Moving to BC, but where???

[okanaganlover]

I made a decision over 16 years ago to move to the Okanagan Valley in B.C. I will always recommend to anyone that wants to move to seriously consider this area of the world. I love it! The weather, the activities, the lakes, the golf...what isn't there to love about this place.
If you want some information on this beautiful region please check out Okanagan Valley: Guide To A Recreational Paradise.

 

[talloola]

I made a decision over 16 years ago to move to the Okanagan Valley in B.C. I will always recommend to anyone that wants to move to seriously consider this area of the world. I love it! The weather, the activities, the lakes, the golf...what isn't there to love about this place.
If you want some information on this beautiful region please check out Okanagan Valley: Guide To A Recreational Paradise.

we love the okanagan too, have visited there many times, but chose to live on vancouver island, because
there is 'no' ocean in the okanagan. We were born close to the ocean, and will never live far from it.
skiing, golf, fishing, mountain biking, hiking, and great weather.(comox valley).
very moderate temperatures year round, a little snow some winters, some rain, but
not too much, that is more to the north island, or by the mountains, closer to the
ocean, less rain, but we welcome enough rain to keep our green island always green.

 

[VanIsle]

Hello all,

I am wanting to move to BC shortly (from Australia) with my wife and children.

We will need a house as I think our family is a bit big for an apartment, plus used to having our own bit of space. Upon arrival we will be looking to rent a house for a while, at least until we feel settled and have a better idea of the place. Problem is we are not sure where to start looking.

In Aus, the real estate agents also manage rental properties and you can get plenty of info from them but it appears that in Canada its usually handled privately by the owners on an individual basis.

I guess I am looking for suggestions of good places to settle with a young family wher we can rent something around $1,000 - $1,400 per month, probably 4 bedrooms etc..

Any ideas would be welcome!

Cheers,
Kev.

I looked back at the date for the OP - we are all responding to someone who wrote and asked that question in August of the year 2006!!! I wonder if they ever made it to BC!!!!

 

[SLM]

I looked back at the date for the OP - we are all responding to someone who wrote and asked that question in August of the year 2006!!! I wonder if they ever made it to BC!!!!

Not only that but the thread seems to have been resurrected by a spammer! That's too funny.

 

[55Mercury]

Not only that but the thread seems to have been resurrected by a spammer! That's too funny.

heh heh, even moreso since I just posted Cosmo's sig on my fb page:

In a perfect world... spammers would get caught, go to jail, and share a cell with many men who have enlarged their penises, taken Viagra and are looking for a new relationship.

not sure why it's in purple though

unless he's the spammer!

I was wondering about that though. Does everyone get those aforementioned types of spam, or is it just the direly in need porn addicts?

I suspect it's just us porn surfers.

:?P

and I bet it only takes one misclick to brand you; like bee hormone it attracts the whole hive!

:?D

 

[VanIsle]

Not only that but the thread seems to have been resurrected by a spammer! That's too funny.

It took a bit to see what you meant because I read "that" thread last night and at that time it seemed to fit in so well. Things are not going well in the Okanagan Valley right now. I have lots of family there and they all say that they would not put their house on the market right now because things are down by far in the housing market. My son is in bldg. and he said (about 2 weeks ago) that not a single house in Vernon has been sold in the past 4 months. That's not to say there have not been private sales (I think). I assume it's a realtors report. He doesn't live there but the company he works for is doing some bldg. there.
I guess someone is trying to promote the Okanagan. Have to give them A for effort.

 

[canuck123]

I'm born and raised in the West Kootenays. Lived in Calgary, Toronto, Vancouver, Victoria and a few other places can't remember.

Currently in Kelowna. Anyone who says the Okanagan is great because they camped out here for a couple weeks in the summer doesn't know what it's like to live here. That goes the same for Vancouver, Victoria.

Anywhere in BC is great in the summer but it's a whole other story for the other 10months of the year. If you don't like rain for 8months non-stop forget about Vancouver. Victoria isn't much better and the ferrys drove me nuts but some people like that separation feeling. Oh yea Vancouver is a rat race with horrible traffic but you already knew that.

Okanagan is actually pretty blah 10months of the year. What most people don't realize is that the Okanagan gets less annual sunshine than just about anywhere else in Canada. Expect to not see the sun for months on end in the winter. Just endless grey skies. Still better than Vancouver rain and not so much a rat race and still has all the urban emenities so works for me but I get kind of bored in the winter. Sometimes I go to Vancouver for a weekend in the winter just for sushi and a walk around Stanley Park. It's only about a 4 hour drive double lane all the way so not too bad an option if you need a Vancouver fix once in awhile.

I don't like Penticton at all. Half the town moves away for the winter and the type of people who are left as year round residents are....shall we say....quite simple. Osoyoos year round locals are a bunch of toothless sheep herders and make the Penticton locals seem like Aristocrats.

I'm sorry if that offends anyone but it's true. But summertime anywhere in the Okanagan or Vancouver Island or Kootenays or ? is great. If I could I would live here in the summer and live somewhere else such as Ecuador in the winter.


Vernon is probably my favorite town in the Okanagan for year round livability. Silver Star is my favorite ski hill in all of BC and Alberta and I have skied most of them many times including the big ones. Lot's of drugs though. LOT's! Seems to be a problem all over smaller towns in BC but Vernon seems particularly bad for some reason. Maybe just more visible because they all hang around in the park right in the centre of town and visible from the main roads.

 

[L Gilbert]

Don't move here, canuck123. It's too rainy. Actually, by the sounds of it, you shouldn't be anywhere in BC as it doesn't sound like you'd be happy anywhere here.

 

[canuck123]

Don't move here, canuck123. It's too rainy. Actually, by the sounds of it, you shouldn't be anywhere in BC as it doesn't sound like you'd be happy anywhere here.

Can you read or are you from Osoyoos? I'm born and raised in BC and lived all over BC. Where are you from, Alberta? And you are trying to tell me what BC is and isn't all about? Lol....thanks for the laugh.

 

[L Gilbert]

Can you read or are you from Osoyoos? I'm born and raised in BC and lived all BC. Where are you from, Alberta? And you are trying to tell me what BC is and isn't all about? Lol....thanks for the laugh.

Read what it says in my profile.
Your post was full of what you don't like about BC. Pretty safe to presume you don't like anywhere in BC for some reason or other.

 

[canuck123]

Read what it says in my profile.
Your post was full of what you don't like about BC. Pretty safe to presume you don't like anywhere in BC for some reason or other.

Then why do I live here? Again, you must be from Osoyoos because your reading comprehension is apparently lacking. Where exactly in the Kootenays do you live? I know just about every square inch of that area including all the forest service roads and could probably tell you things you didn't know about that are right under your nose.

Still have a few acres of waterfront out there that has been in the family for generations. My family was one of the founding families of one of the towns there.

And you?

 

[damngrumpy]

The thing that struck me here is the amount of rent you want to pay for a four bedroom
house. I don't know about the coast but in the Okanagan for that size that is decent it
will cost upwards of sixteen hundred to two thousand a month.
In addition contact Coldwell Banker Real Estate they deal with rental properties I know
that much.
It depends on what you do for a living as to where you want to live.

 

[JLM]

Hello all,

I am wanting to move to BC shortly (from Australia) with my wife and children.

We will need a house as I think our family is a bit big for an apartment, plus used to having our own bit of space. Upon arrival we will be looking to rent a house for a while, at least until we feel settled and have a better idea of the place. Problem is we are not sure where to start looking.

In Aus, the real estate agents also manage rental properties and you can get plenty of info from them but it appears that in Canada its usually handled privately by the owners on an individual basis.

I guess I am looking for suggestions of good places to settle with a young family wher we can rent something around $1,000 - $1,400 per month, probably 4 bedrooms etc..

Any ideas would be welcome!

Cheers,
Kev.

For a fairly young person with a family, I'd suggest the Cariboo..........Williams Lake and Quesnel are fair sized towns with most amenities, probably as affordable housing as one would find anywhere, the weather is reasonable and you'd could own enough property with enough room to swing the cat. The main industries would be logging, ranching, mining.

 

[bill barilko]

For a fairly young person with a family, I'd suggest the Cariboo..........Williams Lake and Quesnel are fair sized towns with most amenities, probably as affordable housing as one would find anywhere, the weather is reasonable and you'd could own enough property with enough room to swing the cat. The main industries would be logging, ranching, mining.

Agreed-there or over the mountains in Alberta.

 

[petros]

Can you read or are you from Osoyoos.

Priceless.....

The thing that struck me here is the amount of rent you want to pay for a four bedroom
house. I don't know about the coast but in the Okanagan for that size that is decent it
will cost upwards of sixteen hundred to two thousand a month.

Compared to here, that is cheap.

 

[JLM]

Priceless.....


Compared to here, that is cheap.

I was a landlord for 7 years and quite honestly there could never be enough money in it for me to ever do it again. Take a $300,000 house mortgaged at 4%, equates to $1000 a month just for interest payments, then there are the taxes on which there is no break for a rental property, then there is maintenance and repairs, quite often complaints from neighbours and then the worry. My sympathies are with the landlord 99% of the time. I was a tenant too for one year, treated the place with respect as if I owned it and never had one bit of trouble with the landlady.

 

[petros]

I was a landlord for 7 years and quite honestly there could never be enough money in it for me to ever do it again. Take a $300,000 house mortgaged at 4%, equates to $1000 a month just for interest payments, then there are the taxes on which there is no break for a rental property, then there is maintenance and repairs, quite often complaints from neighbours and then the worry. My sympathies are with the landlord 99% of the time. I was a tenant too for one year, treated the place with respect as if I owned it and never had one bit of trouble with the landlady.

You forgot one. Rental income is taxed.

 

[JLM]

You forgot one. Rental income is taxed.

Which brings up something else- in 1983 I was transferred from Courtenay to Squamish. I rented out my place for $400 and rented another in Squamish for $400. I anonymously phoned Rev. Canada and found it was just as you say. I had to pay tax (theoretically) on rent rec'd but couldn't claim my rent in Squamish. I didn't identify myself when I phoned them. :lol:

 

[canuck123]

They don't half jokingly say BC stands for Bring Cash for nothing. Personally being born and raised here it's always been home so I will live here no matter what. It's the Albertans and Ontarians who come here for all the wrong reasons that I gotta shake my head about. See it all the time. They go to Vancouver for a 2 week vacation in August and think it's like that year round so they move the whole family over.

Then over the course of a year it slowly sinks in. Hey, not as many opportunities and wages kinda suck compared to the cost of living. Geez, it sure rains a lot. Never noticed that in August. Hmmm, people here are kinda grumpy and unfriendly. Didn't seem that way for 2 weeks in August. Wow, traffic really sucks and kind of wears you down day after day.

A year or two later they move back to Ontario. Same deal with the Okanagan. Some settle in and stay but most end up leaving. Some good advice here though. Like looking further north where property is cheaper and jobs pay better.

You would have to be crazy to buy property anywhere in Southern BC right now unless you have money to burn. Property is WAY overvalued right now. Just wait till the bulk of the baby boomers go to the old folks home or die off. It's gonna be a property wasteland. You won't be able to give away some of these McMansions. It's gonna start when interest rates start creeping up in a couple years. Some say it has already started but this is just the beginning of the beginning. Save your money and rent or lease.

 

[skookumchuck]

Why not start a new thread about housing and costs instead of digging up a 6 year old post?

Oops i see that has already been questioned.