Kelowna vs Miami: which should you move to?
Kelowna or Miami? Housing, rent, crime, climate, income, taxes and transit, side by side, from each city's own published figures. Written for someone deciding where to live, not for a ranking.
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Kelowna is a city of 166,278 with a benchmark house at 12.6 times the metro median household income and, through 2026, the highest unemployment rate of any Canadian metro. Miami is a metro of 6.4 million where buying is easier against local pay, 8.8 times the city median, but where a median two-bedroom rent of $3,004 takes more than half of it. Kelowna is the better bet for anyone arriving with equity or portable Canadian income who wants dry summers and public health care. Miami is the better bet for a career that needs an international city, and for anyone done with winter.
Kelowna prices are in CAD and Miami prices are in USD. The tables leave them in their own currency and compare ratios and rates instead; a conversion would be stale by the time you read it.
| Measure | Kelowna | Miami | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 166,278 (2026) | 489,812 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 222,162 (2021) | 6,391,072 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Five-year growth Growth is pressure on rents and roads as much as it is opportunity, so it is reported without a winner. | 13.5% (2016-2021) | 10.8% (2020-2025) | Not directly comparable |
What a home costs in each
The figures the two cities' rent-versus-buy and mortgage calculators run on, read from the same tables.
| Measure | Kelowna | Miami | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Benchmark home price MLS® HPI or equivalent benchmark. Lower is treated as the advantage, which is the buyer's view rather than the owner's. | $1,072,400 (July 2026) | $582,621 (June 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| Detached house benchmark Kelowna and Miami publish a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat. | $1,072,400 | $582,621 | Not directly comparable |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | $490,700 | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent | $2,132/mo (average, October 2025) | $3,004/mo (median, June 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,600/mo | $2,583/mo | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent against median income A year of two-bedroom rent as a share of the median household income below. A household paying the median rent out of the median income is a fiction, but it is the same fiction in both columns and it crosses currencies. | 30.1% of a year's income | 54.3% of a year's income | Kelowna |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 25 years in Kelowna against 30 in Miami, each compounding the way its own country's lenders do. The rates are not a spread you can shop: they are what each market charges. | $4,672/mo at 4.34% | $2,998/mo at 6.67% | Not directly comparable |
| Price to household income Benchmark price divided by the median household income below. A ratio is comparable across currencies; the dollars are not. | 12.6× | 8.8× | Miami |
| Property tax on the benchmark home The effective rate on market value, which is what the two rates have in common and what the Advantage column is decided on; the bills are in each city's own dollars. | $5,104/yr (0.476%, 2026) | $10,808/yr (1.855%, 2025) | Kelowna |
| Transfer tax on the benchmark home Compared as a share of the price. Where the seller pays it, it is a cost of leaving rather than arriving. | $19,448 (buyer pays) | $3,496 (seller pays) | Miami |
| Rent control A cap protects a sitting tenant and does nothing for the next lease, so neither column is simply better. | 2.3% guideline (2026) | Forbidden by state law | Not directly comparable |
Kelowna: The 2026 Class 1 residential total of $4.7595 per $1,000 of taxable value: municipal $2.9615 plus the regional district, hospital, school, BC Assessment and MFA levies, before the Home Owner Grant, and before parcel taxes and utility user fees. Miami: About 1.86% of what you pay for the house, which is lower than the 19.9878 mills charged here, and the difference is Florida's homestead exemption rather than any assessment lag. The state assesses at full market value and a purchase resets the assessment to the price. What there is instead is an exemption: $25,000 of taxable value comes off for every taxing authority and a second slice comes off for all of them except the school district, which levies 6.4990 of the 19.9878. That second slice was $25,000 through the 2024 tax roll and has been adjusted for inflation every 1 January since, under the 2024 amendment to Article VII section 6 of the state constitution, so it is now somewhat more than $25,000. The figures here use the base amount, because the Department of Revenue sends the adjusted figure to the county property appraisers rather than publishing it. The difference is worth a few dollars a year on a bill, and the county property appraiser can tell you the amount in force. A homesteaded buyer's first-year bill is therefore about $10,808 on the $582,621 typical home value here. Miami runs its own fire department, so it pays none of the county's 2.3965-mill Fire Rescue district levy. One of only five municipalities in Miami-Dade in that position, and worth more than most municipal rates on this table. The exemption is not automatic: you file for it with the Miami-Dade Property Appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy. The seller's tax bill is not a guide to yours. Save Our Homes caps a homesteaded property's assessed value at 3% growth a year, and that cap resets to full market value the January after the sale, so a long-tenured owner can be taxed on a fraction of what you will be taxed on for the same house. Ask the property appraiser what the assessment would be at your purchase price, not what the current bill is.
How safe each city is, by the numbers it publishes
Police-reported figures for the most recent year each force or statistics agency has released. Rates describe a whole city or metro area, and the spread between neighbourhoods inside one city is usually wider than the gap between the two cities.
| Measure | Kelowna | Miami | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crime Severity Index Statistics Canada's weighted index for the metropolitan area, where 100 is Canada in 2006. American cities have no equivalent series. | 103.7 (2025) | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Violent crime per 100,000 Canada counts every violent Criminal Code incident; the FBI counts four offences. The Canadian figure is always the larger one for that reason alone. | 1,872 (2025) | 359 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 4,749 (2025) | 2,241 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Homicides Counts, not rates, and a single year in a small city moves a long way on chance alone. What each figure covers is under the table. | 4 (2025) | 26 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
The Kelowna CMA's Crime Severity Index has fallen four years running, from 126.03 in 2022 to 119.56 in 2023, 107.49 in 2024 and 103.68 in 2025, and its rank among CMAs dropped from second in 2022 to ninth in 2025. Most of the decline is in non-violent crime (128.98 in 2021 to 105.25 in 2025); the violent index has barely moved (104.48 to 101.94), and a May 2026 City of Kelowna citizen survey found one in four residents feel unsafe.
What the rates cover: Police-reported total violent Criminal Code violations per 100,000, Kelowna CMA, table 35-10-0177-01. 2024: 1,897.16; 2021: 1,947.46.
Homicides: Kelowna CMA homicide victims, table 35-10-0071-01, rate 1.58 per 100,000. 2024: 2 (0.80); 2023: 5 (2.04); 2022: 8 (3.36).
FBI CDE counts for Miami PD show violent offenses falling from 2,245 in 2023 to 2,225 in 2024 and 1,787 in 2025 (a 20 percent one-year drop), property offenses from 13,928 to 11,178, and homicides from 61 in 2020 to 26 in 2025. Mid-2025 the department reported robberies down 17 percent and auto thefts down 37 percent against the first half of 2024.
What the rates cover: Miami Police Department (ORI FL0130600), FBI Crime Data Explorer NIBRS summarized data, 1,787 violent offenses in calendar 2025 against a CDE agency population of 498,792. 2024: 2,225 offenses, 483.1 per 100k. Miami PD moved to NIBRS mid 2022, so 2021 is blank and 2022 is a partial year in the CDE.
Homicides: Miami PD, FBI CDE: 26 murders and nonnegligent manslaughters in 2025, 5.2 per 100k. 2024: 29 (6.4 per 100k), 2023: 32 (7.1), 2020: 61 (12.8). Miami PD said in July 2025 the city might beat its record low of 24 set in 1946.
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Kelowna | Miami | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | -2.6 °C | 20.3 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 20.0 °C | 28.9 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 387 mm | 1,712 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 89 cm | 0 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 1,949 hours | 3,154 hours | Miami |
Temperatures are Environment Canada 1991-2020 normals for the composite KELOWNA station (climate ID 1123939, airport site at 49 57 N 119 22 W, 433 m). The 1991-2020 tables for that station publish precipitation only for September, so precipitation, snowfall and sunshine are the 1981-2010 normals for KELOWNA A (climate ID 1123970). Summers are dry and hot (20.0 C July mean), winters cloudy and mild for the interior.
Hazards: Wildfire and summer smoke are the defining hazard: the August 2023 McDougall Creek fire jumped Okanagan Lake, put about 35,000 people under evacuation order, destroyed or damaged 189 structures and caused about $480 million in insured losses; most summers bring days of smoke from fires elsewhere in the interior. Spring freshet flooding along Okanagan Lake and Mill Creek (2017) and heat (June 2021 heat dome) are the others.
NOAA NCEI 1991-2020 monthly normals at Miami International Airport (USW00012839): January mean 68.6 F, July 84.1 F (August is warmest at 84.2 F), annual mean 77.4 F, annual precipitation 67.41 in, snow 0. Sunshine about 3,154 hours a year comes from NOAA Comparative Climatic Data (older period), not the 1991-2020 normals. Hazards: hurricanes and storm surge, seasonal king tide and rainfall flooding, heat and humidity from May to October, frequent thunderstorms (roughly 80 thunder days a year).
Hazards: Hurricanes and storm surge every June to November, with chronic tidal and rain flooding; windstorm and separate NFIP or private flood cover are a real carrying cost and coastal home premiums commonly run $4,000 to $7,000 a year or more.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Kelowna | Miami | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $85,000 CAD (2020) | $66,337 USD (2024) | Not directly comparable |
| Unemployment rate Statistics Canada and the Bureau of Labor Statistics define unemployment slightly differently; the Canadian measure runs about a point higher on the same labour market. | 9.3% (July 2026) | 3.0% (June 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| Sales tax | 12% | 7% | Miami |
| Top marginal income tax Federal plus provincial or state. The American figure leaves out payroll taxes and the cost of health insurance, both of which a Canadian household covers through the tax it pays here. | 53.5% | 37% | Miami |
| Income tax on $100,000, single filer Computed from each jurisdiction's brackets at a single filer's $100,000 and rounded to the dollar, so a gap of a dollar is rounding rather than tax. Two cities in one province or state are shown as Even, because there the two cells describe the same tax and whatever separates them is method. | $20,500 CAD | $13,449 USD | Not directly comparable |
Health care, retail and construction together account for about 41% of regional jobs, and tourism output reached $2.4 billion with 12,630 jobs in 2022. The Okanagan tech sector counted 787 companies and 32,645 jobs with a $4.98 billion economic impact in 2023 (Accelerate Okanagan/KPMG), but the CMA has carried the highest unemployment rate in Canada through spring and summer 2026 as the labour force has grown faster than jobs.
Main sectors: Health care and social assistance, Retail trade, Construction and real estate, Tourism and hospitality, Technology.
BC also levies a speculation and vacancy tax and an additional property transfer tax for foreign buyers in the Central Okanagan; MSP premiums were abolished in 2020, replaced by an employer health tax.
Nonfarm employment in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall metropolitan division was 1,351,000 in June 2026, up 8,800 (0.7 percent) over the year, led by education and health services (+6,100) and professional and business services (+4,800); Broward shed 5,000 jobs over the same period. MIA handled nearly 3.5 million tons of cargo in 2025, the most of any US airport.
Main sectors: Trade, transportation and logistics (port and airport), Tourism and hospitality, Finance and professional services, Health care and education, Real estate and construction.
No state or local income tax. Property tax and insurance are the taxes and costs that bite in Miami: homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes 3 percent assessment cap favour long-time owners over new buyers.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Kelowna | Miami | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | Kelowna Regional Transit System (BC Transit, operated with the City of Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country, Peachland and the regional district) | Miami-Dade Transit (Metrorail, Metromover, Metrobus); Brightline and Tri-Rail regional rail | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 4.0% (2021) | 7.7% (2024) | Miami |
| Walk or cycle to work | 9.1% (2021) | 5.7% (2024) | Kelowna |
| Airport | Kelowna International Airport (YLW), city-owned; 2,315,432 passengers in 2025, up 8.5% on 2.13 million in 2024, ninth busiest airport in Canada. | Miami International Airport, MIA, 55.3 million passengers in 2025 (about 1 percent below 2024's record 55.9 million), per Miami-Dade Aviation Department release of May 4 2026 | Not directly comparable |
6.45 million rides in 2024 (up 330,000 on 2023), forecast 6.6 million for 2025 on about 219,000 service hours; more than 15,000 additional hours started January 2026 and another 12,380 are approved for 2027.
Miami-Dade Transit carried 80,797,500 unlinked trips in 2025 (APTA ridership report, as cited on Wikipedia): Metrorail 14,971,300, Metromover 7,683,800, the rest on Metrobus. Q4 2025 weekday averages: Metrorail 50,300, Metromover 25,600, system 259,400.
Health care, schools and what each city is like
Health care
Care is publicly funded through the BC Medical Services Plan (no premiums since 2020) and delivered by Interior Health; Kelowna General Hospital is the interior's tertiary referral hospital with cardiac surgery and cancer care on site (BC Cancer Kelowna). Access is the problem rather than cost: KGH closed its pediatric unit for at least six weeks in May 2025 and curtailed neurology in January 2026 for lack of specialists, obstetricians warned of a collapse in primary maternity coverage, and finding a family doctor typically means a long wait on the provincial Health Connect Registry.
Education
UBC Okanagan (opened 2005, now roughly 12,000 students, with a record domestic intake of more than 3,000 new students in September 2025) and Okanagan College (about 5,200 FTE students across the valley) are the post-secondary anchors. Public schooling is School District 23 Central Okanagan, one of BC's fastest-growing districts, with French immersion and a few independent schools; there is no magnet or charter system.
Living there
Kelowna is a lake-and-orchard city of about 166,000 stretched along the east shore of Okanagan Lake, with a compact downtown, sprawling hillside subdivisions and a single bridge to West Kelowna that jams every afternoon. Summers are hot and dry and built around the beach, boats and the wineries; they also come with wildfire smoke, and the 2023 McDougall Creek fire is still a fresh memory. Housing costs are high for local wages, the unemployment rate led the country in 2026, and crime severity, though falling since 2022, is still well above the national figure.
Health care
Care is paid for through employer or marketplace insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, and Florida has not expanded Medicaid, so the uninsured share runs above the national rate and emergency rooms carry the gap. Jackson Memorial, the public safety-net hospital with more than 1,500 licensed beds, is the teaching hospital of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine; Baptist Health South Florida, Mount Sinai Medical Center and the Miami VA are the other large systems.
Education
Miami-Dade County Public Schools is the third largest district in the country but enrolled 313,220 students in 2025-26, down about 13,000 in a year as charters and vouchers grew, and the board approved school closures and consolidations in 2026. Florida International University enrolls roughly 50,000 students and the private University of Miami about 20,000; magnet programs such as Design and Architecture Senior High and the choice-heavy system mean school assignment is something families actively manage.
Living there
The city proper is dense, young and majority Hispanic, with Spanish as common as English in daily business, and it has grown almost 11 percent since 2020 on finance and tech arrivals who pushed rents and condo prices up fast. Summers are long, wet and hot, winters are the reason people stay, and every household budgets for hurricane season, windstorm insurance and flooded streets at king tide. Driving is the default outside the Metrorail and Metromover corridors, and traffic is the complaint residents raise most.
Where each city wins, and where it loses
Kelowna's benchmark home was $1,072,400 CAD in July 2026, which is also the detached figure; a townhouse ran $709,500 and an apartment $490,700. Miami's typical home was $582,621 USD in June 2026. Against local pay that is 12.6 times Kelowna's 2020 metro median household income of $85,000 and 8.8 times the City of Miami's 2024 median of $66,337. The payment with 20% down is $4,672 a month in Kelowna at 4.34% and $2,998 in Miami at 6.67%, but Miami's property tax of $10,808 and insurance near $505 a month push its carry to about $4,404 against Kelowna's $5,262. Renting flips the comparison hard. A Kelowna two-bedroom averaged $2,132 in October 2025, roughly 30% of the metro median income; Miami's median two-bedroom was $3,004 in June 2026, over half the city median.
Neither set of crime numbers means what the other one means. Kelowna's 2025 violent rate of 1,872 per 100,000 comes from Statistics Canada's count of every violent Criminal Code violation, including uttering threats and common assault, and its Crime Severity Index of 103.68 was ninth highest of 41 metros against a Canadian 75.0. Miami's 358.6 violent offences per 100,000 in 2025 are FBI NIBRS counts for the city police department, a narrower list. Homicide is the honest comparison and it favours Kelowna by a wide margin: 4 victims in the Kelowna metro in 2025, 1.58 per 100,000, against 26 in the City of Miami, 5.2 per 100,000. Both trends point down. Kelowna's index has fallen four straight years from 126.03 in 2022, and Miami's homicides fell from 61 in 2020.
These are opposite climates and opposite disasters. Kelowna runs cold and dry: January averages minus 2.6 C, 89 cm of snow falls in a year, and total precipitation is only 386.9 mm against 1,948.9 hours of sunshine. Summers are hot, and they burn. The August 2023 McDougall Creek fire crossed Okanagan Lake, put about 35,000 people under evacuation order, destroyed or damaged 189 structures and produced roughly $480 million in insured losses, and smoke from fires elsewhere in the Interior arrives most summers. Miami averages 20.3 C in January and 28.9 C in July with 1,712 mm of rain, and its threat comes from the ocean during every June to November season, along with king tide and rainfall flooding that has nothing to do with a named storm. That shows up in insurance: about $505 a month in Miami against $165 in Kelowna.
The labour markets are not in the same condition. Kelowna's metro unemployment rate was 9.3% in July 2026, the highest of any Canadian metro for four consecutive months, up from 6.3% in February, as the labour force grew faster than health care, retail and construction could absorb; those sectors are about 41% of regional jobs, and the Okanagan tech sector counted 32,645 jobs in 2023. Miami-Dade was at 3.0% in June 2026, with 1,351,000 nonfarm jobs in the Miami-Miami Beach-Kendall division, up 8,800 over the year. Tax runs the other way. On $100,000 a single filer pays about $20,500 CAD in Kelowna against about $13,449 USD in Miami, where Florida takes no income tax; top rates are 53.5% and 37%, sales tax 12% against 7%. The Canadian bill covers the Medical Services Plan, premium-free since 2020.
Both cities assume a car, though for different reasons. Kelowna has no rail and no plans for any: 4.0% of city commuters used transit in 2021, 9.1% walked or cycled and 84.3% drove, on a system that carried 6.45 million rides in 2024 and added more than 15,000 service hours in January 2026. The single bridge to West Kelowna backs up every afternoon. Miami has genuine rail in a narrow band, with Metrorail and Metromover carrying about 22.7 million of Miami-Dade Transit's 80.8 million trips in 2025, and 7.7% of city workers commuting by transit in 2024. Off those corridors, driving is the default and traffic is the local complaint. For flights, Kelowna's airport handled 2,315,432 passengers in 2025 and most long trips connect through Vancouver; Miami International handled 55.3 million.
Health care in Kelowna costs nothing to use and is thin on staff. Kelowna General is the Interior's referral hospital with cardiac surgery and BC Cancer on site, yet it shut its pediatric unit for at least six weeks in May 2025 and curtailed neurology in January 2026 for lack of specialists, and obstetricians have warned about maternity coverage. Miami runs on insurance, with Jackson Memorial and its 1,500 licensed beds acting as the safety net for a state that has not expanded Medicaid, alongside the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. Schools are one district each. Central Okanagan is among BC's fastest-growing, with French immersion and no charters. Miami-Dade County Public Schools enrolled 313,220 students in 2025-26, down about 13,000 in a year, and approved closures and consolidations in 2026.
What gets underestimated is that Kelowna's small size buys no discount. You pay metropolitan prices for a city of 166,278 with one referral hospital, one bridge and an airport that mostly feeds Vancouver, and the buyer also owes $19,448 in BC property transfer tax at closing, where Miami's $3,496 transfer tax is charged to the seller. The population direction differs too. BC Stats put Kelowna at 166,278 in July 2026, down from 167,659 a year earlier and the first annual decline since at least 2001, while the City of Miami grew about 10.8% between 2020 and 2025. Miami has its own hidden line: monthly condo fees average about $850 against Kelowna's $440, and a Florida purchase resets the assessment, so the previous owner's tax bill is no guide.
Better here
- Homicide is far rarer: 4 victims in the metro in 2025, 1.58 per 100,000, against 26 and 5.2 per 100,000 in the City of Miami.
- Renting takes a much smaller bite, with a two-bedroom averaging $2,132 in October 2025 against Miami's $3,004 median in June 2026.
- Home insurance is about $165 a month against Miami's $505, and there is no hurricane deductible or windstorm policy.
- Health care is covered by BC's Medical Services Plan with no premiums since 2020, regardless of employment.
- Summers are dry and bright, with 386.9 mm of precipitation in a whole year and 1,948.9 hours of sunshine.
- BC caps rent increases on a sitting tenancy at 2.3% for 2026, where Florida forbids its cities from capping anything.
Worse here
- Metro unemployment was 9.3% in July 2026, the highest in Canada for four months running, against 3.0% in Miami-Dade in June.
- The benchmark home is 12.6 times the metro median household income of $85,000, and the payment with 20% down is $4,672 a month.
- The buyer pays $19,448 in property transfer tax at closing, while Miami's $3,496 transfer tax falls on the seller.
- Wildfire is a recurring threat: the 2023 McDougall Creek fire forced about 35,000 people out and caused roughly $480 million in insured losses.
- Specialist shortages closed Kelowna General's pediatric unit for at least six weeks in May 2025 and cut back neurology in January 2026.
- The Crime Severity Index of 103.68 in 2025 was ninth highest of 41 Canadian metros, well above the national 75.0.
Choose Kelowna if
- you bring equity or income that does not depend on the local job market
- you want hot dry summers on a lake and will accept snow and smoke as the price
- you would rather queue for a family doctor than negotiate with an insurer
- you plan to rent for several years and want a legal ceiling on the increase
The Kelowna guide · Neighbourhoods · Kelowna rent vs buy · Kelowna mortgage calculator
Better here
- The typical home cost $582,621 in June 2026 and the payment with 20% down is $2,998 a month, against $4,672 in Kelowna.
- Miami-Dade unemployment was 3.0% in June 2026 in a division holding 1,351,000 nonfarm jobs.
- Florida charges no personal income tax, so a single filer on $100,000 owes about $13,449 in federal tax and nothing to the state.
- Metrorail, Metromover and Metrobus carried 80.8 million trips in 2025, and 7.7% of city workers commuted by transit in 2024.
- Miami International handled 55.3 million passengers in 2025, so long-haul travel does not start with a connection.
- Winter is the reason people stay: January averages 20.3 C, against minus 2.6 C in Kelowna.
Worse here
- The median two-bedroom rent was $3,004 in June 2026, more than half the city's 2024 median household income of $66,337.
- Property tax runs $10,808 a year on the typical home, about 1.86% of the price, and a sale resets the assessment to what you paid.
- Home insurance is about $505 a month, and coastal windstorm and flood cover commonly runs several thousand dollars on top.
- Homicide ran at 5.2 per 100,000 in 2025 and property offences at 2,240.8 per 100,000.
- Florida has not expanded Medicaid, so low-income adults without children often have no coverage route at all.
- Condo fees average about $850 a month against $440 in Kelowna, before any special assessment.
Choose Miami if
- you need a metro of 6.4 million and an airport that flies everywhere
- you are paid in US dollars and want to keep the state's share of them
- you would rather buy at 8.8 times local income than rent at 12.6 times it elsewhere
- you can carry windstorm and flood premiums and want to never see snow again
The Miami guide · Neighborhoods · Miami rent vs buy · Miami mortgage calculator
Kelowna or Miami, in short
Is Kelowna or Miami cheaper to live in?
It depends whether you buy or rent, and the currencies differ so compare against local pay. Buying is easier in Miami: $582,621 USD in June 2026 at 8.8 times the city median household income, with a payment of $2,998 a month, against Kelowna's $1,072,400 CAD at 12.6 times and $4,672 a month. Once you add Miami's $10,808 property tax and $505 monthly insurance the carry is about $4,404 against Kelowna's $5,262. Renting reverses it. A Kelowna two-bedroom averaged $2,132 in October 2025; Miami's median was $3,004 in June 2026 on a lower median income.
Is Kelowna or Miami safer?
Kelowna, on the measure that crosses the border. The Kelowna metro recorded 4 homicide victims in 2025, 1.58 per 100,000; the City of Miami recorded 26, 5.2 per 100,000. The other figures are not comparable. Kelowna's violent rate of 1,872 per 100,000 counts every violent Criminal Code violation including threats and common assault, while Miami's 358.6 counts a short list of serious offences under NIBRS. Kelowna's Crime Severity Index of 103.68 is still ninth highest among 41 Canadian metros and far above the national 75.0, and property crime there ran 4,749 per 100,000.
Which has the better climate, Kelowna or Miami?
Kelowna has four seasons and a fire season; Miami has one long warm season and a hurricane season. Kelowna averages minus 2.6 C in January with 89 cm of snow, then a dry bright summer of 20.0 C in July, only 386.9 mm of precipitation a year and 1,948.9 sunshine hours. Miami averages 20.3 C in January and 28.9 C in July with 1,712 mm of rain and roughly 3,154 sunshine hours from an older NOAA period. If humidity is the thing you cannot stand, Kelowna wins. If snow is, Miami does.
Will I find work in Kelowna if I move without a job?
That is the risk to take seriously. The Kelowna metro's unemployment rate was 9.3% in July 2026, the highest of any Canadian metro for the fourth month in a row and up from 6.3% in February, because the labour force has grown faster than jobs. Health care, retail and construction are about 41% of regional employment, and the Okanagan tech sector counted 32,645 jobs across 787 companies in 2023. Miami-Dade was at 3.0% in June 2026. Kelowna works best for people with income that does not depend on being hired locally.
Where the figures come from
Housing figures are the ones behind each city's calculators, dated on those pages. The rest are listed here with the date they were retrieved. See the methodology for how facts, estimates and opinion are kept apart.
- Census Profile, 2021 Census of Population: Kelowna, City (CY) and Kelowna (CMA), British Columbia (CSV download) · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: population.city (2021 count), Metro population, Five-year growth, Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- Kelowna is now a shrinking city · Kelowna Daily Courier (citing BC Stats) · retrieved Supports: City population
- Table 35-10-0026-01 Crime severity index and weighted clearance rates, Canada, provinces, territories and Census Metropolitan Areas · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Crime Severity Index, Crime trend
- Table 35-10-0177-01 Incident-based crime statistics, by detailed violations, Canada, provinces, territories, Census Metropolitan Areas and Canadian Forces Military Police · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate
- Table 35-10-0071-01 Number and rate of homicide victims, by Census Metropolitan Areas · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Homicides
- Police-reported Crime Severity Index and crime rate, by census metropolitan area, 2025 (The Daily, table 4) · Statistics Canada · retrieved Supports: Crime Severity Index, Crime trend
- Crime falls in Metro Kelowna, but region still ranks 9th highest in Canada · Castanet · retrieved Supports: Crime trend
- Crime on the decline in Kelowna: Statistics Canada · Kelowna Capital News · retrieved Supports: Crime trend
- Canadian Climate Normals 1991-2020: KELOWNA (climate ID 1123939) · Environment and Climate Change Canada · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean
- Canadian Climate Normals 1981-2010: KELOWNA A (climate ID 1123970) · Environment and Climate Change Canada · retrieved Supports: Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall, Sunshine hours
- August 2023: McDougall Creek wildfire causes devastation in West Kelowna · Kelowna Capital News · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Kelowna's unemployment rate climbs for fifth straight month, worst in Canada · Kelowna Capital News · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Labour Force Survey, July 2026 · Statistics Canada, The Daily · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Okanagan Tech Sector Economic Impact Hits $4.98 Billion · Accelerate Okanagan · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Economic profile: Kelowna, British Columbia · Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- BC 2026 & 2025 Tax Rates & Tax Brackets · TaxTips.ca · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Transit service hours continue to increase as Kelowna sees record ridership · Castanet · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Kelowna International Airport (YLW): Winter 2025/2026 Update · Tourism Kelowna · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Kelowna International Airport welcomed 2.3 million passengers in 2025 · City of Kelowna · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Pediatric unit at Kelowna hospital to close for at least 6 weeks amid doctor shortage · CBC News · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Kelowna General Hospital doctors warn of 'collapse' of primary maternity care coverage · CBC News · retrieved Supports: Health care
- UBC Okanagan kicks off milestone year with record domestic enrolment · UBC Okanagan News · retrieved Supports: Education
- Miami, FL Population (2025) · Every City in the USA (republishing Census Bureau PEP Vintage 2025) · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth
- U.S. Census Bureau QuickFacts: Miami city, Florida · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: population.city (page returned 403 on fetch; figure confirmed via search snippet and secondary republisher)
- Largest U.S. Metro Areas by Population 2026 (Vintage 2025 estimates) · statranker.org · retrieved Supports: Metro population
- Florida MSA population estimates, April 1 2025 · Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research · retrieved Supports: population.metro (alternative state estimate)
- Miami, FL Metro Area and Miami city profiles, ACS 2024 1-year · Census Reporter · retrieved Supports: Median household income, population.metro (ACS)
- ACS 2024 1-year table B08301 Means of Transportation to Work · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau data) · retrieved Supports: Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- Crime Data Explorer summarized agency data, Miami Police Department (FL0130600) · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend
- Miami Police Report 20% Decrease in Homicides for 1st Half of 2025 · Officer.com · retrieved Supports: Crime trend, Homicides
- U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, monthly and annual, station USW00012839 Miami International Airport · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall
- Comparative Climatic Data · NOAA NCEI · retrieved Supports: climate.sunshineHours (approximate; figure taken from search summaries of CCD, not the table itself)
- Climate of Miami · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: climate.hazards (thunderstorm days, hurricane exposure)
- Broward County June 2026 Unemployment Data · CareerSource Broward (FloridaCommerce data) · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate, Labour market
- Discretionary Sales Surtax Information (DR-15DSS) 2026 · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- IRS releases tax inflation adjustments for tax year 2025 · Internal Revenue Service · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, taxes.incomeTaxAt100k (brackets)
- FAQ: The One Big Beautiful Bill Act Tax Changes · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: taxes.incomeTaxAt100k ($15,750 standard deduction)
- Miami-Dade Transit · Wikipedia (citing APTA Ridership Report) · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Soaring cargo growth lifts MIA to #1 in the U.S., #3 in the world · Miami International Airport · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers, Labour market
- Miami (MIA) Airport & Passenger Statistics · RoadGenius · retrieved Supports: transit.airport (2024 comparison)
- A Guide to Florida Flood Insurance (2026) · Insurify · retrieved Supports: climate.hazards (insurance costs)
- Enrollment in Miami-Dade schools is lower at the start of this year. Why? · WLRN · retrieved Supports: Education
- FIU enrollment approaches 50,000 as fall semester nears · Miami Today · retrieved Supports: Education
- Jackson Memorial Hospital · Jackson Health System · retrieved Supports: Health care
- July 2026 statistics: Association of Interior REALTORS® monthly news release · Association of Interior REALTORS® · retrieved Supports: Central Okanagan single-family benchmark of $1,072,400, up about 2.3% year over year, Central Okanagan townhouse benchmark of $709,500, down 2.4% year over year, Central Okanagan condominium benchmark of $490,700, down 2.0% year over year, 1,496 residential sales and 9,630 active listings across the association's region in July 2026
- Rental Market Survey: Kelowna (CY), average rent and vacancy by bedroom type, October 2025 · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: City of Kelowna one-bedroom average rent of $1,600 with a 9.1% vacancy rate, City of Kelowna two-bedroom average rent of $2,132 with a 5.5% vacancy rate, City of Kelowna three-bedroom-plus average rent of $2,780, City of Kelowna overall purpose-built vacancy rate of 6.9% across 9,159 units, Kelowna CMA vacancy rate of 6.3%, and 7.5% in the Rutland survey zone
- Schedule 702: 2026 tax rates by municipality and property class · Province of British Columbia, Ministry of Municipal Affairs · retrieved Supports: Kelowna's 2026 Class 1 residential total rate of $4.7595 per $1,000 of taxable value, The municipal share of $2.9615, the school levy of $1.3110, the regional district levy of $0.2437 and the hospital levy of $0.2050
- Home owner grant · Province of British Columbia · retrieved Supports: The grant of up to $770 on an eligible principal residence outside the northern and rural area
- Premium information for homeowner and small rental loans · Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation · retrieved Supports: Mortgage default insurance premium rates by loan-to-value
- Regulations amending the Insurable Housing Loan Regulations and the Eligible Mortgage Loan Regulations (SOR/2025-55) · Canada Gazette, Part II · retrieved Supports: The $1.5 million insured price cap, 30-year amortization for first-time buyers and new builds
- Minimum qualifying rate for uninsured mortgages · Office of the Superintendent of Financial Institutions · retrieved Supports: The qualifying rate of the contract rate plus two points, or 5.25%
- Interest rates charged for new and existing lending by chartered banks · Bank of Canada · retrieved Supports: The default mortgage rate of 4.34%, uninsured five-year-plus fixed, funds advanced May 2026
- Property transfer tax · Province of British Columbia · retrieved Supports: Transfer tax brackets, First-time buyer and new build exemptions
- Rent increases · Province of British Columbia · retrieved Supports: 2026 rent increase guideline of 2.3%
- Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), all homes, mid-tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted: city file, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value for the 35th to 65th percentile of each municipality's market, computed on one method across all twenty-four, The same series and month the Charlotte, Orlando and Palm Beach pages use, so all four American layers can be read against each other, Year-over-year change to June 2026
- Table 1: Comparison of Taxes Levied, county and municipal governments, fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26: Miami-Dade · Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight · retrieved Supports: The adopted 2025-26 millage rate for Miami-Dade County and every municipality in it, The county's own components: countywide 4.5740, Fire/Rescue 2.3965, Library 0.2812 and the Unincorporated Municipal Service Area at 1.9090, Municipal rates from Sunny Isles Beach's 1.7000 to Biscayne Park's 9.3000
- 2025 millage rates and taxing authorities, Miami-Dade County · Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: A published combined rate for unincorporated Miami-Dade of 16.9317 mills, Its components: school district 6.4990, countywide 5.7361, regional water districts 0.3911, Fire Rescue 2.3965 and UMSA 1.9090, which this layer's stack reproduces exactly, Millage code 0100, the City of Miami, at 19.9878 mills for 2025: 7.1080 of city operating levy and 0.2536 of city debt service on the countywide 12.6262, Opa-locka's municipal operating levy of 8.9797, and a 2025 total of 24.0024 for millage code 0800, A city debt service column, which nine of the twenty-four municipalities here carry: Miami 0.2536, Miami Beach 0.2779, North Bay Village 1.1666, Golden Beach 0.6000, Miami Shores 0.1331, North Miami Beach 0.2000, Miami Gardens 0.4331, Doral 0.4810 and Homestead 0.2446, A blank library district column for Hialeah, North Miami, North Miami Beach, Homestead, Miami Shores, Bal Harbour and Surfside, which are outside the county library district, A blank Fire Rescue column for Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah and Key Biscayne, which is the five this layer flags
- About Fire Rescue · Miami-Dade Fire Rescue · retrieved Supports: The Fire Rescue district covering the unincorporated county and twenty-nine municipalities, Miami, Miami Beach, Coral Gables, Hialeah and Key Biscayne operating their own fire departments and lying outside the district
- Documentary stamp tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A Miami-Dade deed rate of 60 cents per $100 rather than the 70 cents charged in every other county, A Miami-Dade surtax of 45 cents per $100, not due on a document transferring only a single-family dwelling, 35 cents per $100 on a promissory note, statewide
- Annual estimates of the resident population for incorporated places, 2020 to 2024 · United States Census Bureau, Population Estimates Program · retrieved Supports: 2020 census counts and 2024 estimates for each municipality, Miami at 487,014 and Hialeah at 235,388; Golden Beach at 1,034
- Average cost of home insurance in Florida, 2026 · MoneyGeek · retrieved Supports: A Miami-Dade County average of about $6,045 a year: below Palm Beach County's $6,614, A Florida average of about $3,815 and a national average of about $2,543
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.67%
- Governmental leasehold intangible personal property tax and the non-recurring intangible tax on mortgages · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A non-recurring intangible tax of 2 mills: 0.2%, on the obligation secured by a mortgage on Florida real property
- Property tax exemptions and additional benefits · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: A $25,000 homestead exemption applying to all taxing authorities and a second slice, $25,000 in the 2024 base year and adjusted for inflation each 1 January since, applying to all but the school district, The Save Our Homes assessment limitation of 3% or the change in CPI, whichever is lower, Portability of up to $500,000 of accrued Save Our Homes benefit to a new homestead, The 1 March filing deadline
- Chapter 2023-17, Laws of Florida: preemption of rent control · The Florida Senate · retrieved Supports: The repeal of the referendum exception that had allowed a local rent control ordinance in a declared housing emergency