The initial impact of COVID-19 on the housing market began last March.

One year later, it is not a surprise that March sales in 2021 were higher than in 2020. However, at 2,903 sales, this was the highest March total since 2007.

Prior to COVID-19, the economic challenges in our city created an environment of weak resale housing demand. When adjusting sales relative to the population from 2018-19, it was the slowest sales per capita on record. Over this same period, the housing market was struggling with excess supply and declining prices.

The third and final phase of public engagement for the Calgary Metro Region Board's (CMRB) growth plan launched late last week.

The growth plan will determine how the CMRB's 10 member municipalities and counties will work together to plan for their next million residents, including considerations of transportation, water management, land use, services and recreation.

Enticing discount mortgage rates have helped put Calgary's detached home market in rare form.

Mayor Naheed Nenshi is in his third term in office after winning the municipal election in October. Recently he spoke with CREB®Now about issues facing the city and what he sees moving forward in 2018. Here is an edited version of that conversation.

It is a word used extensively this year, as Calgary's economy and housing industry tiptoed to recovery.

And that word — modest — is one you will continue to hear in 2018 in relation to expected gains by each branch of the residential home market.

With gains in every price range, residential sales activity in February totalled 1,836 units. This reflects the best February since 2014.

In 2020, housing markets across the country surprised many with a stronger-than-expected rebound in the second half of the year despite record-high unemployment rates and significant job losses.

Ongoing economic challenges, shrinking population growth and a pandemic that won't go away add up to a downtown Calgary office market facing critical vacancy rates.

One solution is adaptive reuse: the conversion of vacant office space into residential projects. The University of Calgary's School of Public Policy recently published a research paper exploring the challenges and opportunities surrounding adaptive reuse and how it could make a major difference in the city's downtown core.

January sales were the highest they have been for the month since 2014, as housing market momentum from the end of 2020 carried over into the start of 2021.