The 2017 Recognizing Our Accomplished REALTORS^® (ROAR) Award finalists have been announced! Check out this year’s real estate game changers. 

The suburban commercial real estate market has mostly avoided the high vacancy rates seen downtown, but levels are creeping upwards in suburban malls

The economic downturn of the past two years has had a widespread impact on Calgary's retail sector with businesses in the core particularly hard hit.

Two years of a recession in 2015 and 2016 have taken their toll as thousands of people in the city's central business district were victims of layoffs in the oil patch, which takes up the vast majority of space in the downtown office market.

With thousands of potential customers gone, retail stores and restaurants have felt the pinch.

City-wide prices hold steady in April as labour market conditions pick up

It's not a completely new look at this point, but it's definitely newish.

With recent improvements in the labour market and a balanced detached sector, city-wide benchmark prices reached $439,600 in April, similar to the previous month, but 0.90 per cent below last year's levels.

Craig Iseke used his cabinetmaking skills to renovate his '70s bungalow and is loving the results

High school teacher and journeyman cabinetmaker Craig Iseke has two loves: hanging out in the mountains (doing outdoorsy things like biking, hiking, snowshoeing, skiing and fishing ), and designing and crafting wood furniture. So when he decided to sell his Marda Loop home and look for something a little more off the beaten path, but closer to the school that he was teaching at, he had a long list of must-haves. First on that list was space to store all his sporting gear. After searching MLS® System Listings for close to five months, he found an 1,100 square foot bungalow on a 50-foot lot in the southwest community of Braeside. The home, built in 1972, was in need of a renovation, an endeavor right up Iseke's alley.

Gardening technology can automate the watering of your garden and can even tell you when your plants need nutrients

When it comes to gardening, there are three kinds of people. First, there are those who have zero interest in getting their hands dirty. They wouldn't know a hosta from a hydrangea, and are happy with a house full of artificial plants.

Then there are the hard-core green thumbs. They start flowers and vegetables indoors in March. Their favourite channel is HGTV, and they listen avidly to radio call-in shows whenever gardening is the topic. Their idea of a perfect winter afternoon is hanging out in a garden centre greenhouse.

Is there a glimmer of hope in Calgary's struggling downtown office market?

A new report by Avison Young suggests the market may be turning the corner following a brutal two years of ploughing through a recession.

The vacancy rate in the core was 23.9 per cent in the first quarter of the year, up from 17.6 per cent a year ago, but basically unchanged from year-end 2016.

"The first-quarter 2017 vacancy level actually represented positive news as the market took its first steps in halting its overall downward trend," said the commercial real estate company.

Todd Throndson, principal and managing director of Avison Young's Calgary office, says the downtown office market appears to have hit a pause in its rising vacancy.

Owning a home with an indoor or outdoor pool is a rarity in Calgary. If you dream of owning a backyard lagoon, here are some considerations before you dive in.

Imagine having your own private swimming pool – a place to entertain, exercise or just kick back and listen to the soothing sounds of moving water.

Lynn Lucyshyn, owner of Oasis Pools & Spas, says pools are a luxury few Calgarians enjoy. Her company installs as many as 12 pools in a good year, but as few as three in slower years.

According to CREB®, only 167 properties listing pools as a feature were sold in 2016. In that same year, the average sale price of a detached home with an indoor or outdoor pool was $974,388.