EDMONTON - You finally decide on the design of your dream home and you take the plans to the builder, who eventually starts construction ... in a 125,000-square-foot plant in Acheson.
That`s the concept behind Igloo Pre-Built`s new $18-million facility designed to supply much-needed housing to areas such as Fort McMurray and the Peace Country, says Barry Stewart, president of parent company Igloo Building Supplies.
0908EDTN Edmonton house builders hit brakes on new home starts
EDMONTON - Not since 2001 have so few homes been started in the Edmonton region for the first eight months of the year.
For the year to date, total housing starts have fallen by 51 per cent to 4,972 units, compared to activity in the first eight months of 2007, according to preliminary statistics released Tuesday by the Canada Mortgage Housing Corp.
That marks the lowest level of January to August home-building activity for the Edmonton census metropolitan area since seven years ago when 4,813 homes were started.
0908ALTA Imperial Oil `optimistic` about Mackenzie project
TORONTO - Imperial Oil chief executive of Bruce March says he is more optimistic about the likelihood of the Mackenzie Gas Project than he has been in the last five or six years.
The federal government has shown greater interest in the massive project in the past nine months than ever before, March said Tuesday during a presentation to investors at the Peters and Co. 2008 North American Oil and Gas Conference in Toronto.
0908ALTA Klein to Stelmach: Give some surplus bucks back
Ralph Klein -- the man who delivered $400 "Ralphbucks" cheques to nearly every Albertan -- has some advice for Premier Ed Stelmach: give back some of the mounting billions in surplus dollars.
With Alberta projecting a record-matching surplus of $8.5 billion this fiscal year -- including nearly $19 billion in resource revenues -- the former premier said Stelmach should take a page from his old playbook and return some of the windfall to Albertans.
Two more signs emerged Tuesday that Calgary`s once red-hot housing market has dramatically cooled.
Total housing starts in August plunged by 60.3 per cent compared with a year ago in the Calgary census metropolitan area and the number for single-detached homes is the lowest level for any August since 1990, according to Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
The estimated construction value of building permit applications is $3.1 billion so far this year, down 21 per cent from the first eight months of 2007 ($3.9 billion), says the City of Calgary.
This compares to the five-year average (2003-2007) of $2.6 billion.
EDMONTON - Nuclear power offers Alberta more opportunities than challenges and the province should develop the industry, says a Canada West Foundation report intended to influence the provincial government.
Alberta and Saskatchewan need to take advantage of a worldwide nuclear revival, which will happen with or without their participation, said Duane Bratt, a political science instructor from the Department of Policy Studies at Calgary`s Mount Royal College.
OTTAWA - Is the barrel half full or half empty? Oil`s spectacular plunge from its $147.27 US summer high has energy bull Jeff Rubin pulling in his horns, but he`s sticking with his $200 target for 2010.
For the time being though, the CIBC World Markets economist and strategist has lowered his outlook for crude prices this year and next, and trimmed his already scaled-down projection for the Toronto Stock Exchange`s main index from 14,300 to 13,000 by year-end.
Cops are warning the public to be vigilant when hiring contractors for home renovations.
It comes after residents of a west-end neighbourhood were apparently duped by a bogus builder.
Police say several Wedgewood residents responded to hand-delivered flyers advertising home renovations and roofing services. The homeowners signed contracts and made partial payments, but the unnamed contractor failed to complete or even start the work, said police.
At 76, Joseph Siklenka has grown tired of being retired.
The former oil worker finds little excitement in his daily routine of meals, chores and evening television shows, longing instead for the days when he worked on offshore rigs in far-flung locales.
On Wednesday -- a full decade after many people his age have left the workforce -- Siklenka spent the morning job hunting at the Central Alberta Job Fair in Red Deer.
0908CALG Alberta Tories focus energies on helping in other provinces
Jason Kenney doesn`t have a Calgary Southeast campaign office open yet, has no website of his own, and is spending the week knocking the Liberals in the Conservative war room instead of knocking voters` doors in his riding.
He plans to spend campaign weekends stumping in his hometown, and the rest of the time in Ottawa and elsewhere in the electoral battleground of Ontario.
There`s a light at the end of the tunnel -- and this time, it doesn`t appear to be a freight train barrelling toward us.
In fact, single-family homebuilders in and around Calgary may be on the verge of reversing the downturn in sales and construction that has plagued them dramatically since about the mid-point of 2007, says Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp.
0908CALG Baby boomers` housing needs hard to pinpoint
Even though Calgary is known as a young city, the baby boomer market may still not have been fully tapped, says a housing industry leader.
The key to attract boomers is to cater to each micro-segment within the group, says Jane O`Connor, president and CEO of 55 Plus LLC -- a company that helps builders market products to those nearing retirement age.
"There is no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to marketing condo and villa housing to older buyers," she says.
"I remember seeing an article in the Calgary Herald in January of 2002," says Don Campbell, real estate author and president of a REIN (Real Estate Investment Network), a real estate investing firm with more than 1,300 members.
"It said that Calgary would be leading the nation in property value growth from 2002 to 2011, and all of us investors were so excited. It was going to go up a total of 25 per cent," or about 2.5 per cent a year on average.
Calgary`s southwest quadrant continues to be the city`s busiest market for condominiums, with more than half of the city`s used condo sales between April and June taking place within its bounds.
But the latest data from the Calgary Real Estate Board also reveals that the number of condos for sale remains high, and the average sale price of used units dropped in two of the four zones comprising the city, highlighting the continued cooling in the market after its record run-up in 2006 and 2007.
0908CALG Calgarians give up rent for home ownership
A rental market survey shows that 38 per cent of rental units in Calgary turned over last year and the top reason for people leaving their units was for home ownership.
The survey, conducted by Canada Mortgage and Housing Corp. for the Calgary Apartment Association, said the next two top reasons were job relocation and financial constraints resulting from increases in rent.
The survey surprised the group which represents many residential rental landlords in the city, said Gerry Baxter, executive director of the Calgary Apartment Association.
Developers behind a proposed RV resort near Sunbreaker Cove plan to make their pitch to Lacombe County soon despite local opposition to the project.
A public open house in Bentley on Monday drew a large crowd, most of whom were against the plan to build 420 lots plus an additional 97 overnight spots on a site about two km from the north end of Sylvan Lake.
Sunbreaker Cove Mayor Gib Clark estimated the crowd at 150 to 200 and said many are concerned that the RV resort will put too much pressure
0908EDTN Revitalized downtown plan lost in suburbia
City hall`s new downtown plan is a pipe dream wrapped in a wish list, inside a fantasy.
It describes a future downtown throbbing with life and experiences; a place where people stroll for blocks under leafy canopies and past public art to relax in small parks, dine at outdoor patios, shop in boutiques, duck into clubs or just revel in the bustle and flow of humanity.
0908EDTN Interchange project `cost us more than it needed to`
EDMONTON - Poor planning, late design changes and ineffective project management were big factors in cost increases that saw the 23rd Avenue interchange budget more than triple to $261 million, the city auditor says.
Work to move traffic faster through the busy intersection at Gateway Boulevard won`t be finished until 2011, five years later than originally expected, partly because of extra time needed to deal with "significant deficiencies" in the concept plan, says auditor David Wiun`s report.
