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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 7:02 PM
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Where in BC would you suggest a winter weary Maritimer retire to?

I just came in after snowblowing another 20 cm of snow that fell over night. The cutting along the back path of my house is shoulder height (over five feet), and despite some melting last week, the snow is now as deep as it's ever been this winter. I'm about ready to throw in the towel.

I'm nearing 58, and probably could retire as early as three years from now. Of course by doing so, I would be taking a hit on my retirement savings. BC has always intrigued me, and there is no question the winter weather is a damned sight better there than it is here in the Maritimes.

My question to you people out there is "where in BC can you retire with the best bang for your buck?"

I assume Vancouver and Victoria are out given the high cost of living, but I have visited BC several times and would consider several locations:

1) - inland areas of the lower mainland (Chilliwack, Langley, Hope).
2) - southern areas of the lower mainland (White Rock)
3) - mid coast areas of Vancouver Island (Chemainus, Nanaimo)
4) - sunshine coast (Gibsons or even Squamish)
5) - southern Okanagan Valley (Osoyoos, Penticton, Kelowna)

I have never been to the Okanagan, so I would appreciate hearing impressions of this area. I like wine country and it appears attractive. I have visited all the other places mentioned and I know that there are some drawbacks to most (e.g. rain in Squamish), but I would appreciate getting some honest feedback regarding affordability, climate and amenities.
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 7:37 PM
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Part of it really depends on taste.

If you want a coastal location, being a maritimer, and prefer a medium sized community that is easy to go to Victoria, Vancouver for the day, then I'd agree that Nanaimo or Squamish, or possibly further up the island would be good.

If you want a small community off the beaten path, Gibsons, Courtney/Comox, Powell River may be good.

If you aren't attached to the coastal idea, then there are many places you could live in the southern interior. Kelowna is on it's way to becoming a big city, but there are many cities and towns around, like you say Penticton, there's Kamloops, Vernon.. and tons of smaller places.

For the Lower mainland area... I could never afford to live in White Rock in a house, that's for sure. Chilliwack and east to hope, that is a very nice place, I have a relative that lives in the Chilliwack area and they love it, but they work out there too.
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 7:41 PM
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I've fallen in love with Vernon on Street View, MonctonRad. It's adorable. Low slung but incredibly urban for its population.
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 8:00 PM
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What are the costs of living in those smaller cities?
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 9:11 PM
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Do you have a pension or enough savings? Consider buying a sailboat and retiring to the Southern Caribbean Pay for food and other necessities in pesos for cheap, pay no rent and sail for cheap (cheap docking costs) to an English-speaking country for dirt cheap medical care or a flight to Canada for anything more serious. You can get a brand new 40 foot luxury hybrid sailing yacht with solar panels for a quarter of the price of a Toronto house Live out your pirate dreams! (rum, travelling, beaches, fresh fruit/seafood and wenches, minus the swashbuckling lol)
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 9:19 PM
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I grew up in Vernon, and hopefully will be semi- retiring there in 12 years (as soon as the S.O. qualifies for full gov't pension)

Mild and short winters with a fantastic ski hill just 35 minutes up the road, unparalleled lakes, beautiful long summers, close enough to Kelowna to be convenient but far away enough from the riff raff, 4 hour drive to Vancouver

I'm hoping we end up on a small acreage just outside of town in an area known as the BX. For $500-600k that should be easily attainable. I lived in the East Hill area of town growing up. It's easily walkable to downtown, lots of really nice older houses.. That would be where I'd look if we were to decide to live in town

Vernon has a cute little downtown that has experienced a rennaisance since I lived there. There are lots of really good restaurants. They built a power centre on the north edge of the city so you've got your big box stuff there. Kelowna International is less than 30 minutes away now that the highway between Vernon and Kelowna has been twinned thw whole way. Lots of biking, hiking, golf, etc..

Lots of folks like the island, it's quite nice over there but I don't think I'd want to live there full time
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 9:34 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 240glt View Post
I grew up in Vernon, and hopefully will be semi- retiring there in 12 years (as soon as the S.O. qualifies for full gov't pension)

Mild and short winters with a fantastic ski hill just 35 minutes up the road, unparalleled lakes, beautiful long summers, close enough to Kelowna to be convenient but far away enough from the riff raff, 4 hour drive to Vancouver

I'm hoping we end up on a small acreage just outside of town in an area known as the BX. For $500-600k that should be easily attainable. I lived in the East Hill area of town growing up. It's easily walkable to downtown, lots of really nice older houses.. That would be where I'd look if we were to decide to live in town

Vernon has a cute little downtown that has experienced a rennaisance since I lived there. There are lots of really good restaurants. They built a piwer centre on the north edge of the city so you've got your big box stuff there. Kelowna International is less than 30 minutes away now that the highway between Vernon and Kelowna has been twinned thw whole way. Lots of biking, hiking, golf, etc..

Lots of folks like the island, it's quite nice over there but I don't think I'd want to live there full time
I also grew up in Vernon. The East Hill is definitely the neighbourhood with the most character. I don't love the town, it has its problems characteristic of poor urban planning. That being said, I think the downtown is seeing a resurgence which is great, and I hope it continues.

Silver Star is definitely a huge advantage in the winter, I think that hill is a real gem of Canadian ski resorts. Summers at the lakes are hard to beat too.
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 9:47 PM
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If you're going to be retiring, in my humble opinion the best bang for the buck is to spend summers in New Brunswick and winters in Florida. (Though a few months ago you'd have gotten even more bang for your Canadian buck. But you're talking about three years from now, so who knows.)

Winters in BC suck... seems weird to be willing to move so far away from home (thousands of km away from home) for only a minor improvement.

Unless you hate specifically the shoveling part, and are okay with the cold and the rain...? To each his own I guess.
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  #9  
Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 9:48 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mistercorporate View Post
Do you have a pension or enough savings? Consider buying a sailboat and retiring to the Southern Caribbean Pay for food and other necessities in pesos for cheap, pay no rent and sail for cheap (cheap docking costs) to an English-speaking country for dirt cheap medical care or a flight to Canada for anything more serious. You can get a brand new 40 foot luxury hybrid sailing yacht with solar panels for a quarter of the price of a Toronto house Live out your pirate dreams! (rum, travelling, beaches, fresh fruit/seafood and wenches, minus the swashbuckling lol)
Good idea too... Cheaper than BC real estate, that's for sure.
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 9:52 PM
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Winters in BC suck? It was about half as long as the winter in New Brunswick this year
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  #11  
Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 10:08 PM
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I knew that a few forum members (ones that I suspected) would take the argumentative asshole approach and ignore the original question completely, hence this should have been moved into the BC / Alberta sub forum section. Is it honestly that big of a stretch for some people to realize that there are those that love this country enough to be satisfied with the BC climate for retirement, because a lot sure seem to do it.

He didn't ask for your left handed input about Florida or other such places.

Now for the real answer:

If you don't mind being cut off from larger urban centres the Gulf Islands between Vancouver and Victoria are beautiful. They are far drier and sunnier than Vancouver, have very mild winters (average Dec / Jan high temps around 8 degrees) and beautiful sunshine filled summers. The foliage is also reminiscent of northern California (Arbutus trees, Garry Oaks, and open grassland bluffs everywhere).

After that Courtney / Comox north of Nanaimo is a popular retirement area.

If you like a little winter (that are much milder than most of the maritimes) with very little snow (and very early springs) then the South Okanagan is your choice, but you must be ready for very hot summers. Even in the south Okanagan there is quite a range in climate, here are two examples:

Peachland (south of Kelowna) has very mild winters and warm summers with mild overnight lows.



And then there is Osoyoos with its summer heat and super mild springs (and the warmest average annual high temp for any location in Canada).



Penticton's climate is between that of Osoyoos and Peachland and is my favorite community in the Okanagan. The south Okanagan (Kelowna south) is also left leaning politically while the North Okanagan (Kelowna north) is right leaning.

For more info, please ask me personally!

Cheers!
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 10:21 PM
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In any case, the population that lives in British Columbia outside of Metro Van and Greater Victoria is about 1.5 million. Almost as much as Nova Scotia and New Brunswick combined. There are a lot of communities to choose from.

Unless you are talking about Prince George or further north, the weather is going to be better in the winter than in the maritimes.
The 'rainy winter' climate is mostly just the coastal/island zones anyway, not the interior.

Here is a precipitation map. You can see that certain places are pretty dry:

http://cgip.wikifoundry.com/page/Pre...itish+Columbia
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 10:25 PM
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Here is an example of weather in and around the Gulf Islands:



And here are a couple more form the South Okanagan.

Penticton:



and Oliver (between Penticton and Osoyoos) PS, I just noticed that the blue / red colors are mixed up, hehe)



Hope this all helps!
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  #14  
Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 10:26 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Metro-One View Post
I knew that a few forum members (ones that I suspected) would take the argumentative asshole approach and ignore the original question completely, hence this should have been moved into the BC / Alberta sub forum section. Is it honestly that big of a stretch for some people to realize that there are those that love this country enough to be satisfied with the BC climate for retirement, because a lot sure seem to do it.
Well, I identified a couple basic parameters in his post:

1) He's so fed up with New Brunswick winters that he's willing to relocate super far away from home to escape them (and judging by his post history on here, he actually likes his corner of NB).

2) He's price-sensitive to the point that the main areas of BC are actually out because they're too pricey.

So, the suggestion seemed a no brainer. It's not like he's not going to have complete say over his own final decision... and it's three years from now anyway. If he decides he prefers to overpay for crappy winter weather, I'm totally fine with that. It's a discussion forum after all, my two cents didn't cost much to give away
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 10:50 PM
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I, too, would choose Florida over BC, at least weather wise. But sometimes people are more comfortable staying in their own country. (I personally feel more at home/connected to my home region on the East Coast of the US than in Western Canada)
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 10:53 PM
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What kind of things are important to you MR? Culture, outdoor activities, pro sports, boating? Will it be just yourself? Do you like a small town feel, or a big city vibe?
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 11:11 PM
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I'd pick somewhere like Abbotsford, Chilliwack or Nanaimo.

I think the small, isolated towns are an impractical choice for retirees because they are farther away from medical care. They are cheaper for a reason. A lot of the islands are a huge pain because you have to pre-book ferries if you want to take a vehicle on or off, and there may only be a couple of ferries a day. Some people find they're too isolated from friends and family after they've moved; I know places in BC where the locals basically place bets on how often newcomers from out of province are going to last.

I know this wasn't part of the question, but I think the idea of retiring to BC is not as great as it seems at first. It is one thing if you have friends or family here or move for a job, but the weather is kind of a weak reason on its own, particularly since you're talking +6-8 degrees in winter (or like 2 degrees in winter if you're looking at the interior), not Hawaii. If having to use a snowblower is a problem, move to a condo. That is a hell of a lot cheaper than buying into BC's absurd real estate market.
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 11:15 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by whatnext View Post
What kind of things are important to you MR? Culture, outdoor activities, pro sports, boating? Will it be just yourself? Do you like a small town feel, or a big city vibe?
I am comfortable in a smaller city type community, say anywhere from 10,000 - 200,000, with access to amenities like reasonable shopping, good restaurants and theatre (not necessarily live). I would probably prefer a drier climate and definitely less snow. A nearby hospital would be nice. The community should be interesting, with attractive surroundings with interesting attractions within driving distance.

In retirement I would prefer a condo or a rental property rather than a house. I want to slow down.
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 11:18 PM
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Well therefore have pretty much chosen Penticton or Nanaimo.

I strongly suggest that you look at these two areas very closely.
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Old Posted Mar 22, 2015, 11:21 PM
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Don't retire. Take extra time off in the winter and travel.
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