Breaking it down by the numbers

Earlier this year, CREB®Now published a feature on five things you needed to know about CREB®'s 2016 Economic Outlook & Regional Housing Market Forecast. With the REALTOR® organization recently updating the document, we revisit those insights on what's to come:

17,321

After originally forecasting 18,416 sales in 2016, CREB® is now predicting Calgary's activity to fall to 17,321, a 3.8 per cent drop from last year. By sector, revised estimated peg detached to decline by five per cent, while attached and apartment will be down by eight and 19 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie said the year began by favouring buyers, but is exhibiting more balanced conditions in areas such as the detached sector.

CREB®'s mid-year update cites tough start to 2016, forecasts continued challenges moving forward

Calgary's housing market will continue to battle recessionary conditions during the second half of 2016, but the worse might be behind it.

That's the word from CREB® as it released a mid-year update to its annual Economic Outlook & Regional Housing Market Forecast.

"With no near-term changes expected in the economic climate, housing demand is expected to remain weak for the second consecutive year as resale activity is forecasted to decline by eight per cent in 2016," said CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie, who authored the report.

When you know it's too good to be true

"Help! This plant is growing behind my office in Calgary and I can't identify it" tweeted Christene.

Gloria had some "wonderful old flowers" suddenly appear in her Canmore yard, so she sent photos by email. Mehran fell in love with a beautiful plant he saw in a Springbank ditch. He texted me a photo. Pretty and mysterious plants were suddenly on all my media.

"Our office building is about two blocks west of the Bow River. There's always a bunch of interesting plants growing out back behind the warehouse loading dock so I'm always trying to identify them, see if there are any plants I can steal to put in my garden. I had never seen anything like this one before and probably spent a good hour trying to figure out what it was," said Christene by follow-up email. But of course anything this exotic and pretty and springing out of nowhere could only be one thing. Christene and Gloria and Mehran all had or wanted to know more about weeds. Pretty, vigorous weeds.

The changing face of the first home purchase

A starter home has long been understood to mean a dwelling that represents someone's first foray into home ownership.

Mattamy Homes' vice-president of sales and marketing in Calgary, Warren Saunders, says, at its core, "It's a home that offers the best price and the best value for a new family starting out."

Donna Moore, the outgoing co-CEO of the Canadian Home Builders' Association (CHBA) – Urban Development Institute (UDI) Calgary Region Association, qualifies, however, that what constitutes a starter home today is very different from one of 30 years ago.

3D technology offers potential buyers round the clock viewing

Technology with its roots in video gaming is now making it increasingly easy to tour a home, or any other space, without leaving your couch.

Online home tours photographed with a 3D camera like the Matterport Pro are so close to being there, about the only thing you can't do is reach out and touch the walls. It's the maturing of technology that was first brought to the mass market in an Xbox game controller.

"Around 2010, 3D cameras were becoming available to detect gestures — the Microsoft Kinect being the best-known example," said Bill Brown, the CEO of Matterport, a Silicon Valley firm that specializes in immersive 3D media, including hardware, software and real-world uses for the technology.

Former CREB® president Marilyn Jones revelled in changing Calgary market

For much of her career, former CREB® president Marilyn Jones focused on helping clients from across Canada relocate to Calgary and find a house.

She liked the pressure – often times people had just a few days to look at houses in a new city, make a major decision and submit an offer – and was comfortable managing the many demands that needed to be juggled.

Those same skills came in handy when Jones became CREB® president in 2005.

Signs of economic hardship started to reveal themselves by the end of 2014, recalled then-CREB® president Bill Kirk 

While the true severity of the economic slump currently dominating headlines had yet to been felt in 2014, Bill Kirk said the writing was already on the wall by the end of his tenure as CREB® president.

Oil production in the Middle East had just started to ramp up, prices for a barrel had started to fall and jobs in Calgary were suddenly in question, he recalled.

"By the end of 2014, there was talk of an oil glut," said Kirk. "We knew there would be fallout ... (but) no one knew what would happen.

"We were all surprised at how slowly through 2015 the bad news hit."

Prices similar to last month, down more than four per cent from last year

In step with City of Calgary census data on declining net migration levels, housing sales activity totaled 1,741 units in July, a 12.6 per cent decrease over last year and the 20th consecutive month of year-over-year sales declines, according to CREB®'s monthly housing release for July.

"Continued pullback of sales activity is a sign of economic conditions," said CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie.

"The number of unemployed workers keeps rising and when you combine job losses with declining net migration, the result is going to be weaker housing demand."

Facade to respect original design

Trading one of Calgary's historic landmarks for another, Calgary Municipal Land Corp. (CMLC) – the organization responsible for transforming East Village into one one of the city's most sought-after neighbourhoods – has relocated its offices from the Hillier Building at 429 Eighth Avenue S.E. to the historic St. Louis Hotel right across the street.

In anticipation of the Grand Trunk Pacific Railway's arrival at Fort Calgary, Colonel James Walker developed the St. Louis Hotel in 1914. It underwent a major renovation in 1959, and in 2008 the City of Calgary designated the building as a Municipal Historic Resource.

Rooftop Plaza located at Fire Station 1

The City of Calgary officially reopened the Rooftop Plaza on Fire Station 1, located at 450 First St. S.E., providing a rejuvenated green space for Calgarians who live and work in the downtown core, and for visitors to the city.

The Rooftop Plaza renovation was undertaken to make much needed repairs to the Fire Station 1 roof and to breathe new life into the Plaza that had fallen into disrepair.