Kelowna vs Orlando: which should you move to?
Kelowna or Orlando? 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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Both cities sell a warm summer, and they charge for it in different currencies of risk. Kelowna is much the harder place to afford: a benchmark home of $1,072,400 CAD against $375,175 USD in Orlando, and $4,672 a month against $1,931. It also carried the highest unemployment rate of any Canadian metro in July 2026 at 9.3%, against 4.6% in Orlando. Pick Kelowna if you want dry heat, a lake, a Canadian winter that is mild by Canadian standards and public health care, and you already hold the equity. Pick Orlando if you need a metro job market and a house you can actually buy, and can live with hurricane season.
Kelowna prices are in CAD and Orlando 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 | Orlando | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 166,278 (2026) | 333,888 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 222,162 (2021) | 2,957,672 (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) | 8.3% (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 | Orlando | 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) | $375,175 (June 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| Detached house benchmark Kelowna and Orlando publish a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat. | $1,072,400 | $375,175 | Not directly comparable |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | $490,700 | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent | $2,132/mo (average, October 2025) | $1,904/mo (median, June 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,600/mo | $1,637/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 | 29.4% of a year's income | Orlando |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 25 years in Kelowna against 30 in Orlando, 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% | $1,931/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× | 4.8× | Orlando |
| 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) | $6,043/yr (1.611%, 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) | $2,626 (seller pays) | Orlando |
| 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. Orlando: About 1.61% of what you pay for the house, which is lower than the 18.0878 mills Orlando is taxed at, and the difference is the homestead exemption rather than any assessment lag. Florida assesses at full market value and a purchase resets the assessment to the price, so there is no gap to correct for. 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 Orange County school district, which levies 6.4490 of the 18.0878. 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. So a homesteaded buyer's first-year bill is the school millage on the price less $25,000 plus everything else on the price less $50,000, about $6,043 a year on the $375,175 typical home value here. The exemption is not automatic: you file for it with the county property appraiser by 1 March of the year after you buy, and until you do the rate is the full 1.81%. 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 | Orlando | 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) | 836 (2022) | Not directly comparable |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 4,749 (2025) | 4,036 (2022) | 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) | 10 (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).
Orlando PD reports overall crime down 18% in 2024 and another 19% in 2025, violent crime down 10% in 2024 and 9% in 2025, and shootings with victims down 41% from 2023 to 2025. Homicides fell from 31 in 2023 to 10 in 2025. The FBI's public feed has no usable Orlando data after 2022, so these are the department's own figures.
What the rates cover: FBI Crime Data Explorer, Orlando Police Department (ORI FL0480400), 2022: 2,597 violent offenses, 835.8 per 100k. 2022 is the last year with twelve complete months in the FBI feed; 2023 through 2025 show zeros for this agency, so no FBI rate exists for those years. Orlando PD's own count of violent crime incidents (a broader in-house definition) was 6,754 in 2023 and 5,928 in 2025, which would be about 1,775 per 100k on the 2025 population.
Homicides: Orlando Police Department: 10 homicides in 2025, the lowest since 1971, down from 23 in 2024 and 31 in 2023 (OPD's 2023 figure was reported as 38 in a January 2025 release and 31 in the February 2026 release). About 3.0 per 100k on the 2025 city population. FBI CDE 2022: 32 homicides, 10.3 per 100k.
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Kelowna | Orlando | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | -2.6 °C | 15.9 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 20.0 °C | 28.1 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 387 mm | 1,307 mm | Not directly comparable |
| Snowfall a year | 89 cm | 0 cm | Not directly comparable |
| Sunshine a year | 1,949 hours | Not published | Not directly comparable |
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 1991-2020 normals at Orlando International Airport (USW00012815): January mean 60.6F, July mean 82.6F, annual precipitation 51.45 in, annual snowfall 0.0 in, annual mean 73.0F. June through September each average 6.4 to 8.1 in of rain. Sunshine hours are not part of the NOAA normals product and were not verified.
Hazards: Hurricanes are the main hazard: Charley (2004), Irma (2017), Ian (2022, 14 in of rain and 74 mph gusts at MCO) and Milton (2024, over 15 in of rain in parts of Central Florida plus a record one-day tornado outbreak) all damaged the area. The city sits about 100 ft above sea level and 42 mi inland, so storm surge is not a concern but inland flooding, wind damage and long power outages are. Summer heat and daily thunderstorms with lightning are routine.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Kelowna | Orlando | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $85,000 CAD (2020) | $77,597 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) | 4.6% (June 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| Sales tax | 12% | 6.5% | Orlando |
| 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% | Orlando |
| 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.
Leisure and hospitality employed 305,500 of 1,506,600 nonfarm jobs in the MSA in June 2026 (BLS CES, not seasonally adjusted, preliminary), about 20%, roughly double the national share, and those jobs pay below the private-sector average, which is why household income trails the US median despite fast job growth. Disney is the largest employer at about 77,000 in the region; AdventHealth employs about 37,700 and Lockheed Martin more than 14,000.
Main sectors: Tourism and hospitality (Disney, Universal, convention centre), Health care (AdventHealth, Orlando Health), Aerospace, defence and simulation (Lockheed Martin, Central Florida Research Park), Construction and real estate, Professional and business services.
No state or city income tax. Property tax runs around 1% of assessed value with a homestead exemption and the Save Our Homes 3% cap for owner-occupiers; not verified here.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Kelowna | Orlando | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | Kelowna Regional Transit System (BC Transit, operated with the City of Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country, Peachland and the regional district) | LYNX (bus, Orange, Osceola and Seminole counties), SunRail (commuter rail, 16 stations DeLand to Poinciana), Brightline (intercity rail from MCO to South Florida) | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 4.0% (2021) | 1.5% (2024) | Kelowna |
| Walk or cycle to work | 9.1% (2021) | 1.7% (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. | Orlando International Airport (MCO), 57,675,573 passengers in 2025, up 0.8% on 2024, seventh busiest in the US (GOAA press release, July 28, 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.
LYNX carried 21,476,203 passenger trips in FY2025 (October 2024 to September 2025), more than 67,000 per weekday, on 62 routes (LYNX Facts at a Glance). SunRail passed 1.2 million riders in calendar 2024, up 12% on 2023 (SunRail press release, January 2025); APTA puts 2025 at about 1.32 million. SunRail runs weekdays only.
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 and Medicaid; Florida did not expand Medicaid under the ACA, so a larger share of working adults is uninsured than in most states, and hospitality jobs often come with thin coverage. Two large non-profit systems dominate: AdventHealth Orlando (one of the biggest hospitals in the country) and Orlando Health with Orlando Regional Medical Center, the region's Level I trauma centre, plus Nemours Children's Hospital at Lake Nona and the UCF Lake Nona Hospital.
Education
The University of Central Florida enrols about 70,000 students, among the largest campuses in the US, and anchors the Central Florida Research Park; Rollins College in Winter Park and Valencia College (a two-year college with a national Aspen Prize) are the other main institutions. Orange County Public Schools is the eighth largest district in the US with roughly 200,000 students, and Florida's universal school-choice vouchers, charter schools and magnet programmes mean many families do not attend their zoned school.
Living there
Orlando is a sprawling, car-first region of master-planned subdivisions, toll roads and strip centres, with a small walkable core around Lake Eola, Thornton Park, Mills 50 and College Park, and the theme parks 15 miles southwest in a separate world of their own. Summers are long, humid and stormy, winters mild, and the population skews young and Latino, with the largest Puerto Rican community in Florida. Housing and insurance costs have risen faster than the tourism-weighted wages, and hurricane season shapes the calendar every year.
Where each city wins, and where it loses
Kelowna's benchmark home was $1,072,400 CAD in July 2026, which is also its detached price, with apartments at $490,700. Orlando's benchmark was $375,175 USD in June 2026. Different currencies, so compare the shape rather than the digits: the Kelowna payment on 20% down is $4,672 a month at 4.34%, the Orlando one $1,931 at 6.67%. Then the running costs invert. Orlando's 2025 property tax on its benchmark is $6,043 against Kelowna's $5,104, on a house that costs a third as much, and home insurance is $310 a month there against $165. Add all three and Orlando still lands near half. Renting is closer, though the bases differ: a two bedroom averaged $2,132 in Kelowna in October 2025, while Orlando's median was $1,904 in June 2026. A BC buyer also pays $19,448 in transfer tax; Orlando's $2,626 is the seller's problem.
Kelowna's 2025 Crime Severity Index was 103.68 against a national figure of 75.0, ninth highest of 41 metros, with 1,872 violent and 4,749 property incidents per 100,000. That is the fourth consecutive annual fall, from 126.03 in 2022, and almost all the improvement is on the non-violent side. A May 2026 city survey still found one in four residents feeling unsafe. Orlando is harder to pin down: the FBI's public feed carries no complete Orlando police data after 2022, so the last comparable rates are that year's 835.8 violent and 4,035.6 property offences per 100,000. The department's own broader count of violent incidents was 5,928 in 2025, roughly 1,775 per 100,000. The two violent figures are not comparable across the border anyway, since Canada counts common assault and threats. Property crime is the honest comparison, and Kelowna's 2025 rate sits above Orlando's 2022 one.
Kelowna averages minus 2.6C in January and 20.0C in July, with 386.9mm of precipitation and 89cm of snow a year. Orlando averages 15.9C in January and 28.1C in July, takes 1,307mm of rain and gets no snow at all. Kelowna records 1,948.9 sunshine hours on the older 1981-2010 normals; a sunshine figure for Orlando is not published in the NOAA normals product. The hazards are the real difference. Kelowna's is fire: the McDougall Creek fire of August 2023 crossed Okanagan Lake, put about 35,000 people under evacuation order, destroyed or damaged 189 structures and cost roughly $480 million in insured losses, and smoke arrives most summers from elsewhere in the interior. Orlando's is wind and water, from Charley in 2004 through Ian in 2022, which dropped 14 inches of rain at the airport, to Milton in 2024. Sitting 42 miles inland at about 100 feet spares it storm surge but not flooding or week-long outages.
Kelowna's metro unemployment was 9.3% in July 2026, the highest of any Canadian metro for the fourth month running and up from 6.3% in February, against 6.5% nationally. Orlando's was 4.6% in June 2026 in a metro carrying 1,506,600 nonfarm jobs. Both economies lean on visitors. Kelowna's tourism sector produced $2.4 billion and 12,630 jobs in 2022, while health care, retail and construction together take about 41% of regional employment. Orlando's leisure and hospitality sector employed 305,500 people in June 2026, close to a fifth of all jobs and about double the national share, at wages below the private sector average, which is why the city's median household income was $77,597 USD in 2024. Kelowna's metro median was $85,000 CAD in 2020. Tax on $100,000 of employment income runs about $20,500 in Kelowna before CPP and EI, against $13,449 of federal tax in Orlando before FICA, since Florida levies no income tax at all.
Neither city lets you skip owning a car, but they fail at it differently. Kelowna's regional buses carried 6.45 million rides in 2024 with about 6.6 million forecast for 2025, and service is growing: more than 15,000 added hours from January 2026 and another 12,380 approved for 2027. Even so, 84.3% of city commuters drove in 2021, 4.0% took the bus and 9.1% walked or cycled, and everyone crossing to West Kelowna queues for the same single bridge every afternoon. Orlando has more machinery and less effect. LYNX ran 21,476,203 trips across 62 routes in fiscal 2025, SunRail links 16 stations from DeLand to Poinciana but only on weekdays, and Brightline leaves the airport for South Florida. Transit still carried 1.5% of city commuters in 2024, with 13.2% working from home.
Health care in Kelowna is free at the point of use through MSP and delivered by Interior Health, with Kelowna General as the interior's tertiary hospital, cardiac surgery and BC Cancer on site. Staffing is the weak point: the pediatric unit closed for at least six weeks in May 2025, neurology was curtailed in January 2026, obstetricians have warned about maternity coverage, and a family doctor usually means a long wait on the provincial registry. Orlando's weak point is coverage, since Florida never expanded Medicaid and hospitality work often comes with thin insurance, though AdventHealth Orlando, Orlando Regional Medical Center as the Level I trauma centre, and Nemours Children's are all substantial. Schools diverge just as sharply. Orange County Public Schools is the eighth largest district in the United States at roughly 200,000 students, with vouchers, charters and magnets; Kelowna has one growing public district, French immersion, and no charter schools anywhere in BC.
The thing people underestimate is the difference in scale, and what it does to a career. Kelowna city held 166,278 residents in July 2026, down from 167,659 a year earlier, its first annual decline since at least 2001, in a metro of 222,162 at the 2021 Census. Orlando city had 333,888 and its metro 2,957,672 in 2025. Kelowna has one tertiary hospital, one university campus of about 12,000 students and an airport that moved 2,315,432 passengers in 2025. Orlando has a university of roughly 70,000 and an airport that moved 57,675,573. So if your employer closes in Kelowna, there is often no second one in the valley doing the same work, which is part of what a 9.3% unemployment rate looks like from inside. Orlando's version of the problem is inverted: plenty of hiring, at wages that lag what housing and insurance now cost.
Better here
- Home insurance runs $165 a month against $310 in Orlando, where hurricane exposure sets the price.
- The annual property tax bill on the benchmark home is $5,104, less than Orlando's $6,043 on a house costing a third as much.
- Kelowna recorded 4 homicide victims in 2025, 1.58 per 100,000, against 10 in Orlando at about 3.0 per 100,000.
- July averages 20.0C with 386.9mm of precipitation a year, against 28.1C and 1,307mm in Orlando.
- Health care is covered by BC's MSP with no premium since 2020, so there is no insurance question attached to a job.
- Rent increases in existing tenancies are capped at 2.3% for 2026, while Florida forbids its cities from capping rent at all.
Worse here
- The benchmark home is $1,072,400 CAD with a $4,672 monthly payment on 20% down, against $375,175 USD and $1,931 in Orlando.
- Metro unemployment hit 9.3% in July 2026, the highest of any Canadian metro for four straight months, against 4.6% in Orlando.
- A buyer pays $19,448 in property transfer tax at closing; in Orlando the $2,626 transfer tax falls on the seller.
- The 2025 Crime Severity Index of 103.68 sits well above the national 75.0, and property crime ran at 4,749 per 100,000.
- Wildfire is a live risk: the 2023 McDougall Creek fire forced about 35,000 people out and caused roughly $480 million in insured losses.
- Hospital services have closed for want of staff, including pediatrics for at least six weeks in May 2025 and neurology in January 2026.
Choose Kelowna if
- you already hold equity and are not starting from a $1,072,400 benchmark on a local salary
- you want dry summer heat and a lake instead of humidity and afternoon thunderstorms
- you work remotely, or in health care where the local shortage guarantees demand
- you want care paid for publicly and can wait out the family doctor registry
The Kelowna guide · Neighbourhoods · Kelowna rent vs buy · Kelowna mortgage calculator
Better here
- The benchmark home is $375,175 USD with a $1,931 monthly payment on 20% down, less than half Kelowna's $4,672.
- Metro unemployment was 4.6% in June 2026 across 1,506,600 nonfarm jobs, against 9.3% in the Kelowna metro.
- Florida charges no state income tax, so $100,000 of employment income attracts $13,449 in federal tax against roughly $20,500 in Kelowna, and sales tax is 6.5% against 12%.
- Homicides fell to 10 in 2025, the lowest count since 1971, down from 31 in 2023.
- Orlando International handled 57,675,573 passengers in 2025 against 2,315,432 at Kelowna, and Brightline runs from the airport to South Florida.
- January averages 15.9C with no snow, against minus 2.6C and 89cm a year in Kelowna.
Worse here
- Home insurance costs $310 a month and the property tax bill is $6,043, both higher than Kelowna's despite the much cheaper house.
- Hurricane season shapes the year: Ian dropped 14 inches of rain at the airport in 2022 and Milton followed in 2024 with a record tornado outbreak.
- Leisure and hospitality is close to a fifth of all jobs and pays below the private sector average, which is why city median household income was $77,597 USD in 2024.
- Florida did not expand Medicaid, so a larger share of working adults goes uninsured than in most states.
- Transit carried 1.5% of city commuters in 2024 despite LYNX, SunRail and Brightline, and SunRail does not run at weekends.
- State law preempts local rent control entirely, so nothing limits an increase at renewal.
Choose Orlando if
- you need to buy a house on an ordinary salary rather than on equity you already have
- you want a metro labour market of more than 1.5 million jobs instead of a valley one
- you can carry $310 a month of home insurance plus a hurricane deductible
- you fly often and want a top ten American airport half an hour from home
The Orlando guide · Neighborhoods · Orlando rent vs buy · Orlando mortgage calculator
Kelowna or Orlando, in short
Is Kelowna or Orlando cheaper to live in?
Orlando, by a wide margin, on the biggest line. Its benchmark home is $375,175 USD against $1,072,400 CAD in Kelowna, and the payment on 20% down is $1,931 against $4,672. Orlando claws some back on the carrying costs: property tax of $6,043 a year against $5,104, and insurance of $310 a month against $165. Rents are close, with a Kelowna two bedroom averaging $2,132 in October 2025 and Orlando's median at $1,904 in June 2026. Income tax is the other gap, roughly $20,500 on $100,000 in BC against $13,449 of federal tax in Florida.
Is Kelowna or Orlando safer?
Kelowna on homicide, 4 victims in 2025 at 1.58 per 100,000 against Orlando's 10 at about 3.0, though Orlando's was its lowest count since 1971 and down from 31 in 2023. On property crime the answer flips: 4,749 per 100,000 in the Kelowna metro in 2025 against 4,035.6 in Orlando in 2022. The violent rates are not comparable, because Canada's violent Criminal Code category is broader than the American definition. Orlando's data is also patchy, with no complete FBI figures after 2022, so recent years rely on the department's own releases.
Which has the better climate, Kelowna or Orlando?
Kelowna if you want a summer you can be outdoors in, with a July mean of 20.0C and only 386.9mm of precipitation a year against Orlando's 28.1C and 1,307mm. Orlando if you want winter gone, with 15.9C in January and no snow at all, against minus 2.6C and 89cm in Kelowna. The hazards decide it for most people: Kelowna gets wildfire and weeks of smoke, Orlando gets hurricanes and daily summer storms. Sunshine hours are not published for Orlando, so the two cities cannot be compared on that.
Is wildfire smoke in Kelowna worse to live with than hurricane season in Orlando?
They fail differently. Smoke is frequent and low grade: most summers bring days of it from fires elsewhere in the interior, and occasionally the fire arrives, as in August 2023 when McDougall Creek jumped the lake, forced about 35,000 people out and caused roughly $480 million in insured losses. Hurricanes are rare and abrupt, but Orlando sits 42 miles inland at about 100 feet, so the risk is inland flooding, wind and long outages rather than surge. The insurance market prices the difference plainly: $310 a month in Orlando against $165 in Kelowna.
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
- Annual Estimates of the Resident Population for Incorporated Places in Florida: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (SUB-EST2025) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth, crime.homicides rate
- Annual Resident Population Estimates for Metropolitan and Micropolitan Statistical Areas: April 1, 2020 to July 1, 2025 (CBSA-EST2025-ALLDATA) · US Census Bureau · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth
- Crime Data Explorer, Orlando Police Department summarized offenses (violent crime, property crime, homicide), 2021-2025 · FBI · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Property crime rate, crime.homicides 2022
- Proactive policing in Orlando yields significant crime reductions · WFTV · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend, crime notes
- Police say crimes, including homicides, declining in Orlando · Spectrum News 13 · retrieved Supports: Homicides, Crime trend
- Orlando Police: 2025 violent crime down 9 percent in the City Beautiful · Headline Surfer · retrieved Supports: Crime trend, crime.homicides 2024
- Orlando Police Department releases 2024 crime statistics · WFTV via Yahoo News · retrieved Supports: Crime trend
- U.S. Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012815 (Orlando International Airport), monthly and annual · NOAA NCEI · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall
- Orlando, Florida (climate and hurricane history) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards, character
- Hurricane Milton · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- ACS 2024 1-year, tables B19013 and B08301, Orlando city and Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford MSA · US Census Bureau via Census Reporter API · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- Local Area Unemployment Statistics, series LAUMT123674000000003 (Orlando-Kissimmee-Sanford MSA unemployment rate) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Current Employment Statistics, series SMU12367400000000001 and SMU12367407000000001 (Orlando MSA total nonfarm and leisure and hospitality) · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Labour market
- Top employers and talent report search results (Disney, AdventHealth, Lockheed Martin employment) · Orlando Economic Partnership · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- Orange County, Florida sales tax rate 2026 · Avalara · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- 2025 Tax Brackets · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Facts at a Glance · LYNX (Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority) · retrieved Supports: Transit system, Transit ridership
- SunRail Ridership Grows to 1.2 Million Riders in 2024 · SunRail · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- Orlando International Moves Up In 2025 National Rankings for Busiest Airport · Greater Orlando Aviation Authority · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- 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, Year-over-year change to June 2026, which is negative in twenty-two of the twenty-four, The same series and month the Charlotte metro pages use, so the two American metros can be read against each other
- 2025 Final Millage Rates · Orange County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Orange County general at 4.4347 mills, the library district at 0.3748 and the St Johns River Water Management District at 0.1793, School state and local levies totalling 6.449 mills, Municipal rates from Windermere's 3.7425 to Eatonville's 7.2938, A published total against every mill code, including Winter Park's 15.3615 on codes 2, 4 and 6, Maitland's 16.3055 on code 6, and Windermere's 15.2311 on code 35 and 15.4839 on code 75, A blank library column on every Winter Park and Maitland code, which is what puts both municipalities outside the district
- Special taxing district information: the Orange County Library District's boundary · Orange County Library System · retrieved Supports: The district's boundary is Orange County exclusive of Winter Park and Maitland, each of which operates its own library, Laws of Florida chapter 99-486 as the enabling act behind it
- Final 2025 Millage Rates, fiscal year 2025-26 · Seminole County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Total millage by taxing authority for every Seminole municipality, from Lake Mary's 14.3929 to Casselberry's 18.1808, School required local and discretionary levies totalling 5.2490 mills, The county fire and road MSTUs, which apply in the unincorporated area and in some cities but not others
- 2025 Final Millage Rates · Osceola County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Kissimmee at 17.4114 mills and Saint Cloud at 17.8989, School levies totalling 5.3060 mills across required local, discretionary and capital, Dozens of separate municipal service taxing units in the unincorporated county, from 0.13 to 12.42 mills, which is why an unincorporated Osceola address cannot be given one rate
- 2025 Final Millage Rates by district, and the 2025 Final Millage Rates and Values Comparison Sheet · Lake County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Total millage for every Lake municipality, from Leesburg's 15.9477 to Eustis's 19.8623, Leesburg's own adopted rate of 3.4752 mills, on the district sheet and again as the 2025 adopted rate on the comparison sheet, School board state and local levies totalling 6.0850 mills, The county fire, ambulance and stormwater MSTUs and which municipalities are subject to them, including that an incorporated city pays neither the fire nor the stormwater MSTU
- 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 population estimates for each municipality, Leesburg's growth from 27,011 to 37,815, the fastest in the metro in percentage terms, Orlando at 334,854, which is twelve percent of its own metropolitan area
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.67%
- Average cost of homeowners insurance in Florida, 2026 · MoneyGeek · retrieved Supports: A Florida average of about $3,815 a year against a national average of about $2,543, Orange County premiums in the $3,200 to $4,500 range, at the cheaper end of the state because the metro is inland
- Conforming loan limit values for 2026 · Federal Housing Finance Agency · retrieved Supports: A baseline one-unit conforming loan limit of $832,750 for 2026, which applies in every county in this metro
- Documentary stamp tax · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: 70 cents per $100 on a deed, in every county except Miami-Dade, which charges 60 cents plus a 45-cent surtax, 35 cents per $100 on a promissory note or other written obligation to pay money
- 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