By MIKE CORN

mcorn@dailynews.net

The boom and bust of a community often is measured in its housing market -- how many new homes are being built and how many are sitting empty.

It's just that the numbers being bandied about of late don't jibe with what's really happening in northwest Kansas. On either side of the equation.

In fact, observers in at least two communities say they are just plain wrong.

There's no way, for example, that Cheyenne County has seen a mini housing boom during the past year and still lacks any empty homes.

It's just as implausible, an Osborne businessman said, that his community has lost 96 homes during the past year and still has 44 sitting empty.

To be sure, said John Girard, Osborne, a few dilapidated homes have been torn down, but certainly not that many.

While the downturn in the economy hasn't hit Osborne hard, he said, there have been a few ripples.

Or, it's just as easy to see that east Hays hasn't been shrinking, losing as many as 157 homes with 24 still vacant. In fact, it's more likely that the area -- everything east of Vine -- has a slightly larger number of homes and a relatively small vacancy rate.

To be fair, the Associated Press suggested it would be dicey to do an analysis of an area with fewer than 1,000 housing units. Cheyenne County, however, has slightly more than 1,500 homes. Osborne has more than 2,000 homes. Eastern Hays has more than 3,600.

For all of northwest Kansas, the HUD-collected and U.S. Postal Service-reported numbers suggest the addition of 1,567 more homes in the first quarter of this year compared to the period in 2008.

Yet there were only 189 additional empty homes. Area-wide, northwest Kansas only had 2,391 vacant homes, according to the data.

"In the last 30 days," Girard said, "there's probably been four homes that have been taken down."

Those homes, he said, were dilapidated and uninhabitable.

"They're just rat traps," he said.

The goal of Osborne's clean-up program is to clear away unsightly areas and get some open lots.

Those lots then can be someplace where people can build.

But there's no way, Girard said, that 96 homes have been torn down during the past year.

Things aren't quite booming in Osborne, he said, but "there's people starting to come back in."

Businesses have been holding their own, even as metropolitan areas suffer.

"In our little town, we're not laying people off," he said.

To be sure, some places aren't hiring, and a few haven't replaced workers who left.

At the opposite end of the region, Cheyenne County is not flush with new homes, and there are a few vacancies.

Diane Kribs, who along with her husband, Chuck, operate the Cheyenne County Development Corp., suggests neither number is correct.

She doubts 57 new homes have been built during the past year, and no vacant homes exist in the county.

"I know there are some," Kribs said.

She knows of some in St. Francis, the county seat, and suspects there's even more than a person might suspect in nearby Bird City, 14 miles east of St. Francis.

The issue of empty homes is important to the Kribses, who have asked area residents for a specific count in both St. Francis and Bird City.

They don't have the numbers back yet, but Bird City -- population about 400 -- should be coming in soon.

Kribs said the survey likely will show a number of homes are vacant, but most are being maintained by owners who live elsewhere.

"The people, they have someone keeping it up, but no one lives there," she said.

Ironically, she said, there are a "handful of homes where people live elsewhere but they don't want to sell it."

In fact, the place she and her husband bought, outside of Bird City, virtually was falling down, wasn't listed and nobody was living there.

The first time her husband made an offer, the owners weren't interested.

A second offer three months later was accepted. The previous owners since have returned to the area, but live in a home they didn't own at the time.

"Apparently," Kribs said, "there are lots of places in the county where people are holding onto them."