Real Estate News

New Home Prices Continue Their Ascent In Omaha Metro, And A New Study Offers Peek At Why

Published by Nikki Palmer on Thu, 02/23/2023 - 5:00am

Rows at Coventry, under construction near 207th and Q Streets in Douglas County, will offer hard-to-find price point in new construction market. (Cindy Gonzalez / Nebraska Examiner)

OMAHA — The average sale price of a newly built home in the Omaha area has hit the half-million-dollar mark, and a local nonprofit group is ramping up efforts to stem construction costs that have helped to drive record prices.

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City Planners Are Questioning The Point Of Parking Garages

Published by Nikki Palmer on Thu, 02/16/2023 - 5:00am

For the past century, the public and private sector appear to have agreed on one thing: the more parking, the better.

As a result, cities were built up in ways that devoted valuable space to storing cars, did little to accommodate people who don’t own cars and forced developers to build expensive parking structures that increased the cost of living.

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Federal Agency Rejects Developer’s Report That Massive Grain Elevator Won’t Harm Black Heritage Sites

Published by Nikki Palmer on Thu, 02/16/2023 - 4:00am

For the second time in six months, a federal agency reprimanded a Louisiana developer for its failure to offer an adequate assessment of the harm that its proposed $400 million agricultural development would cause to neighboring Black communities and historic sites.

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Shift Of Environmental Trust Funds And Construction Of New Prisons Panned

Published by Nikki Palmer on Thu, 02/16/2023 - 3:00am

LINCOLN — Gov. Jim Pillen should drop his raid on the Nebraska Environmental Trust and should reconsider policies that appear to require not one, but two, new state prisons, a legislative panel was told Monday.

Pillen’s proposed state budget would divert $14 million over the next two years from the Environmental Trust, which is funded by State Lottery proceeds, to a state water resources fund.

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Fossil Fuel Drilling Threatens Air And Wildlife In National Parks, Advocacy Group Finds

Published by Nikki Palmer on Thu, 02/16/2023 - 2:00am

WASHINGTON — A “massive” methane cloud forming over Chaco Culture National Historical Park in New Mexico.

Noxious air pollution fouling Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado.

Herds of mule deer and pronghorn at risk of decimation at Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming.

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Spotlight To Shine, In Nebraska And Nationally, On What Critics Call ‘Home Equity Theft’

Published by Nikki Palmer on Thu, 02/09/2023 - 5:00am

LINCOLN — Their nightmare had been years in the making, but Joyful and Todd Stoves said they had no idea until a man knocked on their door in December with an order to leave the home they’d lived in over 20 years.

What the couple quickly learned: They had missed a property tax payment on their mortgage-free house in 2017, the year they were consumed with a family death.

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Protest Resumes At Site Of Housing Development Near Lincoln’s Wilderness Park

Published by Nikki Palmer on Thu, 02/09/2023 - 2:00am

LINCOLN — Native American activists were back protesting Monday at the site of a housing development planned near Wilderness Park, across the road from a location for sweat lodge ceremonies.

Lincoln police were called to the site after activists blocked equipment that began removing trees from the site Monday morning.

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Contaminants From AltEn Plant Found In More Homes, Streams And Soil

Published by Nikki Palmer on Thu, 02/02/2023 - 5:00am

AltEn ethanol plant in Mead, Neb. was closed in February 2021. It is subject to a clean-up order from state environmental regulators. Investigators say more research is needed to determine if long-term exposure to neonicotinoids impacts health. (Justin Wan / Lincoln Journal Star via AP Photo)

MEAD — Residents near the closed AltEn ethanol plant were told Monday night that contaminants found in area homes were “significantly higher” than those found in houses in Omaha and another rural community, Kennard.

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Bring Back Dodo? Ambitious Plan Draws Investors, Critics

Published by Nikki Palmer on Thu, 02/02/2023 - 4:00am

WASHINGTON (AP) — The dodo bird isn't coming back anytime soon. Nor is the woolly mammoth. But a company working on technologies to bring back extinct species has attracted more investors, while other scientists are skeptical such feats are possible or a good idea.

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A $30 Million Gift To Build An Addiction Treatment Center. Then Staffers Had To Run It.

Published by Nikki Palmer on Thu, 01/26/2023 - 5:00am

Howard Buffett, son of billionaire investor Warren Buffett, gave $30 million in funding to the facility in Decatur, Illinois, where he was the interim sheriff for Macon County. (Faye Sadou / MediaPunch / IPX)

DECATUR, Ill. — The question came out of the blue, or so it seemed to Crossing Healthcare CEO Tanya Andricks: If you had $30 million to design an addiction treatment facility, how would you do it?