Sheldon, Iowa — Last week, citing what she referred to as a “severe workforce shortage” in the Hawkeye State, Governor Kim Reynolds announced that the additional $300 per week in unemployment benefits paid from pandemic relief funds would end June 12th.
Nancy Martens of Aventure Staffing in Sheldon says she hopes the Governor’s move will help fill some of the jobs area employers have available.
She says Aventure has seen a small increase in the number of job seekers since the Governor’s announcement, but thinks the numbers will increase as time goes by.
As Martens says, there are numerous jobs available here and normally local employers would be trying to recruit employees over a large geographical area. However, at this point in history, their searches are complicated by the fact that, according to Denny De Jong of Northwest Realty in Sheldon, there are precious few homes for sale in Sheldon right now.
De Jong cites low interest rates as one cause of the current real estate inventory shortage.
Homes in this area are often put on the market when the current homeowner elects to build a new home. However, several new home plans have been scrapped due to the skyrocketing cost of construction materials and, consequently, the corresponding increase in the cost of new construction.
The lack of Sheldon homes available for sale isn’t limited to Northwest Realty, either. In perusing the websites of ISB Services, Action Real Estate and Klaassen Realty, we discover that all of Sheldon’s realtors find themselves pretty much in the same boat.
De Jong says Northwest Realty normally has 35 to 40 homes for sale in their inventory at any given time. He says in his 26-years in real estate, the current number of Sheldon homes for sale is the lowest he’s seen.
