Drive down any street touched by the June floods, and it becomes obvious Calgary's renovation industry is booming. But some Calgary contractors are warning area homeowners to use caution when hiring someone to do the work.

"I think that what's happening is there's an influx of people from other places that maybe aren't as qualified and people need to be careful," said Darryl Pavlove, owner of Fit for a King Renovations.

Searching for an affordable option to enter the housing market, more Calgarians are turning to Calgary's apartment condominium market.

By the end of the third quarter, there were 3,147 condominium apartment sales in Calgary, a 14 per cent rise over the previous year.

According to CREA's September housing report, 24,897 homes changed hands through the first nine months of 2013 for an increase of 11.1 per cent. Calgary's neighbour to the north saw the second biggest increase in the country, as year-to-date sales in Edmonton rose by 8.1 per cent.

Year-over-year sales were also up substantially in Calgary, rising 20.5 per cent from to September 2012 to September of this year.

Calgary is in a "rental crisis," Mayor Naheed Nenshi confirms, as he called on the provincial and federal governments "to use the levers they have available to them to encourage more construction of rental projects."

With a vacancy rate that Nenshi said is "likely close to zero," securing a place to live is proving to be a difficult task for many renters in the city.

On Friday, September 27 the CREB® Charitable Foundation organized volunteers from the Charitable Foundation Board, CREB®, Kahane Law and other organizations to begin demolishing the backyard play area.

By the time the volunteer group left, after four hours of hard work, we had managed to get the crew about 2 hours ahead of schedule.