In this paper we characterize $K$-contact semi-Riemannian manifolds and Sasakian semi-Riemannian manifolds in terms of curvature. Moreover, we show that any conformally flat $K$-contact semi-Riemannian manifold is Sasakian and of constant sectional curvature $\kappa=\varepsilon$, where $\varepsilon =\pm 1$ denotes the causal character of the Reeb vector field. Finally, we give some results about the curvature of a $K$-contact Lorentzian manifold.

We completely classify three-dimensional Lorentz manifolds, curvature homogeneous up to order one, equipped with Einstein-like metrics. New examples arise with respect to both homogeneous examples and three-dimensional Lorentz manifolds admitting a degenerate parallel null line field.