Homeowners don't have to sacrifice with new townhome development in southeast Calgary

The elusive trifecta of location, luxury and livability has long eluded downsizers in Calgary – until now.

Brookfield Residential has developed the Holy Grail of compact living with Mosaic Riverstone in Cranston's Riverstone, a 64-unit stacked luxury townhome development in southeast Calgary with two- and three-bedroom floor plans ranging in size from 1,400 to 1,600 square feet and priced from the mid-$400,000s.

"Cranston's Riverstone is an absolutely amazing and beautiful community," said Kelly Halliday, Brookfield Residential's business development manager for Calgary Homes.

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, say housing experts

The term "luxury" defies a single definition – especially when it comes to housing in Calgary, say experts.

"Luxury is specific to each individual, driven by their particular needs," said Kevin Mullen, president of the Empire Group of Companies, which has constructed dwellings in most of Calgary's upscale communities.

"If someone values the weekend lifestyle, then you might live in Springbank. If being proximate to the Glencoe Club is important, then you might choose Elbow Park. Those lifestyle decisions reflect into defining a luxury community."

Analysts say indicators point to prolonged downturn

The health of Calgary's residential housing market is only as good as the foundation it's built upon, say analysts, who reference several key indicators that point to a prolonged downturn in the city.

Richard Cho, principal market analysis in Calgary for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC), noted everything from employment levels to household income and migration to spending levels signal to tough times ahead for the local housing market.

Apartment to be most affected, says forecast

Calgary construction is expected to slow down this year and next, according to a new forecast from real estate consultant Altus Group.

Detailed in the group's winter forecast, starts in Calgary are predicted to drop from 13,000 in 2015 to 9,200 in 2016 and 9,000 the following year as a result of the province's struggling energy sector.

Calgary's real estate market, by the numbers

Calgary's resale residential housing market in February was virtually unchanged from previous months, highlighted by sales declines, inventory gains and, ultimately, price softness.

CREB®Now breaks down some of the key statistics to come out of CREB®'s monthly housing summary.

$445,000
The benchmark price for a home in Calgary last month was $445,000, a 0.6 per cent decline over January and 3.5 per cent lower than levels recorded last year.

Some areas of Calgary are reacting much differently to market conditions

Calgary residential resale housing prices continued to slide in February, yet new data shows not all areas of the city are being impacted in the same way.

According to CREB®, some districts east of Deerfoot Trail are exhibiting price resilience – and even some gains – despite the citywide bench-mark price slipping by 3.45 per cent from the same time last year to $445,000.

In northeast Calgary, for example, the benchmark price in February increased year-over-year by 1.7 per cent last month to $366,800, while east Calgary remained flat at $324,800, reported CREB®.

'A place for everything and everything in its place'

Over the past several months, I have been getting ready to move. And as I've packed up my life, I've realized every object has a story, whether that be who designed it, where it was bought, where it has been or how it has been used and by whom. This story gives the object more importance. It gave me a reason to keep it or chuck it.

Yet even if you're not moving, you should all be editing your objects. Don't think about it too hard about it. If you love something, keep it. If not, repurpose it, whether that be putting it in storage or donating it to charity. After all, one person's junk is another person's treasure.

If you have many pieces of one collection, (my weakness being cake plates), put them together instead of spread everywhere. Show them off as one. Or repurpose them take sea shells from past vacations and put them in a glass vase or crystal bowl lined with a handful of sand.

A sneak peek into this year's Home & Garden Show

If you could grow healthy lettuce with the same protein value as steak, would you? After all, according to Steve Solomon, author of The Intelligent Gardener, it's possible to grow lettuce with 20 per cent protein simply by mineralizing your soil.

Solomon mocks garden writers, myself included. He says, in a long and thorough way, most of us do not replace the minerals in the soil at the same ratio we take them out when we harvest plants.

So I decided to test my soil recently, and I got some bad news.

My problem is I am afraid to pollute the soil with excess fertilizers, so I add only natural ingredients like compost and worm castings. Solomon, who used to be an organic farmer, says compost is not enough. The soil system is broken and compost alone will not put our humpty dumpty soil together again.

Inner-city homeowners look up, not out

Good things come in threes – or so goes the superstition.

Calgary's homebuilding industry seems to have taken this to heart, with three-storey infill homes emerging as a solution to what experts say is growing demand for "vertical" detached living options in inner-city communities.

"It is very cost effective to build up versus build out," said Ron Butler, president of New West Luxury Estate Homes, which builds about 10 infills per year. "And building out is not an option given the limits of the lot."

The City of Calgary currently limits the amount of land a home can occupy in a given lot, ranging from 40 to 50 per cent, depending on its zoning and size. Three-story homes provide a solution to providing additional living space where that ratio is already being tested, said Butler.

Construction falls by $135 million

Alberta homebuilders were a little more cautious in January, as new housing construction fell by $135 million in January compared to the same month last year, according to Statistics Canada.

By percentage, Alberta's 16 per cent decline placed it around the middle when compared to other provinces (spending in Saskatchewan fell by 31 per cent). Based on dollar figures, however, the provincial decline was tops in the country.

Nationally, spending on new residential building construction totalled $3.9 billion in December, up 4.8 per cent from the same month a year earlier.