The "Old Town" entertainment district in Downtown Wichita was just voted one of the "top ten neighborhoods" for revitalizing and cleaning up polluted areas in America's cities.

The Wichita City council has approved $25 million in industrial revenue bonds to be used to purchase the Broadview hotel in down town Wichita and completely renovate the property down to its studs.  The Hotel was purchased by the Drury hotel company and will be open for one year before closing for a year to completely renovate the property.

In October, 2008, Wichita was rated by the RE/MAX-AP report on U.S. Housing as one of the very few markets where the average sales price actually rose from the same period in 2007.  The report showed a 3.5% gain in average prices in the Wichita metro area.  Sales activity, however, was down over 18% from the previous year.  DOM was virtually the same because housing inventories dropped around 15% during the same time period.