic radiation that turned the dead into the nearly dead.

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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