While community gardens may seem a rather new trend in the scope of things, they've actually been around Calgary for almost 100 years.

Years ago the City Planning Commission came up with an initiative called the Calgary Vacant Lots Garden Club in 1914. According to a history prepared by Carole Stokes, an archivist with the City of Calgary Archives, the club's executive recognized the cultivation of Calgary's vacant lots would benefit the city's poorer families who could grow and harvest their own produce at a lesser cost.

Alberta has been a veritable hot spot of new residents lately with its strong economy and low unemployment rate.

"There's a reason why Calgary's CTrain has been feeling more congested lately; people have been flocking to Alberta," said ATB Financial economist Will Van't Veld.

Calgary's Avenue Magazine recently released its third compilation of Calgary's Best Neighbourhoods with the northwest community of Varsity taking the number one spot.

The magazine surveys its readers, asking them to share what is most important in a neighbourhood that makes it's residents want to remain living there.

When it comes to purchasing a first home, buyers have regrets – mostly that they took so long to do it.

In that sense, Bryan Backman- Beharry is your typical homebuyer. The 32-year-old Calgarian recently purchased his first home, a three-bedroom bungalow in the southwest community of Killarney, after renting a condominium in the downtown core.

Calgary's commercial market is expected to continue at its brisk pace through 2012 according to a special report by TD Economics.

Commercial vacancy rates in the city currently sit at about 7.5 per cent, a number that is forecast to decrease to seven per cent in 2012. The current vacancy rate is a significant drop from 2010's posted 11.8 per cent vacancy. Industrial vacancy rates are even lower with a forecasted three per cent vacancy in 2012 compared to 3.1 in 2011.

When touring the sights at Heritage Park, the building dedicated to the life of early Calgary resident W.G. MacKay might look like any other log cabin. However, the small building has gone through several incarnations, including serving for a time as a Calgary bakery.

"Our records state the cabin was built in approximately 1884 or '85 out of logs salvaged from an abandoned mine," said Barb Munro, communications specialist for Heritage Park.