Behind-the-scene details of how communities in Calgary come to life

For casual observers, it might appear that new neighbourhoods just sprout from the ground overnight.

In fact, those first show homes only come after years of planning and negotiation.

"When people see the graders out there, people think that's the start of a community, but it starts long before," said Brookfield Residential senior manager of strategic initiatives Grace Lui.

In the case of Brookfield's up-and-coming Livingston development in north Calgary, for example, grading might have started this year, but land acquisition took place 15 years ago. The new community, which will be comprised of 10,000 homes on 514 hectares of land just north of Stoney Trail, will welcome its first show homes in 2017.

Construction declines won't diminish market, says industry

Calgary's new housing market in 2016 will be characterized by a gradual slowdown, with highlights coming from first-time buyers, a resurgent luxury sector and continued multi-family growth, say industry insiders.

Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC) forecasts a 16 per cent decline in Calgary housing starts to 10,000 units, following a 23.9 per cent decline Calgary in 2015.
For single-family homes, that means only 4,000 starts this year — the lowest since 1988 – from 4,138 in 2015.

Multi-family starts are predicted to fall to 6,000 units from 8,895 last year.

Despite the slowdown, Canadian Home Builder's Association-Calgary president Wendy Jabusch believes Calgary's housing market will continue to remain healthy, especially as net-migration numbers to the city continue to be positive. The Conference Board of Canada forecasts levels will total 11,747 in 2016, compared with 14,951 in 2015.

Affordable housing advocates bullish on possible changes

By the end of this year, at least 200 middle-income Calgarians will have bought what may have seemed financially impossible in the city's now waning hot economy: their own home.

Another two dozen families will, in 2015, aided by many hours of sweat equity instead of a down payment, have entered home ownership.

Yet these Calgarians, who became homebuyers this year through Attainable Homes Calgary Corporation (AHCC) and Habitat for Humanity, might not be the only ones stepping into a more affordable housing market in the near future.

By December, significant changes are expected to the City of Calgary's administrative policies to make growth in the overall housing market both more efficient and less costly.

What's on the horizon for Calgary's skyline?

Despite much of the news coming out of Calgary's downtown being of the negative variety as of late, there are still developments moving forward. With construction cranes still littering the downtown skyline, CREB®Now takes a look at five developments coming to downtown Calgary in the near future.

The Hat
A 28-storey residential rental complex being built by Calgary-based Cidex Developments Ltd, The Hat will bring the first new rental accommodations to East Village. The family-friendly three-bedroom apartments will offer everything that a family needs, including on-site child care, all within easy walking distance.

Small-town experiment pays off for McKenzie Towne residents

Clifford Koss and Janice Conley have called the southeast community of McKenzie Towne home for 15 years. They moved there in 2000, after renting in McKenzie Lake across Deerfoot Trail.

"We like the area so much we named our business after it," says Koss, referring to the couple's home-based distribution company, Prestwick Resources. (Prestwick is one of four areas that make up McKenzie Towne, the other three being Inverness, Elgin and High Street, a 120,000 square-foot commercial strip.)

In fact, these days Conley and Koss say they rarely have occasion to venture outside of the community.

It's Women Build Week.

For the sixth year, women are coming together to build six homes in the Calgary community of Redstone for the Habitat for Humanity event.

The event, which will see 200 women constructing the homes, is an international movement bringing women together to change the lives of families in their communities.