Historic community offers compelling combinations

The northeast community of Renfrew is steeped in history; built on the remnants of an Air Force training base and Calgary's first airport, Renfrew is experiencing a surge in interest from homebuilders and homebuyers, equally enticed by the neighbourhood's charm and potential.

Surrounded by an abundance of parks, trees and playgrounds, Renfrew is bordered by 16th avenue to the north, Centre Street to the west, and Deerfoot Trail to the west, allowing for quick access to many parts of the city.

"I work in the southeast and it takes me less than 10 minutes to get to work," said Renfrew resident Rosi Hey. Hey has lived in the community for 20 years and currently lives with her family in a house on Renfrew Drive. She appreciates the abundance of schools in the area.

"My youngest daughter went to Stanley Jones from K to 9, and she just graduated from Crescent Heights and never had to take buses," said Hey.

New program launches to help Calgary businesses with disaster resiliency

Recent tornado warnings, several thunderstorm watches and the wrath that Mother Nature has been trowing at southern Albertans as of late is reinforcing a new joint initiative from the Calgary Emergency Management Agency (CEMA) and the Calgary Chamber of Commerce that aims to help local businesses prepare for emergencies and disasters.

This summer, CEMA staff will be visiting local businesses with information about how they can make their businesses more resilient. CEMA will distribute its brochure "Is your business prepared?" with supplemental information from the Chamber.

"Whether it was the floods of 2013, the 'Snowtember' tree event, or the downtown power outage of this past year, it has become clear that all Calgary businesses need to be prepared to be resilient in case of business interruptions or disasters," said Chamber president and CEO Adam Legge.

Not all inspections are created equal, say experts

Shortly after moving into the townhome his home inspector assured him was in mint condition, Faiyaz Sumar had to replace the washer, dryer and microwave.

"The microwave would stop after 20 seconds, and the washer and dryer weren't ventilating properly. The walls of the laundry room were dripping with condensation," said Sumar, who was fortunately able to get the sellers to replace them at their own cost.

"Then we discovered our master shower would run either extremely hot or extremely cold. I just assumed that if you claim to test an appliance, you would run it through a normal cycle. In our case, the inspector may have turned them on or off but didn't check for full functionality.

"If I had any words of wisdom, it would be that you can't just blindly trust what you're told. You need to ask what tests they run and scrutinize what being operational really means to them."

In 2014, City Council appointed an independent Ward Boundary Commission (WBC) to consider how the current ward boundaries need to be revised to accommodate recent population changes and projected future population growth in Calgary to achieve better representation by the respective Councillor.

With two possible revised boundaries, which would come into effect on Election Day 2017 (October 16, 2017), several Calgary communities could find themselves in a different ward.

The Ward Boundary Commission is holding open houses to hear from residents of Calgary on possible changes to ward boundaries. Calgarians are being encouraged to visit an open house between July 21 and August 4 to learn about proposed changes and provide feedback.

Summer sun shines spotlight on Alberta's energy supply

With temperatures in Calgary and across the province soaring for much of July, Alberta's power industry is beginning to kick into high gear.

Earlier this month, Alberta set a new record for energy consumption in the province. According to the Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO), usage on July 9 hit 10,520 megawatts, topping the previous record of 10,419 MW set last July.

While summer demands for energy are less than those seen in winter — when demand can top 11,000 MW — the numbers are still enough to provoke some caution from the province's energy operator.

"Due to the significant generation added to the grid, we haven't had an issue meeting the demand," said Angela Anderson, spokesperson for AESO.

Amenities rank high for lake community residents

A cottage lifestyle within Calgary: that's how local urban expert Richard White described Calgary's lakeside communities.

"I know several people who love the idea of cottage life in the city. They'll invest more in a house, because they don't need to buy a house and a cottage," said White.

Buyers are not only focused on the inside of their homes, but also on the outside, added Scott Hamilton, marketing and communications director for Hopewell Residential, the developer behind Mahogany in the city's southeast.

"People are looking for recreational amenities that are convenient...Calgary is not lake country traditionally, so to have a lake is really attractive," he said.

When it comes to natural disasters, know the risks to your home – and how to mitigate their impacts

In the insurance industry, it's commonly referred to as CAT season, short for catastrophic — that all-too familiar time of the year when hail, rain, fire and brimstone wreaks havoc on our homes.

While the June 2013 floods provided perhaps the most extreme example, every year has been littered with examples — hail that leveled half of Airdrie in 2015, forest fires in northern Alberta in 2011 and so on.

And every year, insurance companies are in the news as homeowners lament that the most recent damage won't be covered by their current policies.

Long-awaited development to house up to 800 units 

Over a decade in the making, Airdrie's controversial Midtown development is finally poised to take the next step and fill in yet another blank on the city's growing landscape.

Currently being actively graded, the 16-hectare Midtown lot along Eighth Avenue W. and bordered by MacKenzie Pointe to the north and Luxstone to the south is labelled for 600 to 800 residential units.

The plan calls for a maximum of 305 single-family lots, 115 townhouse units and more than 300 low- and medium-density lots.

The original Neighbourhood Structure Plan (NSP) was first adopted by Airdrie city council in 2009, but construction stalled through the original developers.

A closer look at ATB economic outlook

With the province now halfway through a thus-far turbulent year, ATB Financial has released its economic outlook for the forthcoming third quarter.

Providing "the most up-to-date portrait of the province's economy" and ATB's best estimate of what we can expect for the remainder of this year, the latest outlook shows that, at the very least, this year won't be the worst economic year in our recent history.

"While some forecasters continue to call for a recession in Alberta, ATB Financial remains confident that our province will see some growth this year (albeit small)," said ATB economist Nick Ford." But despite the differences in opinion, all of the major forecasts for the province have one thing in common; economic expansion is expected to hover around zero per cent this year."

Calgary inventory levels ease

Despite the 18 per cent year-over-year decline in June home sales, for a total of 2,183 units, transaction levels remain only five per cent below the 10 year average for June and three per cent above levels over the past five years.

"We've seen less concern from consumers lately," said CREB® president Corinne Lyall. "One of the main reasons is that we haven't seen the worst case scenarios play out in the energy and housing sectors.

"Consumers who were waiting for wide-spread price declines have been surprised to see that it just hasn't happened yet, and so they've decided to take advantage of the improved selection and lower lending rates.