Housing crisis threatens to stifle rural Kansas towns hoping to grow

On the east edge of town, an empty sidewalk flanked by dirt and gravel curls around a bend into the shape of a cul-de-sac. Soon, it will lead to the front doors of three dozen new homes — the first houses in Hays built to sell for $225,000 or less in the past several years. Doug Williams, who heads the local housing and economic development coalition Grow Hays, expects the first homebuyers to move in by the end of this year. And in his view, it’s not a moment too soon. Nor is it enough. “We have what I would deem an extreme undersupply of housing,” Williams said. “And we’ve been fighting that for going on nine to 10 months now.” In the space of one year from late 2019 to late 2020, Grow Hays’ housing report found that the number of homes for sale in the northwest Kansas town plummeted from 101 to 50. And it keeps dropping. “I checked this morning,” he said, “and it was 41.”
Source: KAKE – News

2021-06-18T07:43:21-05:00June 18, 2021|News|

Tenants to Homeowners to hold open house for solar-powered small home; project is first to use Lawrence’s density bonus

An open house for the project, Solar Prairie, will take place from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday at 1443 Prairie Ave. The two-bedroom, 925-square-foot home is Tenants to Homeowners’ third small home, and the second small home built on the lot, making it the first project to use the city’s density bonus. The Lawrence City Commission voted in 2019 to approve the density bonus, which allows two homes to be built on lots of a certain size as long as both homes remain permanently affordable. Like other Tenants to Homeowners projects, the solar-powered small home will be sold at an affordable price to a qualifying owner and remain in a permanently affordable community land trust into the future.
Source: LJWorld.com.

2021-06-18T07:23:49-05:00June 18, 2021|News|

Pittsburg Festival of the Arts returns with new elements, live performances

Crawford County residents eager to get out of the house can enjoy a free weeklong event that will showcase area talent including music, art and theater in venues at Pittsburg State University and at Block22 in downtown Pittsburg. Now in its ninth year, the annual Pittsburg Festival of the Arts is slated from Sunday to Saturday, June 19. It brings together local artists by giving them a public platform to exhibit their work during the summer months. Last year’s event was held virtually due to the pandemic but will resume in person this year. In collaboration with the PSU music department and the Bicknell Family Center for the Arts, the festival will feature a mix of outdoor and indoor concerts featuring jazz, brass, Latin, country, classic rock, gospel, bluegrass and chamber music.
Source: www.joplinglobe.com

2021-06-18T07:19:39-05:00June 18, 2021|News|

Economic development projects in WYCO received boost from state

Wyandotte County has been a big beneficiary of economic development efforts in Kansas, according to Gov. Laura Kelly. The state intensified economic development efforts in the past few years, moving up in state rankings for its efforts and recently receiving the Gold Shovel Award from Area Development magazine, she said on Tuesday. Only eight states received the award, and Kansas was the only small state that received this economic development award this year, she said. “We set a record for new capital investment in 2020,” Gov. Kelly said. “We brought in over $2.5 billion in capital investment, more than ever before. And we are on target to beat that record in 2021.”
Source: Wyandotte Daily

2021-06-18T07:19:04-05:00June 18, 2021|News|

Lacking lifeguards: Local pools making due, but hope to hire more

The heat has hundreds rushing to their local pools and splash pads. Nationwide, there is a shortage of lifeguards. “We started the year kind of strong. We’ve already lost six lifeguards since the summer has begun,” said Ted Nelson, the superintendent of aquatics for Hutchinson Recreation. Day by day, Hutchinson is keeping their splash aquatic center open, but they are still feeling the heat to hire more lifeguards this summer. “Just the shortage of applicants, and not a lot of our returners coming back,” said Nelson. There were concerns across Kansas that some pools might have to cut back on hours due to the lack of lifeguards, but fortunately, that has not been the case in Wichita and the surrounding communities.
Source: KSN-TV

2021-06-18T07:18:18-05:00June 18, 2021|News|

Explaining the volatile stock and bond market moves this week following the Fed’s update

Strategists say the the Fed’s slight step toward tightening policy didn’t shock markets Wednesday, but it will likely make them volatile going forward. The Fed, in essence, is acknowledging the door is now open to future rate hikes. … The yields of shorter-duration Treasurys, like the 2-year note, rose, while longer duration yields, such as the benchmark 10-year fell. That so-called “flattening” is a go-to trade when interest rates rise. The logic is that longer yields fall since the economy may not do as well in the future with higher interest rates, and short-end yields rise to reflect expectations of the Fed raising rates. U.S. longer-dated Treasurys, like the 10-year, have been lower than many strategists had expected lately. In part, that’s because they are highly attractive to foreign buyers due to negative rates in other parts of the world and liquidity in the U.S. markets. The 10-year yield shot to 1.59% after the Fed news, but was back down at 1.5% Thursday afternoon.
Source: CNBC – Bonds

2021-06-18T07:17:27-05:00June 18, 2021|News|

Treasury yields ebb lower as investors shake off Fed policy update

U.S. Treasury yields ebbed lower on Friday morning, as investors continued to shake off the Federal Reserve’s hawkish turn in its latest policy update. … Yields drifted lower despite the Fed having raised its inflation expectations, following its two-day meeting which concluded on Wednesday. The Fed also indicated that an interest rate hike could come as soon as 2023, after saying in March that it saw no increases until at least 2024. In a note sent to CNBC Thursday, Kleinwort Hambros Chief Investment Officer Fahad Kamal said that … he sees inflation as transitory in the short term, and expects it to move lower in 2022 as an ageing population, supply-chain efficiency and technology-driven productivity gains “exert lasting disinflationary pressures.”
Source: CNBC – Bonds

2021-06-18T07:15:25-05:00June 18, 2021|News|

Wichita City Council gives initial approval to anti-discrimination ordinance

After a couple hours of discussion, which became heated at times, Wichita’s City Council gave initial approval on an a proposed anti-discrimination ordinance. The 4-3 vote approved what is called a first-reading, and changes can still be made before the ordinance is put into effect. A second-reading of the proposed ordinance is set for July 6. Some council members expressed concern regarding transparency, saying the public did not have much of a chance to look at the proposed ordinance before the vote. There was also concern that ordinance did not go through advisory boards that the city has set up. The ordinance being  proposed creates a locally enforceable ordinance to take action against landlords and employers who are accused of discriminating practices, though council members also expressed concern that the ordinance being proposed did not appear to include due process for those accused. Under the proposed ordinance, someone found guilty of discrimination would be fined, though it’s not clear where the fine money would go.
Source: Country 101.3 KFDI

2021-06-18T06:46:14-05:00June 18, 2021|News|

Kansas awards $900K to healthcare providers to boost COVID-19 vaccinations

In a new push to increase vaccinations in the state, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly announced $900,000 in grants going to healthcare providers to support vaccination efforts on Wednesday. “We’ve got to work with the primary care provider groups to make sure that they have the resources they need to get them all barred in to this concept of get to your doctor and get vaccinated,” Gov. Kelly said. The money will be used across the state to hire dedicated staff members to promote and administer vaccines. The governor held a roundtable discussion with primary care providers, joined by Dr. Marci Nielsen, the state’s Chief Advisor of Vaccine Distribution, to talk about the challenges providers face getting coronavirus shots to Kansans.
Source: KSNT News

2021-06-18T01:01:58-05:00June 18, 2021|News|
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