Just as the world was re-branding yesteryear’s smooth criminal, I embarked on my own, slightly less nostalgic realignment.

Having been made privy to opinions from the housing industry’s who’s who, I decided it was time to once again figure out whether or not I could afford to climb out of my deepening renter’s rut. After all, home ownership is an ideal all Canucks strive to materialize whether it’s feasible or not.

In recent years, I’ve joined legions of Canadians who have not only stayed out of the buyers’ club, but also had to find a roommate to offset mounting costs.

Of course, this situation comes with its ups and downs. I no longer work 50 hours a week to live in a shanty and can once again afford lattes every morning. But, I also get to stumble upon dried blobs of food in places I didn’t drop them and engage in conversations when what I really crave is silence. Hairs that aren’t mine appear in the cracks of the couch, and pipe dreams of purchasing power persist.

So, when a panel of experts said what sounded a lot like ‘buy now or forever hold your peace,’ my heart skipped a beat and my interest was briefly piqued.

To be fair, it was actually these words that did me in: “It may well be that seven years down the road, a lot of people cannot and will not be able to live in Kelowna proper. But from a Toronto perspective, what is a 35-40 minute commute to work?”

From a Toronto perspective? Nothing. I’d fly four hours to soak in some of the culture, shopping and vibrancy that city has to offer.

From an Okanagan perspective? Really?

Being as the cost of living issues have hit each major Okanagan city similarly, I can’t imagine where that would put the bulk of the working-aged population. Will we all be commuting from homes in Faulder or Olalla? And for what?

Don’t get me wrong, I love those lakes. They, along with friends and family, have kept me circling around Okanagan cities for about half my life, but the panelist version of returned economic success sounded less than idyllic.

Just about everyone on that panel pointed out that the people who will be buying up what’s left in major Okanagan cities will be retirees. Families struggling to make ends meet? I’ll see you on the outskirts. Young people who fill the jobs a tourist economy is reliant on? Let’s plan a barbecue for 2015.

Nothing against the old folk, everyone needs a place to live and this is clearly as good a place as any, but do even they want to be stuck in an exclusive 65-plus city?

Those words and the future they implied hit me like the hangover I deserved from getting a year-long buzz courtesy of stories on market decline.

The worst of it came when I realized how far I still was from climbing into buyer-ville.

Ah well, by the time I’m 65 I imagine there will be lots of vacant homes in the valley, and maybe that will be the best time for me and my roomie-du-jour to flex some purchasing power and get a deal.

Kathy Michaels is a reporter with the Penticton Western News.