Study finds major Canadian cities have room to improve when it comes to densification

Densification is a buzzword now in the real estate industry, and it's certainly on the minds of many policy makers in cities across Canada, including Calgary.

If you travel to cities around the world, you will see firsthand how the other half lives, so to speak. More people are living close together in those global cities.

City of Calgary Main Streets initiative aims to revitalize streetscapes and bring communities together

In late September, a throng of Bridgeland residents turned out for the first annual community-organized passeggiata, visiting cultural and business stops along the neighbourhood's main thoroughfare, ending in celebration at the street's General Square.

This passeggiata — a leisurely promenade or stroll in the Italian tradition — and other activities like it are exactly what the City of Calgary's Main Streets initiative is designed to encourage across 24 different city streets.

Could a laneway home be up your alley?

For some Calgarians, a laneway house is a realistic way to achieve the elusive dream of home ownership.

Laneway houses are fully independent, small-scale dwellings that face onto an alley, typically found in the backyards of existing homes. Often referred to as "urban cabins," they are an alternative way to add density to established inner-city neighbourhoods.

While the buzz around laneway homes might be new, the concept is not.

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.

Former CREB® president Patti Beaudry recalls city's fast pace in 1997

Former CREB® president Patti Beaudry recalls 1997 as a bright spot in Calgary's real estate history, in which resale housing activity and prices hit then peak levels and the city's population experienced a newfound surge.

The economy was vibrant, with new jobs bringing newcomers to the city by planes, trains and automobiles, recalled the 35-year real estate veteran, who guided the organization's board of directors through its boom year. By year's end, the city's population gained 3.3 per cent to 934,300 compared to 2.4 per cent growth the year prior. Three years later, it hit the once-mythical one-million mark.

Calgary's housing market at the time illustrated the impact of this new wave of new residents. Sales in the resale residential sector jumped more than 20 per cent to 18,423, while prices surged by more than six per cent to $146,788, according to CREB®.

Over the past five decades, Calgary's real estate industry has been bare to it all – from double-digit interest rates to densification. Starting today, CREB®Now will weave together an incredible narrative of how the local housing industry has evolved through the unique perspectives of CREB®'s 30 remaining past presidents.

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Change can be hard.

It can be messy.

It can be painful.

But it can also be necessary.

And with perspective, it can be the best thing that ever happens.

Evolution of Beltline area only the beginning, say advocates

True urban living: that's how Beltline Communities president Rob Taylor describes the resident experience just south of downtown.

Taylor has seen Calgary's Beltline district – bounded by the CPR tracks on the north, 17th Avenue to the south, 14th Street to the west and the Elbow River in the east – evolve extensively since he first moved into West Connaught in 1983. (The Beltline is made up of four neighbourhoods: West Connaught, Connaught Centre, Victoria Centre and East Victoria.)

"There has been a tremendous amount of development in the Beltline. We're very much focused on creating a vibrant community with high-density, urban living."

Q&A with SAIT Polytechnic School of Construction dean Scott MacPherson

The homebuilding industry is undergoing unprecedented change – from new technologies to a new-look workforce. Calgary, in particular, has witnessed, and even ushered, much of this change first-hand, thanks in part to SAIT Polytechnic's School of Construction.

CREB®Now recent sat down with the school's dean Scott MacPherson to talk about everything from densification to East Coast dinner parties.

Cardel Lifestyles is enjoying a busy start to 2015. The multi-family builder has shovels in the ground at its new condo development in Auburn Bay, and recently opened new show suites in Sage Hill.

CREB®Now recently sat down with Brad Logel, sales and marketing manager for Cardel Lifestyles, to discuss everything from what's new with the company to how downsizers are shaping its business. Here's what he had to say:

CREB®Now:?What's new with Cardel Lifestyles?

Logel: We recently had the grand opening of five new condo show suites in northwest Calgary at Sage Place. We have started construction on our first condo building at Auburn Walk in southeast Calgary. We are about to release our townhomes at Cranston Ridge and our second building at Auburn Walk. Our company recently won the Homeowner Mark of Excellence for Alberta. This is awarded to the builder with the highest overall customer experience rating. This rating is based on customer surveys over a 13-month period. We also won the New Homebuyer's Choice Award earlier this year. Both of the awards are based on surveys done by Customer Insight and done for all Alberta New Home Warranty Builders and their new homeowners.

We've all heard that Rome wasn't built in a day. Neither was Calgary, which continues to undergo an urban renaissance. Over the next five days, CREB®Now will present a series where it has sat down with five influencers who have helped develop the city as we know it today

The man with the plan

In Grade 12, a university professor spoke to Jeff Fielding's class about cities and how they are planned.

"I had no idea what I wanted to be at the time," said the man appointed city manager just over a year ago to lead Calgary's 15,000 municipal employees.

"He (the university professor) was so passionate about what he was doing and what the future held for cities that I thought, 'wow, I have to get into that.'"