Experts say new mortgage rules might take some buyers out of the game

Getting into your "ideal" home might be more difficult following the introduction of new federal regulations pertaining to insured mortgages.

Under new regulations introduced this week, all mortgages must be "stress-tested" at the posted rate instead of negotiated rates that have recently been around 2.5 per cent.

Previously, only mortgages with a term less than five years, as well as any variable-rate mortgages, had to qualify at the benchmark rate.

Former CREB® president Bonnie Wegerich remembered challenges, successes in 2009

Bonnie Wegerich can sum up her time as CREB®'s president in 2009 with one word: recovery.

After residential resale housing prices in Calgary reached record highs in 2007, an economic downturn the following year caused prices to drop and sales to halt – a spillover effect that went well into Wegerich's year at the helm.

"In January, we had more sales than in December, and we were very excited about that. That's where we went from. Every month was getting better than it was," remembered Wegerich, a longtime real estate professional who worked and lived in Airdrie.

Former CREB® president Joyce Travis remembered moving beyond 9/11, adapting to circumstances

Four months after devastating terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, left thousands dead in the U.S., the pain was still palatable – even as far as Calgary.

"Everybody was just shell shocked," said Travis, who, amid that atmosphere of uncertainty, took over as president of CREB®.

In Calgary, the attack led to hesitancy that was manifested, at least early on, by a sluggish housing market. Travis said consumers were reluctant to make major decisions, such as buying or selling a house.

CREB® past president Jim Ross labels digital revolution in 1996 as a game-changer

It was the cusp of the modern-day tech revolution, and Jim Ross had the best seat in the house.

"The Internet was quite new, and we were just coming to grips with the best way to head down that road," said the CREB® past president, who guided the local real estate industry in 1996 through increasing demand for digital alternatives. "At that time, we had no idea what the impact of the Internet would be, how universal it would become.

Smallest year-over-year decline since 2014

Residential resale housing activity declines in the province eased last month, falling by 3.8 per cent to 4,611 units, according to the Alberta Real Estate Association.

The provincial organization noted September represented the smallest year-over-year decline since December 2014.

Meanwhile, the average MLS® residential price in Alberta rose 3.9 per cent from September 2015 to $396,646.

Apartment sector prompts optimism for buyers

After living in southwest communities of Midnapore and Evergreen for 27 years, transitioning to an apartment in Mission was an easy decision for Michelle Norman.

"Condo living was a very easy adjustment," she said. "I like the idea of being surrounded by a good mix of young and older residents as well as not having to worry about such things as yard work and snow removal."

Developers creating public art 'for the people that belongs to the people'

It's Sunday morning and soft skiffs of white snow blanket the still green grass, while golden and red leaves cling tightly to drooping branches laden with the heaviness of an early fall storm.

As the sun streams through a parting overcast sky, melting the show of winter that has arrived all too soon, the landscape becomes an artistic vista – one of twinkling light and impressionistic colour as St. Patrick's Island awakens to the day.

If your yard is a bar, mushrooms are the patrons and the wait staff

The phone call came during my regular CBC radio phone-in show.

The caller had heard Dr. Scholl's foot powder was a fungicide. She knew lawn mushrooms were a type of fungus, so she wondered if she could kill her lawn mushrooms with foot powder – active ingredient Tolfanate, a synthetic thiocarbamate.

"No, definitely not," I exclaimed.

Homebuilders, developers cite international interest in region

Over the past four months, one-third of the 11 sales at the luxury Creekstone condo project in Canmore's Spring Creek development have been to foreign buyers.

And while there have been no purchasers from China — yet — developer Frank Kernick said it is "just a matter of time" before they come.

Housing officials say foreign investment shift too early to tell; still unwavering on city's potential

Calgary could be the new Vancouver. At least that's what has some real estate observers maintaining more than two months after the B.C. government imposed a 15 per cent land transfer tax on real estate purchases by foreign buyers in the province's most populated city.

Aimed at dampening foreign investment—mostly from mainland China, which has been suspected of pushing up demand and prices in markets such as Vancouver where the benchmark price for a home is close to $1 million – the tax appears to be working.