CREB®'s Charitable Foundation celebrates 30th anniversary

Most will gift pearls to celebrate their 30-year anniversary, but CREB®'s Charitable Foundation is going the more practical route with a gift of $300,000 to support local non-profits through its Investing in HOPE program.

Since 1987, the Charitable Foundation has contributed more than $6 million to more than 150 non-profit organizations in the community.

"The Investing in HOPE program is so special for so many reasons," said Aneve MacKay-Lyons, manager of CREB®'s Charitable Foundation.

"Our 30-year legacy has helped numerous charities and with this being one of our biggest funding initiatives ever, we're about to be a part of something incredibly impactful for local families and the community."

Demand for detached housing continues to rise

The detached housing market continues to lead the way in Calgary's slow but steady recovery from a two-year recession. It is the fourth consecutive month of price increases in this segment of the market.

For the first time since June 2015, prices for detached homes did not decline on a year-over-year basis. Unadjusted detached benchmark prices reached $509,000 in May – one per cent higher than last month and levels recorded last year.

Detached sales improved across all price ranges and represented 65 per cent of all Calgary sales in May, the highest level since 2012. The largest detached sales growth occurred in the $600,000 - $999,999 range.

The number of Albertans spending money on renovations for their existing homes and recreational properties is on the rise.

According to Statistics Canada, investment in home renovations in the first quarter of 2017 hit a record high of $1.78 billion. A release from ATB Financial's Economics and Research Team says this is close to double the spending a decade ago.

Todd Hirsch, chief economist with ATB Financial, says he was surprised by the data for the first three months of this year.

"The increase that we saw in late 2016 and the first quarter of this year can be attributed to the rebuild in Fort McMurray (from last year's wildfires) because not every house was destroyed, which we tend to focus on." he said. "There were also many, many homes that needed to be renovated."

Southwest ring road is poised to usher in new era of growth in Calgary's south end

It's been a long time coming, but the southwest section of Calgary's ring road is finally being built, and the city's developer community is among those most thrilled to see construction going ahead.

"It's really going to open up growth in the area, and provide not just opportunities for new communities, but also existing ones," said Steve LePan, director of sales and marketing with Anthem United.

"We're certainly happy to see it moving forward, because it would have had a negative impact (on our development in the area) if it had not been approved."

Mix of young and old call Calgary's established lake communities home

When D'Arcy Duquette and his family moved to Calgary from Montreal, a lake in their new community was a must-have for his son and daughter.

"I moved them from a home where we had a big in-ground pool in the backyard and were surrounded by lakes," said the 60-year-old transportation industry retiree. "They were spoiled."

After moving into McKenzie Lake, with its 17.5-hectare man-made lake, Duquette's children happily spent summers "in their bathing suits."

McKenzie Lake is one of the older lake communities in Calgary, established in the late 1980s. Like the other more mature lake communities in Calgary, including Lake Bonavista (the first man-made lake in Canada, completed in 1968), Midnapore, Chaparral, Sundance, McKenzie Lake, Arbour Lake and Coral Springs, the majority of homes in McKenzie Lake are single-family and the resale market is the only option for prospective buyers.

Calgary's retail market is expected to remain vibrant over the next 12 months due to an improving economy and rising consumer confidence.

A report by Colliers International in Calgary says the shopping centre vacancy rate in the city is expected to drop slightly from 3.21 per cent to three per cent while streetfront vacancy rates are expected to stabilize and hover around the current rate of 5.75 per cent.

"We are still the number one province on a per capita retail (spending) basis by a significant amount above the national average," said Robert Walker, senior vice-president/partner with Colliers International in Calgary. "That still shows me that despite the vast number of layoffs downtown, the people who are employed are still spending money.

"Our average weekly income is still the highest in the country by a longshot. So they're still spending money."

Parks are especially important in densely developed downtown

"Quality, not quantity" is how City of Calgary parks manager Keath Parker characterizes green spaces in Calgary's downtown core, an area that's not only home to tall office towers, but residential neighbourhoods as well, including the Beltline (Connaught and Victoria Park), East Village and Eau Claire.

Parker explains it wasn't until the mid-1960s that the province's Municipal Government Act (MGA) gave municipalities the authority to take up to 10 per cent of a development for open public space. Residential neighbourhoods developed prior to that tend not to have as much green space as those created after the MGA.

However, Calgary's downtown is still far from a cold, concrete jungle. In fact, there are 24 parks in the downtown area covering roughly 65 hectares of open green space, according to the City.

Calgary's new lake communities experience tremendous growth

Evan Spencer enjoys the benefits of lake community living every day.

Not only does his young family – which includes his wife Anna and their two kids, Sarah and Micah – take advantage of all the recreation opportunities around Mahogany's lake, the 34-year-old doesn't need to step outside his neighbourhood to go to work.

Spencer works in the not-for-profit sector, and has called Mahogany home – and home office – for three years. Since moving from northwest Calgary into the growing southeast community that will have more than 20,000 residents by final build-out, he has signed on as volunteer social committee chair for the Mahogany Homeowners Association.

"It is an inclusive place to live your life," he said. "And the lake just draws people together. It is so important to have that 'third' place (outside home and business) where people can gather. I often say 'do you want to meet up for coffee, or for a walk along the wetlands?' "

Tim Logel and Ryan Ockey team up to bring Logel Homes to life

For more than three decades, Tim Logel has worked at Cardel Homes, and for the past 17 years he has been a 50-50 partner with Ryan Ockey in Cardel Lifestyles, the company's successful multi-family division.

Now, the two have teamed up again to bring Logel Homes to the Calgary marketplace and to continue to offer affordability and quality in their product.

"Logel Homes has been two years in the making," said Logel, president and COO of Logel Homes. "I approached Ryan with the idea and he thought the same as I did, that Logel Homes would provide an opportunity to grow market share."

But, for Logel, there was another reason for reaching out with the idea of creating the new multi-family entity.

New communities and developments in bustling town offer more choices for would-be residents

The explosive growth that Cochrane continues to enjoy is evident when Mayor Ivan Brooker reels off the names of more than a dozen new communities either under development or in the planning stages in the scenic town west of Calgary.

"We've had huge growth – we were the second-fastest growing community in all of Canada from 2011 to 2016," said Brooker.

"People love the location. We're a beautiful community, you're on your way to the mountains, and we're not a small town necessarily, in the aspects of not having services. We have everything you would expect in a big city. The amenities are there for anything you might want to entertain as a family."