Front verandas bring the elegance of the southern lifestyle to Calgary

Hughues Lefebvre and Rachel Malone enjoy the easy grace and relaxed living that southern architecture inspires.

Rachel grew up in Alabama, sipping lemonade in a rocking chair on the veranda of her family's southern home.

"That's my thing and it's hard to find here in Calgary," said Malone.

Pilot planning initiative puts public health front and centre of new community development

A stretch of Nose Creek that straddles Calgary's northwest and northeast quadrants may now be only home to scenic, rolling grassy hills.

But soon enough, about 9,000 city residents could being calling it home sweet home, along with 21,000 jobs, as planning is underway to develop a community with residential, commercial and industrial opportunities.

Most notably, however, is this community, once built, will be one of city's healthiest places to live, work and play.

New southwest community by Mattamy to house up to 12,000 people

Come spring, the landscape of Calgary's deep southwest will be undergoing another change, this one being sculpted by Mattamy Homes.

With the snow gone, grading and storm pond construction is expected to get started on the new community of Yorkville, located over more than 190 hectares along the southern boundary of Silverado and moving further south and west.

Detached versus higher-density segments paint different pictures of health

Overall resale residential housing sales activity in Calgary was down again in August, totalling 1,567, reported CREB® in its monthly housing summary.

However, the organization noted this figure does not reflect the big differences in activity between the detached sector, versus the high density apartment and attached segments of the market.

Housing professionals say upscale communities such as Heritage Pointe showing staying power

The lure of the luxury lifestyle is still drawing homebuyers to exclusive communities in and around Calgary despite some challenges in the local economy, say industry professionals.

Albi Homes community manager Amy Koehn notes Artesia in Heritage Point south of the city, for example, "is one of our busiest communities. It's very consistent and there's a lot of traction with the product here."

Koehn cites the community's lower density and larger lot sizes as motivators to buy in upscale communities such as Heritage Pointe.

Secondary suites and sustainability highlight Sano Stante's year as CREB® president

The year was 2011: Naheed Nenshi was in his first full year as mayor, secondary suites had become part of Calgarians' daily lexicon and the term "sustainability" had started to creep into community development.

Looking back at it now, then CREB® president Sano Stante noted his year at the helm not only gave him a front-row seat to the action, but an enviable opportunity to influence change.

He noted his work with CREB® in advocating council to legalize secondary suites across the city stands out the most from his year of presidency.

"It's something I was really proud of," said Stante.

New report paints mid-term picture

RBC Economics economist Craig Wright and Robert Hogue say the provincial recession continues to weigh on housing demand in Calgary, and such weakness is increasingly undermining prices.

In the bank's Canadian Housing Health Check released this week, the report's authors note the drop in property values has been generally modest to date; however, the pace of decline has accelerated and further downside remains.

Here are five things to know about contributors to Calgary's housing health so far this year:

Over the past five decades, Calgary's real estate industry has been bare to it all – from double-digit interest rates to densification. Continuing until the end of 2016, CREB®Now will weave together an incredible narrative of how the local housing industry has evolved through the unique perspectives of CREB®'s 30 remaining past presidents.

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Diane Scott's recalls her year as CREB® president in 2010 as one of contention, highlighted by a very public battle between the federal competition watchdog and the country's national real estate association.

Dubbed the "Competition Bureau years," Scott said the debate around what the bureau deemed "anti-competitive real estate rules," which it said limited consumer choice and prevented innovation, shook up the industry then, and its results have reverberated even to today.

"It had everyone pretty riled up," she remembered. "It was a very, very tough year for REALTORS® to understand the models were to be accepted, regardless of what model it was."

Open to the public this weekend

The folks behind the Harmony development in Springbank lifted the veil Thursday to its new 3,700-square-foot Discovery Centre, providing new details on the much-anticipated lake community just west of Calgary, including a first look at the Phil-Mickelson designed 18-hole golf course.

The centre is intended to introduce curious homebuyers and Springbank neighbours with new details of Harmony, which will eventually be home to approximately 10,000 people. Included are interactive exhibits that provide visitors with a massive projection model of the community, detailed displays and videos on the community vision and a tribe to the Copithorne family, which originally ranched the area.

"Given current market conditions, buyers are more cautious about making a purchasing decision and want to be more informed," says Maribeth Janikowski, communications manager for Qualico Communities, with is developing the community with Bordeaux Developments.

City's new pedestrian strategy heads for city council

With Calgary's push to increase the number of cyclists on city pathways and roadways garnering media attention, City Hall has now turned its attention toward those that get around on two feet rather than two wheels.

Set to go before council on May 2, the City's new pedestrian strategy is aimed at making Calgary a "safer, more enjoyable, and easier" for pedestrians, and could see major changes to the way all Calgarians get around the city.

"We have a very strong program around transit (and) vehicles. Then we had a cycling strategy. So a similar approach is now being levelled toward pedestrians," said project manager Andrew King. "So now we have a pedestrian strategy which really is going to focus on bringing improvements to make walking better and making conditions better for pedestrians."