Clair J. Cote Jr. follows in father's historic footsteps by leading CREB® through 1974

When Clair J. Cote Jr. became CREB®'s president in 1974, Calgary was partway through a decade marked by unprecedented growth, both in business and real estate development.

The year prior, the Arab oil embargo set off the first global energy crisis, leading to efforts in Alberta to lessen the dependence on foreign oil. Calgary, where oil companies were headquartered, prospered.

For Cote, the 1970s stand out as a time in which his brokerage, which started in 1964, grew.

First Bee City in Western Canada

The City of Chestermere is buzzing with excitement after becoming Western Canada's first Bee City.

The official honour from Bee City Canada recognized Chestermere's efforts in the fight to save Canada's declining bee population. The non-profit organization highlighted the city's current efforts to promote healthy ecosystems such as the community garden, its Chestermere in Bloom program, birth forest, as well as more than 70 parks and green spaces around the community.

Chestermere is only the second city designated in Canada as a Bee City, following Toronto.

Former CREB® president Alan Tennant recalls 1998 as one with few challenges

Alan Tennant summarizes Calgary's resale residential housing market in 1998 in one word: stable.

"I recall doing monthly statistic releases throughout the year, and trying to find new ways to state 'stable,'" said Tennant, who was CREB®'s president that year. "I remember [the market] now more fondly than I did at the time. Back then, it seemed almost boring."

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.

Use increases by 10 per cent from 2005-14

Demand for shelters and beds in Canada is approaching levels not seen since the 2008/09 economic downturn, with a 10 per cent increase in use from 2005-14, according to a new study.

The National Shelter Study 2005–2014: Emergency Shelter Use in Canada released this week by the federal Employment and Social Development Canada ministry revealed that, on an average night in 2014, 13,857 Canadians slept in an emergency shelter, using more than 90 per cent of Canada's 15,000 shelter beds. By comparison, in 2005, average nightly shelter use had reached slightly more than 80 per cent of capacity.

At its peak in 2009, the national shelter occupancy rates was at 94.6 per cent.

RBC releases new housing trends, affordability report

Despite signs of a modest recovery in home resale activity, Calgary's housing market continued to struggle amid plentiful supply of homes available for sale, declining prices and softening demographics fundamentals, according to RBC Economics' recent Housing Trends and Affordability report.

RBC said its cost-of-ownership measure for Calgary rose by 0.3 percentage points in the second quarter to 33 per cent of a typical family's pre-tax income, still well below the long-term average of 40.4 per cent for the area.

Both the single-detached and condo segments registered small improvements.

Solar has come a long way in Alberta, say experts

When we last saw headlines from Alberta's home solar energy sector, the news was a bit discouraging. But things have changed, and solar power is now looking like an increasingly bright idea.

Back in 2012, University of Alberta professor Andrew Leach analyzed the costs of Enmax's solar panel leasing program and publicized his finding that homeowners who participated would actually pay more for power than those who stayed with a conventional plan.

Enmax concurred, saying the program was aimed at people who had reasons other than economic ones for choosing solar power.

Builders believe buyers will eventually see benefits of sans auto

Condo buyers in Calgary's Beltline will soon see vehicle ownership as a peripheral requirement, but it will still take some time for the current mindset to change, says a developer who brought the notion of "parking optional" to Calgary.

The Beltline – which stretches from 14th Street S.W. to the Elbow River and the rail tracks south to 17th Avenue, plus the Stampede Grounds – is one of Calgary's hottest and most densified communities. And many new condo buildings, first planned several years ago, are just now starting to spring up despite the downturn.

Although the N3 development in East Village received plenty of press recently for not including parking, it was Toronto-based Lamb Development Corp.'s 6th and Tenth project in the Beltline that first brought the concept to Calgary, said president and CEO Brad Lamb.

Out-of-town property market continues to evolve

Canada's recreational property market continues to transform itself, most recently the beneficiary of record-low interest rates, a new wave of retiring baby boomers and a favourable exchange rate, according to a recent survey.

The 2016 RE/MAX Recreational Property Report, which surveyed RE/MAX agents and brokers, noted the low Canadian dollar is having a positive effect on the country's recreational property markets. Canadians, mainly boomers, who bought properties in the U.S. when U.S. real estate prices were comparably low are selling them at a profit and investing in Canadian recreational markets, it said.

The RE/MAX survey signaled out Canmore and Sylvan Lake as two of Canada's top recreational property destinations. It noted retirees seeking an active lifestyle continue to be an important driver of demand in Canmore, where the median price (May 2015 to April 2016) was $533,090.

Calgary's aging sandwich communities seek their place in shifting housing landscape

What's old is new again. It's an apt description of homebuyers' newfound interest in Calgary's sandwich communities – those not-quite-inner-city neighbourhoods that long outgrown their suburban roots.

Built along what was then the city's outskirts starting in the late 1950s, these detached-heavy communities such as Thorncliffe, Huntington Hills, Ogden, Winston Heights, Albert Park, Fairview and Kingsland represented optimism and prosperity synonymous with the post-Second World War era.

Fast-forward several generations later and upwardly mobile generation-Xers and millennials are returning to their birth places, attracted by location, ample amenities and familiarity.