There is a new, unique housing project coming to the city of McPherson, put together by the McPherson Housing Coalition over the course of the past several months. The coalition is looking to build several “tiny homes” under the banner of “Oak Harbor Cottages” on the corner of S. Oak and E. Skanke. The 10 homes — about 460 square feet each — will be there to help people get back on their feet after life changes render them homeless or near homeless. It is a response to the phone calls that come in too often — a family sleeping in their car because they have no place to go. The coalition can help, but sometimes there is a struggle and a wait. “We often have no place to put them,” said Chris Goodson, coalition member.
Source: Hutchinson News.

“There is a lot of money on the sidelines going to work on new issues,” a New York municipal manager said. However, a lot of the demand is intermediate and long focused. “It’s still a challenge in the front of the market with the low yields. Once you get to below the 0.20% level you lose retail,” he said. … And rates should not rise anytime soon, as inflation should remain “subdued” this year, although higher than it’s been in a while, according to Ned Davis Research Senior U.S. Economist Veneta Dimitrova. The firm expects inflation to rise about 2.2% this year, despite a “temporary spike” in the spring as a result of the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on inflation last spring.
Source: Bond Buyer.

The interest rate table above illustrates recent changes in a sample of MBIS “investment grade” yields. Every issuer’s credit is different. For rates that may be applicable to your municipality, contact our Municipal Bond Advisors, Larry Kleeman and Beth Warren.

Joey Bahr walks out to the front of his yard along a blacktop county road. He stops in a ditch and points to an orange-and-black sign that marks a buried fiberoptic cable. But for Bahr, the cable running beneath his feet is off-limits. It’s owned by a neighboring internet service provider and is merely passing through on its way to a nearby town. “It’s just maddening,” Bahr said. “We’re at the end of the line basically.” Bahr’s story illustrates just how out-of-reach broadband remains for tens of millions of people in rural America. Nearly 9% of Kansas households — roughly 130,000 — still don’t have access to high-speed internet. Yet the promise of a future with broadband for all Kansans, no matter how remote, might rest in the wide-open skies over the Bahrs’ home — and a plan to send Wi-Fi to a future Mars colony.
Source: Hutch News.