printer

We are also in Kelowna, well actually West Kelowna to be precise and love it here. Personally i didn't like Vernon as much. The main highway through it is something of nothing and the downtown area didn't inspire me at all. The mall is ok and there are all the usual big box stores and Silver Star is an easy 20 minute drive.
There are parts that i do like though. The foothills area on the hill overlooking Vernon is nice and some of the BX area is nice. Unfortunately you aren't close to the lake when in town which is one of the real plus points for downtown Kelowna. Take a stroll in donwtown Kelowna on a warm summers evening along the lake front, listen to the live music for free whilst enjoying an ice cream and it feels like you are on holiday.
Today the weather was fantastic, blue skies and sunshine with more forecast for the weekend. The truck heater was off and the windows were open.
As others have said the employment here is an issue so you really cannot choose this area if securing a well paid job in IT for example is what you are looking for. On the other hand if you are prepared to turn your hand to anything and don't need mega bucks to survive then it wins hands down over big Cities like Vancouver.

If you are looking for value for money on property then areas further out like Enderby, Armstrong, Salmon Arm and even Lumby are possibilities but be prepared to commute for work if necessary.

supermum

Many thanks to everyone who's responded so far. It's really great feedback and real food for thought.

Just for info, we're not IT people (someone raised it as another issue). I'm an Internal Communications Manager (ie writer - paper/web/conferences to keep employees informed) and my husband's a project manager.

However, saying that, we're probably in quite a lucky (apart from the exchange rate!) position. We're late 30's, own house (paid up mortgage) and own a couple of small rentals. The theory is we sell the house we're in to buy a house over there and sell one of the rentals to fund moving/start up costs. The other rental can remain and give us a bit of regular back up income. We've also thought about a property in Canada where we could rent out the basement but that's another topic I'd like to get advice on later.

On this basis, we're not 'having' to seek specific work. The dream would be for both of us to work part-time. My husband is a qualified (UK) climbing instructor and mountain leader. I'd love to become a ski instructor. But, we're both open to the fact that we've had the 'big, stressful' jobs here and would just love to turn our hand to anything over in Canada. To get money to live and have a good quality of life as opposed to slogging guts out and trying to get rich.

House wise we'd want at least a 3 bed (ideally detached) in a nice area for no more than $400,000. Have seen that this is achievable in Vernon but not sure about Kelowna. Thanks!

Mooredog

Hi Supermum here is a forum that I'm also part of and it covers mostly the Okanagan, if you're still thinking of this area then all your questions will be answered on here.

www.okanaganforum.com

Good luck.

supermum

Thanks Mooredog!

TheThornes

Im with you Ann M - we're in Cochrane and we love it! Has the best of everything!

Hank Yarbo

I've worked in IT in both Vancouver and Calgary. Vancouver has more jobs in pure software companies, and possibly more IT jobs overall, but competition for jobs is fierce. Calgary has way more corporate head office type work and the supply-demand equation is more favourable. Toronto definitely has the most number of jobs and the most diverse selection of opportunities, but the supply-demand balance in Calgary might still be more favourable. I've never lived in the UK, so I can't compare anything to there.

The weather in Calgary is colder than Vancouver, but it's also drier and sunnier. On the plus side, it's not as cold as most other places in Canada (to the East) and the winter is frequently interrupted by chinooks, when warm winds blow up along the Rockies. (So you can get occasional days of 10-20 celcius in the middle of winter.) Summers are also milder, and summer nights are almost always cool, even after hot days. You can get freak snow showers in the summer, those are a downer.

thesidds

My family and I moved to Vernon almost a year ago. We too did a recce in 2008, our 1st impressions of Vernon weren't great, but after a couple of days we realised that it has everything We found Kelowna a bit superfical and too big for us. We actually live in Armstrong, a smaller community about 20km north of Vernon, its has a real village feel to it! We have 2 young sons and were keen to be part of a community, we couldn't be happier
We're close to everthing, lakes, skiing, a choice of neighboring towns and cities. I can't believe that after only a year, i couldn't imagine living anywhere else
If you have any specific questions about Vernon, feel free to PM me.

Pebblebeach

I visited Vernon on my reccie in 2008. I especially liked the Coldstream area. This was only marginally cheaper than Kelowna though. I thought it was in a great positon in the okanagan, really close to the skiing at Silver Star not far from Kamloops/Sun peaks or Kelowna/Big White. Also convenient for the airport. It had all the stores and facilities you need, but the down town didn't have a great feel.

I absolutely fell in love with Salmon Arm ( about 45mins drive as I remember) which has somewhat cheaper property the the valley proper and despite being much smaller (think it is only around 17K pop from memory) having the same sort of big box stores etc Of course there are less work opportunities and it's further from the mountains, but not far. We are also trying to put more "life" and into the work/life balance, but the plummeting exchange rate put paid to BC as a destination for us to do this in, and now we are off to NS. If I win the lottery though I would definitely head off to the okanagan somwhere. Good luck with your plans.