While the common refrain that renting amounts to nothing more than "paying your landlord's mortgage" is a bit misguided, it does raise an interesting question: what kind of house can you afford with what you're currently paying in rent?

When it comes to deciding whether to rent or buy a home, discussions of pros and cons tend to centre around the financial considerations. However, the rent or buy dilemma is about far more than just money. Another important consideration is lifestyle – which option will allow you to live the life you want? That's a difficult question to answer, but we're here to help.

Real estate veteran to take reins of member organization

The New Year will welcome a new president for CREB® and its 5,200-plus members as local real estate veteran David P. Brown takes the reins during what's expected to be a year of transition for the industry.

CREB®Now caught up with Brown to talk about everything from his financial background to what advice he has for prospective homebuyers.

Housing experts predict Calgary's rental market to see another year of high vacancies, low rents

Calgary's rental housing market this year will not change much from 2016 as historically high vacancy rates will continue to usher in incentives and lower rents, say experts.

"We expect the vacancy rate to remain close to 2016 levels" said Richard Cho, Calgary-based principal market analyst for Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. (CMHC).

Economic conditions create ideal situation for renters, challenges for landlords

In the most volatile economy in the country, it is no big surprise Calgary landlords endured 2016 with the highest rental housing vacancy rate in a quarter of a century.

"It is a free market economy, with all the ups and downs, and in the middle of (this downturn), you just hope many will survive it," said Gerry Baxter, executive director of the Calgary Residential Rental Association (CRRA) of Calgary's current seven per cent vacancy rate.

Over-supply, fewer newcomers behind increasing vacancy rates

Vacancy rates in Calgary have spiked so far this year and are expected to rise for the foreseeable future, say industry insiders.

And with few signs of significant changes in the economy on the horizon, renters will enjoy plenty of choice and price flexibility, while landlords will need to get aggressive.

"Vacancy started rising pretty rapidly after the spring of last year and it's still been rising," said Gerry Baxter, executive director of the Calgary Residential Rental Association, which has about 850 members, representing between 65,000 and 70,000 rental units. There are more than 700 landlords in the association.

Breaking it down by the numbers

Earlier this year, CREB®Now published a feature on five things you needed to know about CREB®'s 2016 Economic Outlook & Regional Housing Market Forecast. With the REALTOR® organization recently updating the document, we revisit those insights on what's to come:

17,321

After originally forecasting 18,416 sales in 2016, CREB® is now predicting Calgary's activity to fall to 17,321, a 3.8 per cent drop from last year. By sector, revised estimated peg detached to decline by five per cent, while attached and apartment will be down by eight and 19 per cent, respectively. Meanwhile, CREB® chief economist Ann-Marie Lurie said the year began by favouring buyers, but is exhibiting more balanced conditions in areas such as the detached sector.

Signs of economic hardship started to reveal themselves by the end of 2014, recalled then-CREB® president Bill Kirk 

While the true severity of the economic slump currently dominating headlines had yet to been felt in 2014, Bill Kirk said the writing was already on the wall by the end of his tenure as CREB® president.

Oil production in the Middle East had just started to ramp up, prices for a barrel had started to fall and jobs in Calgary were suddenly in question, he recalled.

"By the end of 2014, there was talk of an oil glut," said Kirk. "We knew there would be fallout ... (but) no one knew what would happen.

"We were all surprised at how slowly through 2015 the bad news hit."

Index drops by 1.2 per cent in May

After a period that saw Calgary's vacancy rates at virtually zero and rents among the highest in Canada, renters in the province's two largest cities are now seeing the outcome of Alberta's economic downturn in the form of lower prices, according to a new report.

The latest data from the Consumer Price Index shows renters in Alberta's two major cities might be getting a break. The May 2016 index in Calgary has dropped by about 1.2 per cent from the peak it hit in September of last year. Rents in Edmonton have dropped by 0.3 per cent.