It's a happy New Year for Calgary's real estate market, as the city ended 2012 with sales volume up 15 per cent and benchmark prices up five per cent.

Average sale prices were the highest ever in Calgary at $428,655 for combined single family and condominium, but this figure was skewed by a surge in $1-million plus homes sold in 2012. The benchmark price of $381,408 is lower than the average because tracking is based on comparable properties.

According to a Calgary Housing Company poll, 84 per cent of Calgarians supported the development of new secondary suites.

After falling short of his goal of legalized secondary suites across the city last year, Mayor Naheed Nenshi is making another attempt at pushing the issue forward.

In a year-end interview on CTV, Mayor Nenshi said that finding a more tenable resolution to the issue is still an important goal.

There is probably a marijuana grow-op in your Calgary neighbourhood, no matter where you live, according to police statistics. Pam Lavers, a resident of Edgemont, has faced this issue not once but three times.

Lavers discovered a house in her neighbourhood had been a meth lab and then became a marijuana grow-op on two separate occasions. It was owned by someone who lives outside of Canada, making it difficult to hold the owner accountable for the illegal activity going on inside.

Calgary's Peace Bridge has been ranked as one of the world's top 10 public spaces of 2012 by an international architecture publication.

"The intent was to build a functional bridge for pedestrians and cyclists that would be special for Calgary and become apiece of infrastructure recognized around the world," said Gordon Stewart, director of the City's Transportation infrastructure.