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| What is the best city in Canada to live in? |
| Vancouver |
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38% |
[ 7 ] |
| Calgary |
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11% |
[ 2 ] |
| Toronto |
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16% |
[ 3 ] |
| Montreal |
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33% |
[ 6 ] |
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| Total Votes : 18 |
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jessiaka
Joined: 07 Jan 2006
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:05 am Post subject: |
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| VanIslander wrote: |
Kamloops has a nice river (two joining into a third actually) for swimming and beach lounging right in the city, compared to Lake Okanagan's overcrowded measly small downtown park and the need in Kelowna to drive out of town to get to decent beaches;. |
You haven't lived in K-town, have you? Plenty of beaches on Lakeshore that aren't crowded, and if you take the 20 min drive to Winbuck there are plenty more on Kal lake or in Okanagan Centre or Carrs Landing  |
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VanIslander

Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:13 am Post subject: |
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| jessiaka wrote: |
... if you take the 20 min drive to Winbuck there are plenty more on Kal lake or in Okanagan Centre or Carrs Landing  |
Depending on TRAFFIC. The congestion there has been hell on the sunny summer weekend jaunts I've gone there. And the locals are always complaining about the traffic too, for good reason.
Side note: When I was growing up Kamloops had the greatest porportion of swimming pools per capita of any city in North America (outside of Palm Springs), but the city lost the designation in the mid-eighties when a retirement home craze brought tons of wanna-seem-rich-with-low-property-costs Vancouverites up to Kamloops, buying units in new retirement condos and stimulating an apartment boom, at the same time, along with low-income NDP gov't housing, the college became a university college and that stimulated more apartment construction as well (now Kamloops has a full-fledged university, unlike that university college I believe still exists in Kelowna ) |
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Captain Corea

Joined: 28 Feb 2005 Location: Seoul
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:27 am Post subject: |
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| jessiaka wrote: |
| Captain Corea wrote: |
I'm a big fan of the area but am worried about realestate prices. Is it chaper than Calgary/Van/TO? |
It is cheaper than Vancouver for housing, but it is still pretty steep at the moment.
Real estate in Kelowna is currently $285,000 for used, and $345,000 for new.
Vancouver is at $518,000 right now.
Calgary: $408,814 (selling price of a house as of Aug 1st '06)
Toronto: $346,474 (as of May '06)
Keep in mind that Kelowna is the most expensive city to live in in the Okanagan. Vernon is 30 mins away but I'm pretty sure it's WAY cheaper.
Also, I think the average housing cost for Kamloops (which as the above poster stated is not in the Okanagan) is currently around $190,000. Kamloops is SMALL though, well it's about the same size of Kelowna but it's all sprawl.
Hope that helps  |
That helps So much. I was really wondering about housing prices in and around the Okanagan. My next question would be... is it possible to buy a nice new house in Kamloops or Pentiction? I know there are plenty of older ones there.. but I'm keen on a new one.  |
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VanIslander

Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:39 am Post subject: |
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Penticton! south of Kelowna, famous for its peaches. Nice beach right there in the city.
Lots of RICH retirement homes there, so property costs I dunno.
Kamloops can be affordable, only, the newer real estate is up in the hills a bit out of sight or else 20-30 minutes up one of the three river valleys that meet at Kamloops (Kamloopa is the indigenous native word for meeting of three rivers, though technically only two meet to become a third by our Western thinking).
Like here, just north of Kamloops:
Kamloops also has a lot of golf courses, I forgot about that. If you like playing golf, play three or four or five of the Kamloops courses and you'll be sold. Kamloops also touts itself as the Ginseng Capital, having produced a lot for use nationally and for export to Korea! |
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jessiaka
Joined: 07 Jan 2006
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:51 am Post subject: |
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You do have a point with the traffic!! On long weekends it is DISGUSTING!
| VanIslander wrote: |
the college became a university college and that stimulated more apartment construction as well (now Kamloops has a full-fledged university, unlike that university college I believe still exists in Kelowna ) |
AHHHHHhhh you haven't heard? Kelowna is home to UBC now!
OUC is no more. What was the North Campus is now University of British Columbia's satellite campus! UBC Okanagan. The old South Campus is now Okanagan College. Two totally different places
| Captain Corea wrote: |
| it possible to buy a nice new house in Kamloops or Pentiction? I know there are plenty of older ones there.. but I'm keen on a new one. |
Penticton is growing. I friggin love Penticton. Forgot all about it actually.
To answer your question, yes you can buy a nice new house there  |
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khyber
Joined: 16 Jan 2003 Location: Compunction Junction
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 2:24 pm Post subject: |
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Vancouver: If you just want work, you can get jobs EASY...or get into a trade...it seems as if the trades are needed EVERYWHERE these days...
stupid uni kids.
Vanc is nice in the summer.
But it is the most depressing place in the winter....garfff....all that rain! |
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VanIslander

Joined: 18 Aug 2003 Location: Geoje, Hadong, Tongyeong,... now in a small coastal island town outside Gyeongsangnamdo!
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 2:55 pm Post subject: |
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| khyber wrote: |
Van is nice in the summer.
But it is the most depressing place in the winter....garfff....all that rain! |
I'm sure long frigid -20 C weeks of grey and yellow prairie flatness and howling knife-cold winds makes one feel better. Not.
Those in Vancouver can still jog in winter (+5 C) and certainly can make the relatively short drive into the mountains to get worldclass skiing or go tobagganing any time they feel like it.
But I'm biased. I grew up on Vancouver Island and do not find rain depressing. If anything it brings people together for awesome dinner dates and nights together out of the rain. And let's not forget, from Vancouver many take a couple of weeks winter jaunt getaways to Las Vegas or California or Hawaii on cheap travel discounts that the airlines are so often providing out of Vancouver. |
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Demophobe

Joined: 17 May 2004
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 3:09 pm Post subject: |
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mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 4:40 pm Post subject: |
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| VanIslander wrote: |
| khyber wrote: |
Van is nice in the summer.
But it is the most depressing place in the winter....garfff....all that rain! |
I'm sure long frigid -20 C weeks of grey and yellow prairie flatness and howling knife-cold winds makes one feel better. Not.
Those in Vancouver can still jog in winter (+5 C) and certainly can make the relatively short drive into the mountains to get worldclass skiing or go tobagganing any time they feel like it. |
Coming from Ontario and having lived in Seattle for 3 winters, I have to say I was happy to trade April snow storms and having to dig your car out of a snow bank 30 days a year for any amount of rain. |
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mithridates

Joined: 03 Mar 2003 Location: President's office, Korean Space Agency
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:22 pm Post subject: |
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| I third that sentiment. I can't remember ever thinking "damn this February rain, give me -25 and howling wind instead please!" during my two years in Vancouver. |
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numazawa

Joined: 20 Mar 2005 Location: The Concrete Barnyard
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:28 pm Post subject: |
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I fourth that sentiment...
As an Ontarioio[yodel]an, I was amazed to find that after a few years in Vancouver I actually enjoyed the rain, to the point where it even felt bad to go too long without it. How did those trees get so damned big anyway... |
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CAS
Joined: 04 Aug 2006
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:58 pm Post subject: |
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| God, I miss Canada. What about Ottawa? I always found that it's a great city to be in, very clean, friendly, decent prices and plenty of things to do (I'm fairly outdoorsy though). Also, gotta vouch for my uni town... Kingston, ON. It's amazing in the summer time! |
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otis

Joined: 02 Jun 2006
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 5:59 pm Post subject: |
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| The best city to live in Canada is probably Miami. |
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Bulsajo

Joined: 16 Jan 2003
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 7:07 pm Post subject: |
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| CAS wrote: |
| God, I miss Canada. What about Ottawa? I always found that it's a great city to be in, very clean, friendly, decent prices and plenty of things to do (I'm fairly outdoorsy though). |
No complaints whatsover
(but, you know, it's just not cool to say you like living in Ottawa, and in some parts of Canada it's an invitation for people to start ranting about all the things they hate about the federal government, and such a rant often starts with "Why do you F---ing people..."). |
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CAS
Joined: 04 Aug 2006
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Posted: Thu Aug 17, 2006 8:30 pm Post subject: |
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federal government has little to do with the fact that i love the city itself... the federal government is just a tourist attraction really
beyond that... great city, regardless |
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