Redeveloped Prairie Winds Park is a vital community hub in northeast Calgary

Wander into Prairie Winds Park in northeast Calgary any summer day and you'll see children enjoying the wading pool, families playing cricket or having a picnic, and people on the tennis courts. In the winter, people are out tobogganing, skating and enjoying the great outdoors in the popular regional park.

Prairie Winds Park opened in 1990, but recently underwent a complete redevelopment, says Michelle Wong, who worked on the project as capital lead for Calgary Parks.

Calgary's new northeast offers exciting opportunities and value for homebuyers

"A full, master-planned community destination." That's how Mattamy Homes vice-president of sales and marketing Warren Saunders describes Calgary's expanding – and evolving – northeast quadrant.

"That means choice for homebuyers," he said, noting that wasn't always the case in decades past.

In the "new northeast," Saunders says the expanding range of housing options allows different generations of homebuyers to remain in that sector of the city throughout their lives.

Calgary's Genesis Centre earns its name

The word genesis means a beginning or origin. When it comes to this definition, the Genesis Centre in northeast Calgary was aptly named. Opened in January of 2012, the centre filled a longstanding void in sport, recreation, wellness and cultural services for residents.

Hub living is the name of the game when it comes to new-neighbourhood design in northwest Calgary

When discussing the current trend of building Calgary residential communities around "hubs" (also known as "activity centres" or "nodes"), the phrase "back to the future" seems apt.

"It's about concentrating uses and activities in one area ... It's how settlements and civilizations have been developing forever," said Beverly Sandalack, associate dean and professor of landscape architecture and planning in the University of Calgary's Faculty of Environmental Design.

"It fell out of favour post-World War II with the over-reliance on the car, but, except for this 50-year aberration, main streets have always been the centre of community activity and business."

Plant-friendly solutions for icy walkways and homegrown winter refreshments

Slippery When Wet
It's nothing to brag about, but after months of false starts and delays, we finally got our new sidewalk poured this fall. It is so pretty, but it does get slippery when snow melts and water freezes.

So off to the store I went to buy a solution for icy walks. There was just one problem: almost every product for melting ice contains salt, and all the labels warn against use of salt on unsealed or new concrete.

CREB® Charitable Foundation honoured at Inn from the Cold

The CREB® Charitable Foundation was honoured at Inn from the Cold's newest shelter opening ceremony for its $125,000 donation on Dec. 19.

Local REALTOR® helps Mexican families find a home

For most Canadians, packing up and heading to Mexico means relaxing on the beach with a cold beverage in hand. For Calgary REALTOR® Dick Oakes, it means something else entirely.

CREB®Now sat down with CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie to reflect on the housing market and Calgary real estate in 2017.

It's the biggest investment we are ever likely to make, yet too often buying and selling a home comes with a bunch of misconceptions about making the most of that investment.

Len T. Wong, broker/owner of RE/MAX Len T. Wong and Associates, chalks these misconceptions up to a lack of information, rather than any fundamental misunderstandings about the buying and selling process. Providing that education to the client, he says, is the role of an experienced REALTOR®.

Here are the top five buying and selling misconceptions Wong has seen throughout his 25-year real estate career:

New HQ or not, e-commerce giant's impact is already being felt

Let's call it the "Amazon effect": the cascading economic stimulation that comes from one of the world's largest corporations taking up residence in your market.

It is an effect already being felt in the Calgary region after the announcement that the e-commerce giant will be opening a 600,000-square-foot distribution centre in Balzac – employing 750 full-time workers, and an additional 450 part-time or seasonally, by the end of 2018.