Increased listings allow for more variety when buying in the luxury market

Gizella Davis has been through this all before.

The 38-year real estate veteran with Royal Lepage Foothills has lived through the peaks and valleys of Calgary's inherently cyclical housing market – including the most recent, which has felt the full force of a downturn in oil prices.

Yet from experience, she's "not concerned one bit" about how the industry – in particular the luxury housing segment – will react long term.

Not only is Wayne Copeland the president of the Canadian Home Builders' Association - Calgary Region, he's also a hockey coach and die-hard Flames fan. Copeland took some time out of his busy schedule to chat with CREBNow about oil prices affecting the city, a potential merger between CHBA and the Urban Development Institute (UDI) and what Calgary's best-kept secret has to do with Edmonton.

CN: How has the price of oil affected Calgary's new home industry?

WC: Certainly, it has affected us. When consumers hear anything negative, they curtail their confidence in spending rather quickly. Sales in January were off from recent years, but we remain optimistic as we are also hearing that showhome traffic has maintained a decent pace.

We understand that consumers will be a little slower in making large purchases but that does not mean that they have stopped buying altogether. I do believe that it is still too early to make any assumptions of what our economy will look like for this year, but we are definitely keeping our eyes on the energy market.

Running Feb. 26 to March 1, the Calgary Home + Garden Show celebrates 34 years of home improvement and design in the city.

More than 650 exhibitors are expected to be on hand for the four-day event, joining industry experts such as HGTV's Carson Arthur and Janette Ewen and Jef Hancock of Parker Barrow.

Here's five things you won't want to miss at the show:

Calgary Home + Garden Show garden features prepping visitors for spring

They say you can't judge a book by its cover. Yet when it comes to purchasing a home, first impressions can be everything.

"What's really exciting for me right now, especially when it comes to home value, is that landscaping has replaced the top five best return-on-investments according to Remodeling Magazine 2015," said Carson Arthur, co-star of HGTV's Critical Listing and founder of Carson Arthur Design, who will be among a dozen celebrity presenters and more than 650 vendors at the 34th annual Calgary Home + Garden Show, running from Feb. 26 to March 1.

Arthur, who grew up on a farm two hours outside Toronto, said there are a couple simple tips for home sellers when it comes to grabbing the eye of potential buyers.

City council voted 9-5 against a motion by Coun. Peter Demong that would've frozen Calgary's public art budget.

Demong made the motion stating among other things, the economy has been impacted by low oil prices and considering the Public Art Policy allocates up to $4 million from any single capital project that all funds, that those funds "not expended by public art during this time frame be tabulated and that administration return to council with recommendations for projects that could be funded with this revenue."

Composting pilot project sees early success

In 2012, Calgarians threw out more than 214,000 tonnes of garbage into local landfills.

More than half that garbage was in the form of food and yard waste that could have otherwise ended up as compost, said the City of Calgary, which is now entering the third-year of a Green Cart pilot project in four Calgary communities testing the impact of a food and yard waste diversion program.

Since its inception, the City's Green Cart project has collected and composted more than five million kilograms of material from the 7,500 participating homes, reducing the total amount of garbage collected in the four communities by 40 per cent.

City looking into laneway housing as a residential option for Calgarians

While Calgary council's stance on secondary suites remains at a stalemate, laneway housing is being touted as a potential solution to ongoing housing shortages in the city.

Laneway houses are self-contained living spaces consisting of a bedroom, bathroom and kitchen located within or on the same property as a detached home.

Suites could be detached secondary suites located in the backyard or adjacent to the alley of a home.
Calgarian Lesley McLaughlin lived in an above-garage suite in the southwest community of Rosscarrock for two years.

The works of some imaginative young minds are the inspiration of the Calgary Home + Garden Show's new Home Tweet Home project.

In a silent auction running the duration of the show - Feb. 26 to March 1 - attendees can bid on birdhouses designed by "local influencers" taking inspiration from works by young beneficiaries of Ronald McDonald House Charities Southern Alberta, with all proceeds directly benefiting the charity.

Calgary councillors, local food activists working towards urban hen pilot project

A prominent local food activist is urging the city to rethink their opposition to backyard coops, arguing the advantages of urban livestock far outweigh their potential drawbacks.

"[Hens are] amazing for (the consumption of) organic household wastes. They're amazing for pest control in the backyard, they eat bugs and all kinds of different things," said Paul Hughes, a farm manager with urban farm Grow Calgary and the founder of the Canadian Liberated Urban Chicken Klub (CLUCK).

"They then will produce from that consumption of food and feed. They will produce a beautiful, nutritious egg that has about 33 per cent more nutrients than what we call an industrial egg from a battery-cage operation."

Rise in listings adds options to condo market

Calgary's housing market was a welcome sight to many new homebuyers in January, particularly those dipping their toes into the attached and apartment sectors.

Citywide listings in the categories ballooned by 38 and 52 per cent, respectively, in January compared to the same period last year. Sales, meanwhile, declined by as much as 43 per cent – creating, when combined with an increase in listings, an influx of inventory and thus more options for would-be buyers.