Kelowna vs Tampa: which should you move to?
Kelowna or Tampa? 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.
Kelowna
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This choice comes down to whether you can afford Kelowna at all, and whether you can live with Tampa's hurricane season if you cannot. Kelowna's benchmark home costs 12.6 times the metro's median household income; Tampa's costs 4.5 times. On local wages, Tampa is the only one of the two where an ordinary household buys a house. Kelowna wins for people who arrive with equity or remote Canadian income, who want dry summers, a lake and public health care, and who can tolerate Canada's worst unemployment rate in 2026. Tampa wins for working households, for careers that need a metro of 3.4 million, and for anyone who would rather budget for flood insurance than a million-dollar mortgage.
Kelowna prices are in CAD and Tampa 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 | Tampa | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| City population | 166,278 (2026) | 413,554 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Metro population | 222,162 (2021) | 3,418,895 (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) | 7.3% (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 | Tampa | 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) | $380,283 (June 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| Detached house benchmark Kelowna and Tampa publish a single house index rather than a composite, so the two rows repeat. | $1,072,400 | $380,283 | Not directly comparable |
| Apartment or condominium benchmark | $490,700 | Not published | Not directly comparable |
| Two-bedroom rent | $2,132/mo (average, October 2025) | $1,999/mo (median, June 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| One-bedroom rent | $1,600/mo | $1,719/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 | 28.5% of a year's income | Tampa |
| Mortgage payment on the benchmark, 20% down 25 years in Kelowna against 30 in Tampa, 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% | $1,957/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× | 4.5× | Tampa |
| 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) | $6,712/yr (1.765%, 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) | $2,662 (seller pays) | Tampa |
| 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. Tampa: About 1.77% of what you pay for the house, which is lower than the 19.8428 mills Tampa is charged, 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 Hillsborough County school board, which levies 6.3400 of the 19.8428. 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 $6,712 on the $380,283 typical home value here. That 19.8428 is the figure Hillsborough County publishes for this taxing district rather than a total assembled here, and Tampa's own council sets 6.2076 of it. The exemption is not automatic: you file for it with the county 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 | Tampa | 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) | 376 (2025) | Not directly comparable |
| Property crime per 100,000 | 4,749 (2025) | 1,465 (2024) | 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) | 17 (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).
Violent crime in the city fell from 2,031 offences in 2023 to 1,862 in 2024 and 1,553 in 2025 (TPD 2025 Annual Report), with homicides halving in 2025 to 17. Total crime fell 21.3% in 2025 and TPD reported a 22% mid-year drop the year before, so the direction over three years is clearly down, though the figures remain preliminary until certified under NIBRS.
What the rates cover: Computed: Tampa Police Department 2025 Annual Report counts 1,553 violent crimes (robbery, aggravated assault/battery, murder, sexual battery) in 2025, down from 1,862 in 2024 and 2,031 in 2023; divided by the 413,554 Vintage 2025 city population. FBI UCR-based 2024 figure for comparison: 1,817 offences, 445 per 100k. TPD notes Florida moved to NIBRS in 2022 and figures are preliminary until certified by FDLE and the FBI.
Homicides: City of Tampa, 2025: 17 homicides, a 52.8% drop from 36 in 2024 (FBI UCR 2024 count 36, 8.8 per 100k). Works out to about 4.1 per 100k in 2025. TPD calls it the lowest annual total in more than 50 years. One January 2026 FOX 13 report quoted 19; the 52.8% figure in TPD's annual report is consistent with 17.
Winters, summers and what the weather can do to a house
| Measure | Kelowna | Tampa | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| January mean | -2.6 °C | 16.7 °C | Not directly comparable |
| July mean | 20.0 °C | 28.8 °C | Not directly comparable |
| Precipitation a year | 387 mm | 1,176 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 NCEI 1991-2020 normals, Tampa International Airport (USW00012842): January mean 62.0 F, July mean 83.8 F (August is the warmest month at 84.0 F), annual precipitation 46.30 in, annual snow normal 0. About 30 of those inches (762 mm) fall June through September. Sunshine hours are not part of the 1991-2020 normals product and were not verified.
Hazards: Hurricanes and storm surge are the defining hazard: Helene's surge in September 2024 flooded coastal Tampa Bay neighborhoods, then Milton made landfall near Siesta Key on October 9, 2024 as a Category 3, and 2024 alone generated 10,261 NFIP flood claims and about $1.1 billion in payouts in Hillsborough County. Flood insurance is effectively required in much of the city and has grown costlier under NFIP Risk Rating 2.0; summer heat indices above 100 F and daily lightning storms are routine from June to September.
What people earn and what the government takes
| Measure | Kelowna | Tampa | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $85,000 CAD (2020) | $84,114 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) | 4.7% (June 2026) | Not directly comparable |
| Sales tax | 12% | 7.5% | Tampa |
| 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% | Tampa |
| 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.
BLS counted 1,583,300 nonfarm jobs in the MSA in December 2025, up 0.9% over the year, with education and health services (+4.2%) and leisure and hospitality (+2.0%) leading and the May 2025 mean hourly wage of $31.96 sitting below the US average of $33.54. The largest industries by employment in the metro in 2024 were health care and social assistance, retail trade, and professional, scientific and technical services (Census ACS via Data USA).
Main sectors: Health care and social assistance, Finance, insurance and professional services, Retail and leisure/hospitality, Port, logistics and defense (Port Tampa Bay, MacDill AFB), Higher education and research (USF, Moffitt).
Florida has no state income tax, estate tax or inheritance tax. Property tax is the main local levy; homesteaded owners get a $50,000 exemption and the Save Our Homes 3% annual assessment cap, which means long-time owners pay much less than a new buyer of the same house.
Whether you need a car
| Measure | Kelowna | Tampa | Advantage |
|---|---|---|---|
| System | Kelowna Regional Transit System (BC Transit, operated with the City of Kelowna, West Kelowna, Lake Country, Peachland and the regional district) | HART (Hillsborough Area Regional Transit) buses, the TECO Line Streetcar between downtown and Ybor City, and HART's MetroRapid and on-demand HARTFlex services | Not directly comparable |
| Commute by public transit | 4.0% (2021) | 1.2% (2024) | Kelowna |
| Walk or cycle to work | 9.1% (2021) | 3.4% (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. | Tampa International Airport (TPA), 24,811,007 passengers in calendar 2025 (+0.22% on 2024), 27th busiest US airport, 635 daily flights, Southwest the largest carrier at 24% (TPA Fact Sheet, June 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.
HART carried about 11.94 million unlinked trips in 2025 (APTA Transit Ridership Report, Q4 2025). The 2.7-mile TECO Line Streetcar, fare-free since 2018, carried 1,323,715 riders in 2024, its record year.
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 plans, ACA marketplace plans, Medicare and Medicaid; Florida has not expanded Medicaid, so low-income adults without children often fall into the coverage gap, and out-of-pocket costs depend entirely on the plan. Tampa General Hospital (the USF Health teaching hospital, ranked the top hospital in the Tampa Bay region by U.S. News for 11 straight years through 2026-2027, with OB-GYN ranked fifth nationally in 2025-2026), Moffitt Cancer Center (an NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center), AdventHealth Tampa, St. Joseph's and the James A. Haley VA are the major hospitals; specialist waits are usually weeks rather than months but vary by insurer network.
Education
The University of South Florida (about 48,700 students across Tampa, St. Petersburg and Sarasota-Manatee in 2025-26, an AAU member since 2023) and the private University of Tampa anchor higher education, with Hillsborough Community College for two-year programs. Schools are run by a single county district, Hillsborough County Public Schools, the seventh-largest in the US, whose 40-day enrollment fell 3.9% to 213,513 in 2025-26 as families took state vouchers and charters; it runs 42 magnet schools (about 17,500 students in 2024-25) with admission by lottery, so the school you get depends as much on the choice application as on the address.
Living there
Tampa is a flat, hot, car-first city where a 26-minute average commute hides the reality that I-275 and the Howard Frankland Bridge back up daily and transit carries about one commuter in a hundred. The walkable parts are concentrated: the Riverwalk, Hyde Park, Seminole Heights and Ybor City, with the streetcar linking downtown to Ybor for free. Flood zone and elevation now matter as much as school zone when picking a house, after Helene's surge in 2024 showed which streets go under; summers mean afternoon lightning storms and heat indices over 100 F from June into September.
Where each city wins, and where it loses
The gap in housing is the story of this pair. Kelowna's benchmark price was $1,072,400 CAD in July 2026, and the detached figure is the same number; a townhouse was $709,500 and an apartment $490,700. Tampa's typical home was $380,283 USD in June 2026. The dollars differ, but the ratios do not lie: Kelowna's benchmark is 12.6 times the 2020 median household income of $85,000, Tampa's is 4.5 times its 2024 median of $84,114. The payment on the benchmark with 20% down is $4,672 a month in Kelowna at 4.34% and $1,957 in Tampa at 6.67%. Add property tax and insurance and Kelowna's carrying cost is about $5,260 a month against Tampa's $2,910. Renting narrows the gap: a two-bedroom averaged $2,132 in Kelowna in October 2025 and the median was $1,999 in Tampa in June 2026. Tenants in Kelowna get BC's 2.3% cap on increases in 2026; Florida forbids any rent control.
Crime figures do not cross the border cleanly. Canada's Crime Severity Index weights offences by seriousness and counts every Criminal Code violation, so Kelowna's 2025 violent rate of 1,872 per 100,000 includes uttering threats and common assault; Tampa's 375.5 per 100,000 in 2025 counts only robbery, aggravated assault, murder and sexual battery, and is a computed figure from preliminary police counts. The comparable number is homicide. Kelowna's CMA recorded 4 in 2025, 1.58 per 100,000; Tampa recorded 17, about 4.1 per 100,000, its lowest total in more than fifty years after 36 in 2024. Both are falling. Kelowna's Crime Severity Index dropped from 126.03 in 2022 to 103.68 in 2025, but it remains ninth highest of 41 Canadian metros and well above Canada's 75.0, and a May 2026 city survey found one in four residents feel unsafe. Tampa's violent count fell from 2,031 offences in 2023 to 1,553 in 2025.
Kelowna has a real winter and a dangerous summer. January averages -2.6 C with 89 cm of snow a year; July averages 20.0 C with almost no rain (386.9 mm falls in a whole year) and 1,949 hours of sunshine. The hazard is fire. The August 2023 McDougall Creek fire jumped the lake, put about 35,000 people under evacuation order and caused about $480 million in insured losses, and most summers bring days of smoke from fires elsewhere. Tampa has no winter: 16.7 C in January, 28.8 C in July, 1,176 mm of rain, much of it in afternoon lightning storms from June to September. Its hazard is water. Helene's surge flooded coastal neighbourhoods in September 2024, Milton followed as a Category 3, and Hillsborough County saw 10,261 flood claims and about $1.1 billion in payouts that year. Home insurance on the benchmark runs $390 a month in Tampa against $165 in Kelowna, and flood cover is a separate bill.
Tampa is the larger and, in 2026, the healthier job market. Its metro unemployment rate was 4.7% in June 2026 across 1.58 million nonfarm jobs, led by health care, finance and the port. Kelowna's was 9.3% in July 2026, the highest of any Canadian metro for the fourth straight month, up from 6.3% in February; the labour force grew faster than health care, retail, construction, tourism and a 32,645-job tech sector could absorb. Taxes favour Tampa on paper. A single filer on $100,000 pays about $13,449 USD in federal income tax there and nothing to Florida; in Kelowna the federal and BC bill is about $20,500 CAD, with a top combined rate of 53.5% against 37%. Sales tax is 12% in BC and 7.5% in Hillsborough County. The extra Canadian tax buys the Medical Services Plan, with no premiums since 2020. In Tampa, coverage comes from an employer, the ACA marketplace or Medicare, and Florida has not expanded Medicaid.
Neither city lets you drop the car, but Kelowna comes closer. In the 2021 Census, 4.0% of City of Kelowna commuters used transit and 9.1% walked or cycled; 84.3% drove. BC Transit carried 6.45 million rides in 2024 and added more than 15,000 service hours in January 2026. The single bridge to West Kelowna jams every afternoon. Tampa's figures are lower still: 1.2% of city workers took transit in 2024 and 3.4% walked or cycled, with a mean commute of 26.1 minutes that hides daily backups on I-275 and the Howard Frankland Bridge. HART carried about 11.94 million trips in 2025 and the fare-free TECO streetcar links downtown to Ybor City. For flying, Tampa International handled 24.8 million passengers in 2025 with 635 daily flights; Kelowna's airport handled 2.3 million, ninth busiest in Canada, which means most long trips connect through Vancouver or Calgary.
Kelowna's health care is free at the point of use and hard to reach. Kelowna General is the interior's referral hospital with cardiac surgery and BC Cancer on site, but it closed its pediatric unit for at least six weeks in May 2025 and curtailed neurology in January 2026 for want of specialists, and a family doctor usually means a long wait on the provincial registry. Tampa's problem is the opposite: Tampa General has been the region's top-ranked hospital for eleven years and Moffitt is an NCI-designated cancer centre, waits are usually weeks, but what you pay depends on your plan. Schools are one public district in each city. Kelowna's Central Okanagan district is among BC's fastest growing, with French immersion and no charters or magnets. Hillsborough County runs the seventh-largest district in the US, 213,513 students in 2025-26, with 42 lottery-admission magnet schools, so the choice application matters as much as the address.
People underestimate how different the scale is. Kelowna's entire metro, 222,162 people at the 2021 Census, would fit inside Tampa's city limits twice over, and BC Stats says the city shrank in the year to July 2026, its first decline since at least 2001. That scale shows up downstream: one tertiary hospital, one university campus of about 12,000 students, a 2.3 million-passenger airport, and an unemployment rate that swings hard when newcomers outrun hiring. Tampa's metro of 3.4 million absorbs shocks that would register in Kelowna, and offers a University of South Florida with 48,700 students and a 24.8 million-passenger airport. The trade is what smallness buys: a lake you can walk to, dry air, and a summer that only needs a beach. The other thing people miss is that Kelowna's house price is a Vancouver price without Vancouver's wages, and Tampa's insurance bill is a hurricane tax that rises every year.
Better here
- Homicide is far rarer: 4 victims in the Kelowna metro in 2025, 1.58 per 100,000, against 17 in Tampa, about 4.1 per 100,000.
- Summers are dry and sunny, with 386.9 mm of rain a year and 1,949 hours of sunshine, and there are no hurricanes, storm surge or flood insurance mandates.
- Health care comes through BC's Medical Services Plan with no premiums since 2020, and Kelowna General offers cardiac surgery and cancer care on site.
- Home insurance on the benchmark is $165 CAD a month, less than half Tampa's $390 USD, and BC caps rent increases on existing tenancies at 2.3% for 2026.
- A higher share of people get around without driving: 4.0% by transit and 9.1% on foot or bike in 2021, against 1.2% and 3.4% in Tampa in 2024.
- The Crime Severity Index has fallen four years running, from 126.03 in 2022 to 103.68 in 2025.
Worse here
- The benchmark home costs $1,072,400 CAD, 12.6 times the metro's $85,000 median household income, and the payment with 20% down is $4,672 a month.
- Unemployment was 9.3% in July 2026, the highest of any Canadian metro for the fourth month in a row.
- Wildfire is the defining hazard: the 2023 McDougall Creek fire put about 35,000 people under evacuation order and caused about $480 million in insured losses, and most summers bring smoke.
- Kelowna General closed its pediatric unit for at least six weeks in 2025 and curtailed neurology in 2026 for lack of specialists, and family doctors are scarce.
- Income tax on $100,000 is about $20,500 CAD and sales tax is 12%, against $13,449 USD and 7.5% in Tampa.
- The airport handled 2.3 million passengers in 2025, so most long-haul trips connect elsewhere, and the city lost population in the year to July 2026.
Choose Kelowna if
- you arrive with equity or a Canadian income that does not depend on the Kelowna job market
- you want a dry summer on a lake and can accept a week or two of wildfire smoke most years
- you value public health coverage over fast specialist access
- you would rather pay a 2.3% rent cap and $165 a month in home insurance than live in a hurricane zone
The Kelowna guide · Neighbourhoods · Kelowna rent vs buy · Kelowna mortgage calculator
Better here
- The typical home cost $380,283 USD in June 2026, 4.5 times the city's $84,114 median household income, and the payment with 20% down is $1,957 a month.
- Metro unemployment was 4.7% in June 2026 across 1.58 million nonfarm jobs, against 9.3% in Kelowna.
- No state income tax: federal tax on $100,000 is about $13,449 USD, roughly a third less than the $20,500 CAD federal and BC bill in Kelowna.
- Tampa General has been the region's top-ranked hospital for eleven straight years and Moffitt is an NCI-designated cancer centre, with specialist waits usually measured in weeks.
- Tampa International handled 24.8 million passengers in 2025 with 635 daily flights, more than ten times Kelowna's airport.
- Violent crime fell from 2,031 offences in 2023 to 1,553 in 2025 and homicides halved to 17, the lowest in more than fifty years.
Worse here
- Hurricanes and surge are routine: Helene and Milton hit in 2024, and Hillsborough County recorded 10,261 flood claims and about $1.1 billion in payouts that year.
- Home insurance on the benchmark is about $390 USD a month before separate flood cover, and property tax on a new homesteaded buyer is about $6,712 a year.
- Homicide runs at about 4.1 per 100,000, more than double Kelowna's 1.58.
- Health coverage depends on an employer or marketplace plan, and Florida has not expanded Medicaid.
- Only 1.2% of city workers took transit in 2024 and 3.4% walked or cycled; a car is effectively required.
- Florida forbids any rent control, so a lease renewal can carry any increase the landlord chooses.
Choose Tampa if
- you earn a working household income and want to own a house on it
- your career needs a metro of 3.4 million with finance, health care and port employers
- you can budget for windstorm and flood insurance and will check elevation before school zone
- you want to skip winter entirely and can handle a June-to-September heat index above 100 F
The Tampa guide · Neighborhoods · Tampa rent vs buy · Tampa mortgage calculator
Kelowna or Tampa, in short
Is Kelowna or Tampa cheaper to live in?
Tampa, by a wide margin on housing. The benchmark home was $1,072,400 CAD in Kelowna in July 2026 and $380,283 USD in Tampa in June 2026; on local median household incomes that is 12.6 times against 4.5 times. The monthly payment with 20% down is $4,672 in Kelowna and $1,957 in Tampa. Tampa's offsets are a property tax bill of about $6,712 a year for a new buyer and $390 a month in home insurance. Rents are closer: a two-bedroom was $2,132 in Kelowna in October 2025 and $1,999 in Tampa in June 2026. Income tax on $100,000 is about $20,500 CAD in BC and $13,449 USD in Florida.
Is Kelowna or Tampa safer?
It depends on which crime. Homicide is rarer in Kelowna: 4 victims in 2025, 1.58 per 100,000, against 17 in Tampa, about 4.1 per 100,000. Kelowna's other rates look worse because Canada counts every Criminal Code violation, including threats and common assault, which is why its 2025 violent rate of 1,872 per 100,000 is not comparable to Tampa's 375.5, a narrower US definition. Kelowna's Crime Severity Index, 103.68 in 2025, is still ninth highest of 41 Canadian metros though it has fallen four years in a row. Tampa's violent crime fell 24% from 2023 to 2025.
Which has the better climate, Kelowna or Tampa?
Kelowna has four seasons with a cold, cloudy winter (January mean -2.6 C, 89 cm of snow) and a hot, dry summer (July mean 20.0 C, 386.9 mm of rain in a year, 1,949 hours of sunshine). Tampa has a warm winter (16.7 C in January) and a hot, wet summer (28.8 C in July, 1,176 mm of rain, daily lightning storms). The hazards differ more than the temperatures. Kelowna's is wildfire and smoke; the 2023 McDougall Creek fire forced about 35,000 evacuations. Tampa's is hurricanes and storm surge, with Helene and Milton both striking in 2024. If you hate winter, Tampa; if you hate humidity and insurance bills, Kelowna.
Which city has the better job market, Kelowna or Tampa?
Tampa, clearly, in 2026. Its metro unemployment rate was 4.7% in June 2026 on 1,583,300 nonfarm jobs, with health care, finance, the port and MacDill Air Force Base as anchors, though the May 2025 mean hourly wage of $31.96 sat below the US average. Kelowna's rate was 9.3% in July 2026, the highest of any Canadian metro for four straight months and up from 6.3% in February, as newcomers outpaced hiring in health care, retail, construction and tourism. Kelowna's tech sector counted 32,645 jobs in 2023, but the metro has 222,162 people against Tampa's 3.4 million.
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
- Tampa, FL Population (2025), citing US Census Bureau PEP Vintage 2025 · Every City in the USA (compiling US Census Bureau) · retrieved Supports: City population, Five-year growth
- Resident Population in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL (MSA), TMAPOP · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (US Census Bureau data) · retrieved Supports: Metro population, Five-year growth
- Florida Metropolitan Statistical Areas, 2025 Estimate · Florida Office of Economic and Demographic Research · retrieved Supports: Metro population
- Tampa Police Department Annual Report 2025: Strength in Partnerships · City of Tampa · retrieved Supports: Violent crime rate, Homicides, Crime trend, Property crime rate
- Tampa crime drops in 2025, outpacing national trend: TPD · FOX 13 Tampa Bay · retrieved Supports: Crime trend
- Tampa police sees drop in homicides, violent crime for 2025 · WTSP 10 Tampa Bay · retrieved Supports: Homicides
- Tampa, St. Pete homicides, other crimes drop to lowest level in 50+ years · FOX 13 Tampa Bay · retrieved Supports: Homicides
- Tampa Police Release Mid-Year Crime Stats Showing Significant Reductions · City of Tampa · retrieved Supports: Crime trend
- Tampa, FL Crime Rates: Stats & Map (FBI UCR 2024 data) · AreaVibes · retrieved Supports: Property crime rate, Homicides, Violent crime rate
- US Climate Normals 1991-2020, station USW00012842 Tampa International Airport (Access Data Service) · NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information · retrieved Supports: January mean, July mean, Annual precipitation, Annual snowfall
- Milton misses worst-case scenario, devastates Florida · Cotality (formerly CoreLogic) · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Flooding the zone · UF Warrington College of Business · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- FEMA Exercises Borrowing Authority for National Flood Insurance Program · FEMA · retrieved Supports: Climate hazards
- Tampa, FL profile, ACS 2024 1-year · Census Reporter (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- ACS 2024 1-year tables B08301 and B19013 for Tampa city and Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater MSA · Census Reporter API (US Census Bureau ACS) · retrieved Supports: Median household income, Transit commute share, Walk and cycle commute share
- Unemployment Rate in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL (MSA), TAMP312URN · FRED, Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis (BLS LAUS data) · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- What is the unemployment rate in the Tampa, FL area right now? · USAFacts (BLS data) · retrieved Supports: Unemployment rate
- Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL: Southeast Information Office · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Labour market
- Occupational Employment and Wages in Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL, May 2025 · US Bureau of Labor Statistics · retrieved Supports: Labour market
- Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, FL · Data USA (Census ACS) · retrieved Supports: Main sectors, Labour market
- TIP 25A01-12: Hillsborough County Surtax Rate Update · Florida Department of Revenue · retrieved Supports: Sales tax
- 2025 Tax Brackets · Tax Foundation · retrieved Supports: Top marginal income tax, Income tax on $100,000
- Hillsborough Area Regional Transit (citing APTA Transit Ridership Report Q4 2025) · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- TECO Line Streetcar · Wikipedia · retrieved Supports: Transit ridership
- TPA Fact Sheet: Activity Report, Calendar Year 2025 · Tampa International Airport / Hillsborough County Aviation Authority · retrieved Supports: Airport passengers
- Tampa General Is the Top-Ranked Hospital in the Tampa Bay Region for the 11th Year in a Row, According to U.S. News & World Report · Tampa General Hospital via PR Newswire · retrieved Supports: Health care
- Tampa General again named the top hospital in Tampa Bay; OB-GYN rises to No. 5 in the U.S. · USF Health · retrieved Supports: Health care
- State University System of Florida 2025-2026 Matrix · Florida Board of Governors · retrieved Supports: Education
- HCPS data shows total county enrollment has declined since last year · Plant City Observer · retrieved Supports: Education
- 2024 Annual Report, Growth Management · Hillsborough County Public Schools · retrieved Supports: Education
- 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 each municipality, computed on one method across all twenty-four, The same series and month the Charlotte, Orlando, Palm Beach and Miami pages use, Year-over-year change to June 2026, which is negative in twenty-three of the twenty-four
- Final 2025 millage rates by taxing district · Hillsborough County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Published totals of 19.8428 for Tampa, 19.5319 for Temple Terrace, 18.2926 for Plant City and 18.2515 for the unincorporated county, Every component behind them, including the 0.5583 library services levy Temple Terrace and Plant City are outside and the 0.5000 transit authority levy Plant City is outside, A county General Purpose MSTU of 4.6163 paid in the unincorporated area in place of a municipal rate
- Millage rates levied for 2025 taxes · Pinellas County Tax Collector · retrieved Supports: A published real estate total for every taxing district in Pinellas County, from Redington Shores at 15.1568 to Belleair at 20.4449, including St Petersburg at 19.9197 and Belleair Beach at 15.4466, Countywide components: general fund 4.5423, health department 0.0713, emergency medical services 0.8050 and school 6.2930, Other districts totalling 1.0256: planning council 0.0175, Juvenile Welfare Board 0.8250 and the Southwest Florida Water Management District 0.1831, The Transit District at 0.7300 and which districts are inside it, and the Pinellas Suncoast Fire District at 0.6700 and which are inside that
- Table 1: Comparison of Taxes Levied, county and municipal governments, fiscal years 2024-25 and 2025-26 · Florida Department of Revenue, Property Tax Oversight · retrieved Supports: Independent confirmation of each municipality's own adopted 2025-26 levy in both counties
- 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, Tampa at 414,547 and St. Petersburg at 267,102; Indian Shores at 1,190
- Hurricane Helene storm surge and Pinellas County flooding, September 2024 · Latent Insurance, on National Weather Service and Pinellas County data · retrieved Supports: The largest storm surge on record for St. Petersburg, over six feet in the city and more than seven on the barrier islands, Thousands of Pinellas homes flooded, many of which had never flooded before, St. Petersburg single-family homeowners insurance of roughly $3,900 to $5,500 a year with wind coverage, and higher on the barrier islands
- Home insurance in Tampa, Florida: 2026 rates · InsuranceQuotes · retrieved Supports: Tampa homeowners insurance averaging about $2,400 a year in 2026, A Tampa Bay range of roughly $3,285 to $5,100 across Hillsborough, Pinellas and Pasco
- Primary Mortgage Market Survey · Freddie Mac · retrieved Supports: 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaging 6.67%
- 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