The city is advising Calgary residents to be on the lookout for vandalism and thefts from new homes. Vandals have broken into 239 newly built homes over the past year, just prior to homeowner possession.

These acts of vandalism have major costs to the builders, but can also push back the possession dates for the homeowners, leaving them scrambling for a place to live.

The City of Calgary has released a report that is the first monitoring report about the progress being made towards the 60 year goals in the Municipal Development Plan and Calgary Transportation Plan.

Progress is measured by 14 indicators; eight of the indicators are showing that Calgary is moving in the right direction, three have not changed and three have moved farther away from the goals.

Residents across Canada, including Alberta and in particular Calgary, saw a whirlwind of major weather events throughout 2013.

With many extreme weather catastrophes comes damage to homes, vehicles and businesses. And with Canadian insurance companies seeing record claims in 2013, Albertans could see their insurance costs on the rise.

Calgarians will now be shelling out a little more to use some city services.

With the arrival of the New Year, user fees for services like public transit and recreation facilities have increased.

Along with increased recreation and transit costs, which bring the price of an adult single ticket to $3 from $2.75 and a monthly pass from $94 to $96, Calgary residents will also pay slightly more for curbside recycling and waste management.

The Great Plains camp, built in October to house about 700 people displaced by the floods, will close on Jan. 31.

Demand for the camp was lower than expected, with the peak population at just over 70 people, and December saw a decrease to 45 people.

The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) saw that December had an increase of housing starts over the month of November. December saw that starts were trending at 14,013 units, where November had 13,941 units.

The monthly seasonally adjusted rates (SAAR) of total housing starts show a trend of a six month moving average.

At nearly double their closest competition, new home prices in Calgary posted the highest year-overyear increase in Canada in November.

According to Statistics Canada, Calgary was the biggest contributor to a 1.4 per cent national advance in new home prices in the 12 months leading up to November, as new home prices in the city rose by 6.5 per cent.