Talking everything from what makes a great community to the favourite room in her house

What defines a great place? A mix of housing? A popular neighbourhood haunt? Walking and biking paths?

CREB® recently sat down with Eleanor Mohammed, president of the Alberta Professional Planners Institute and a director for the Canadian Institute of Planners, which organizes the annual Great Places competition. Here's what she had to say:

CREB®Now: Tell us a bit more about the Great Places competition?

Urban planning experts offer tips on how to shop for your next neighbourhood

Is it a neighbourhood with a lake so you don't need a vacation cottage?

Or an upgraded, older neighbourhood with lots of housing choices?

Perhaps a community with a main street so "you don't have to jump in your car to get a quart of milk?"

When urban commentators weigh in on what homebuyers, first-time or otherwise, should be looking for when they chose a place to live the emphasis is on community amenities – or as Greg Morrow puts it, looking "outside the four walls" of the home, to the DNA of the neighbourhood.

Calgary to look at popular alternative to street parking

Nobody likes paying for street parking, but imagine if the money collected went directly into improvements for the community where you parked.

That's the idea behind Parking Benefit Districts (PBD), a concept gaining traction in a number of U.S. cities and may be on its way to Calgary.

"Parking Benefit Districts provide a solution to that political problem (of charging for street parking) as it creates a mechanism where the revenue generated stays in that local area," explains Greg Morrow, who sits on the CalgaryPlanning Commission and holds the Parker Professorship in Metropolitan Growth and Change with the faculty of environmental design and Haskayne School of Business at the University of Calgary. "You can direct parking revenue into local improvements like sidewalks, or installing new themed street lights."

Industry welcomes influx of rental units coming on stream

An increase in the number of purpose-built rentals coming onto the market over the next few years is good for Calgary and the communities they reside in over the long run, say experts

According to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.'s (CMHC's) Fall 2015 Rental Market Report for Calgary, 1,216 apartment rental units were under construction as of September 2015, a 53 per cent increase from the year before.

This comes after purpose-built rental apartments increased for the second consecutive year in 2015. CMHC reports 865 purpose-built rental units came on the Calgary market in 2015, bringing the total number of such units in the city up to 35,227.

Once destined for freeway construction, historical community now a local jewel

* Old neighbourhoods, new Calgary: A look at some of Calgary's earliest communities and how they're evolving with the times 

Few neighbourhoods in Calgary can match Inglewood's storied history. From its beginnings in 1875 as the city's first main street to its more recent resurgence as a hot spot for boutique shopping, fine dining and live music, the inner-city community has reimagined itself to keep pace with an evolving landscape.

Most recently, Inglewood was bestowed one of its biggest honours, being named the Greatest Neighbourhood in Canada by Great Places in Canada. The competition included 32 nominations and more than 14,500 votes from Canadians across the country over a seven-month period.

Local Village Brewery uses locally grown goods for featured Calgary suds

Four Calgary communities have taken local gardening to a whole new level growing hops and lavender, and producing honey, for local beer connoisseurs Village Brewery.

The community associations of Bridgeland-Riverside, Inglewood, Parkdale and Killarney-Glengarry each grew their own hops and in return are given kegs of Village Gardener Community Ale for fundraisers or community gathering events.

A handful of early communities in the area helped Calgary grow to the city it is today

More than 130 years ago, Calgary consisted of a fort surrounded by prairie grasses, First Nations tribes and settlers making a fresh start in the new west.

Today, the city is home to more than one million people and represents the industry engine of Canada's thriving economy.

Still, many of the communities founded yesterday remain today. Here's a snapshot of just a few:

Do you believe in ghosts? If you're a non-believer, Calgary Ghost Tours just might change your mind.

Around for eight years, the company started organizing tours around the historic communities of Inglewood and Kensington – as well as downtown and even Banff – in the search for signs of the dearly departed. Guests also get to learn more about the city's history along the way. Johanna Lane of Calgary Ghost Tours took some time out of her day to chat with CREB®Now about her favourite stop on the tour and what films make her check the closet before heading to bed.

CREB®Now: ?What is a Calgary Ghost Tour?

Lane: Calgary Ghost Tours are tours that combine historical information with ghost stories. We tell you the history of places and then who we think is still "hanging" around.