As of last week, Home Real Estate was listing a house in The Ridge neighborhood for $3.8 million.

If that sounds like a lot for a home in Lincoln, it is. And if it fetches anything close to the asking price, it will set a local home price record.

The highest price ever paid for a home in Lincoln was the $1.9 million former Husker and current Major Leaguer Darin Erstad paid for a house in southeast Lincoln in 2008.

Dan Whitney (who some people like to call Larry the Cable Guy), paid $2 million for an acreage east of Lincoln in 2004, but that purchase included more than 130 acres of land.

The Ridge home, which is 10 years old, has five bedrooms, four full baths and a couple of smaller ones, and a four-car garage. It's about 7,500 square feet and sits on a 1.3-acre lot.

From the pictures on the Home Web site, it looks like a very impressive home. But its property tax valuation is only around $1.3 million. So what makes it worth nearly $4 million? Who knows?

Apparently, we live in the sticks

When you think of the word "rural," do you think of Lincoln? Do you think of any city with 250,000 people as rural?

Apparently the editors of Computerworld do.

The magazine did a story last month about what it called "rural offshoring" - essentially moving tech jobs to smaller towns to take advantage of lower wages and a lower cost of living.

The focus of the article was an Atlanta-based company called Xpanxion, which specializes in offshore software development. The vast majority of Xpanxion's 300 employees work in India, but in 2006 the company opened a location in Kearney that employs about 30 people. It also has a small operation in Loup City, where its founder is from.

To help make its point about rural offshoring, the magazine cited what it considered other instances of the practice.

"Other companies, such as Perot Systems Corp., have built operations in rural areas, such as in Lincoln, Neb., as part of low-cost strategy," the author wrote.

Interestingly, Lincoln is nearly four times the size of Framingham, Mass., where Computerworld's office is.

Building a better light bulb dimmer

Axis Technologies last month got the coveted Underwriters Laboratories approval for its newly redesigned electronic dimming ballast.

The Lincoln company makes a line of energy-saving products that automatically dim fluorescent lights based on how much sunlight is present.

It's been an uphill climb for Axis, which has lost money since its inception. While the company has garnered some positive press, it hasn't translated into a windfall of sales.

The company was counting on approval from UL, which is an independent product safety certification organization, to boost those sales.

That approval came several months later than expected. As of the end of March, Axis said it had received close to $750,000 in purchase orders for the redesigned ballasts.

"With the requisite UL marking, Axis Technologies can now begin to fill orders that have been received but were withheld from shipping until the awaited approval," said President Jim Erickson.

The best of the Buzz

Excerpts from recent Biz Buzz postings:

-There's work going on at the old Arturo's/Crabby Bill's location. A sign says something called "The Bar and Grill" is coming soon.

-After 30 years in business in Lincoln, Rothchild's Clothing is closing for good.

-D'Leon's becomes the third restaurant on O Street between 14th Street and Centennial Mall in two weeks to go belly up, following Billy Brown's and Roost Sandwiches.

Go to Journalstar.com/bizbuzz to read more Biz Buzz posts.

Have a business news tip? Send it to businessnews@journalstar.com.