When Mark Evernden goes to list his own west-end home next month, it will be priced at less than what he bought it for a decade ago.

"I paid $1.3 million, and I know the replacement value if I was building today would be $1.8 million," said the private office advisor and licensed partner with Engel & Volkers Calgary, who has been selling in Calgary's luxury market for more than a decade.

The effects of Calgary's economic climate continue to create weak sales activity and elevated inventory in the city's housing market.

As a result, prices are being affected.

When Brian Taylor looks out the window of his home in EchoHaven, the view is a street lined with houses of varying architectural styles.

However, beneath the surface, many of those homes have similar characteristics designed to make them eco-friendly and highly energy efficient in a development purposefully built with no natural gas service.

Saving the planet is a good thing, but if you can put some green in your jeans at the same time, all the better. As interest in homes with environmentally friendly features grows among buyers and sellers, the popularity of green designations for REALTORS® is also on the rise.

For a city that merges cosmopolitan chic with shades of the Wild West, striving to attain the best of both worlds is nothing new. Lately, though, developers are taking the "have your cake and eat it too" approach, crafting trendy, downtown-style districts and amenities in up-and-coming Calgary suburban areas. If you're seeking to merge the benefits of the suburbs with the cool retail and cultural scene of the inner city, your search may be over.

If it's true that one person's "trash" is another one's treasure, a Calgary-based organization has made an art of turning the former into the latter. In the process, Enterprise4Good is changing lives – one household item at a time.

More than 750 new single-family homes in Alberta will be powered by solar this year, as Jayman Built makes the green technology a standard feature in a first-of-its-kind offering by any Canadian builder.

Well, a fella has a right to celebrate something as unique and remarkable as his first 50-goal season with a little extravagance, doesn't he?

One of the most interesting trends these days in the homebuilding industry is the growing popularity of net-zero homes.