The Federal Reserve is keeping its ultra-low interest rate policies in place, a sign that it wants to see more evidence of a strengthening economic recovery before it would consider easing its support.
People often think of mobile home parks as low-income housing, but they aren’t low income to the investors who own them.
That was illustrated big time with the recent sale of a northwest Lincoln mobile home park.
I did the math, and that works out to more than $62,200 per lot. Even if most of those lots include the manufactured home on them, that’s still rather pricey. The park is 63.7 acres in total, so on a per-acre basis it’s more than $414,400.
The county Assessor’s Office values the park at a little over $7.6 million, and it sold just a little over three years ago for $20.6 million.
The purchase of the park was part of a much larger purchase of mobile home parks across the U.S. by a company called Horizon Land Management. According to an article in Multi-Housing News, Horizon bought 93 parks for a total of $743.3 million.
Along with Contempo in Lincoln, the purchase also included two mobile home parks in Bellevue, two in Plattsmouth, one in Eagle and one in Nebraska City.
Pandemic pole position
Last weekend gave Lincoln a taste of what a post-pandemic recovery will look like, with 30,000-plus fans at the Nebraska spring game, and thousands more in town for NU baseball and the Lincoln Marathon.
Though we’re far from returning to normal, Lincoln, by one measure, has recovered more from COVID-19 than any other city in the U.S.
According to personal finance website WalletHub, Lincoln has had the best recovery in employment among 180 cities studied.
The study, which was based on March figures, showed Lincoln had the second-lowest unemployment rate overall, along with the fourth-best rate compared with March 2019 and the fifth-best rate compared with January 2020 (the last full month that most of the U.S. was unaffected by the pandemic). Omaha came in third in the same report, which likely contributed to Nebraska as a whole ranking fourth in overall recovery from COVID-19 in a separate WalletHub study.
Hard-working Husker women
One factor that might be driving that strong recovery in Nebraska is the work being put in by women.
According to a study by Skynova, a company that makes invoicing software for small businesses, mothers in Nebraska spent more hours at work between January and September 2020 than their peers in any other state.
Moms in the state worked 43.5 hours on average, slightly more than those in Colorado, who put in 43.2 hours.
The study shows that having children hurts mothers’ earnings early in life, with moms under 40 earning less than women without children. That’s likely due to time spent away from the workforce caring for young children. The trend reverses, though, once moms hit 40.
If your mom is still in the workforce, make sure you thank her this Mother’s Day — and also make sure she takes it easy.
Best of the Buzz:
Excerpts from recent Biz Buzz posts:
* Burrito Express, a small Mexican restaurant chain based in the Phoenix area, is getting ready to open its first location outside its home market in Lincoln.
The company said in a tweet last month that the Lincoln location, at 831 N. 48th St., will open sometime in mid-May.
Listing the lists
Regular readers of this column know I sometimes like to end it with a rundown of recent rankings of Lincoln and/or Nebraska in national reports. The latest:
– 16th best city for new college grads (Smartasset)
10 charts that show where home sales are headed in Lincoln
Lincoln-area home sales, by ZIP code
Lincoln-area change in home sale prices, over time
Lincoln-area new home listings, by ZIP code
How Lincoln compares: Change in home sale prices
Lincoln area map: Change in home sale prices, by ZIP
Lincoln-area map: Home sale prices, by ZIP code
Lincoln-area rent, change over time by ZIP code
Lancaster county median home sale price
Lancaster county new home listings
Lancaster county total home sales
Go to Journalstar.com/bizbuzz to read more Biz Buzz posts.
Have a business news tip? Send it to businessnews@journalstar.com.