This is mainly aimed at the Americans among you, but other nationalities please feel free to weigh in.
I often see posts on here from people discussing what to do with their “yard”, where it quickly becomes clear that we’re talking about a considerable area of land. Which got me wondering, is it still possible for an average Joe to own a big old chunk o’ land? As I understand it, mile-square “sections” are divided into quarter sections of 160 acres, and quarter quarter sections of 40 acres. Is it still common for people to own a full 40 acres, or is everything mostly subdivided into tiny little parcels these days? Is a big chunk of land prohibitively expensive for most?
Here in the UK, even to have half an acre of grounds around your house is pretty unusual, unless you’re a farmer. I don’t have the measurements to hand, but I’d say the total area of my house and garden is barely a tenth of an acre.
So how much land do you own? And what do you do with it all?
It really depends on where it is, how aesthetically pleasing it is, how developed it is, whether it’s intended for commercial or residential purposes, etc.
Our suburban home is on probably around 1/3 to 1/2 an acre.
A vacation cabin in the mountains is on 2 acres.
A family homestead in rural Ft. Worth that we’ve let go back to woodland is 80 acres.
A family working cattle ranch is around 44k, give or take.
We own 70 acres of farm, woods, streams, bluffs, swamp (prime mosquito raising land!), and a nice piece of lakefront on Lake Michigan which is composed of low dunes and pure sandy beach.
It’s made up of one entire 40 acre quarter quartersection square, with the additional land on two other quarter quartersections.
the land’s been in the family in one branch or another for over 100 years, and bits of it were first owned by my grandfather back in the 1930’s.
It’s a nice area for a few kinsmen to do their bowhunting in, thinning the deer herd out for us.
Basically, we raise hay on the cultivable 35 acres or so of it. The farmland doesn’t produce enough to cover the taxes, but renting out the 2 other houses on the land cuts expenses, and holding onto the land keeps it out of the hands of developers. I’ve got more than enough neighbors to suit me as it is now.
(I must admit local zoning codes make it very tough to turn farmland into subdivisions in our area)
And it gives Mrs. Mercotan and myself a nice private outdoor area to relax in and enjoy. Tons of wild raspberries, a few runaway apple trees, and some nice secluded clearings that only we visit.
We own a pretty standard 1/3 of an acre in the DC suburbs.
I think what is different is how easy it is to own a larger parcel for a relatively modest sum, if you don’t particularly care where it is. My stepfather owns 200 acres in the Poconos. He bought it in the 1970s when there we plans to build a road and a mountain community. No road ever materialized and there is nothing there. He would give it up if someone would pay the property taxes for him.
Which brings me to my grand ambition. I want to be a land baron. I don’t care where my acreage is, Badlands is fine, swampland is lovely, I just want to accumulate the largest holding possible before I die. I wonder how many acres I could acquire given, say, a million dollar investment over the next twenty years. It doesn’t even need to be all together. I want to be like the anti-Trump.
I live in rural Manitoba, Canada and own 5 acres. The town I live in is one square section. The half section my property is on is not populated yet. So I have five acres, in the country, but in the town The way the town is growing that 5 acres might be worth a small fortune in 5 to 10 years too.
49.5’ x 75’ - I’ve got a subdivided lot in an older neighborhood that had small lots to begin with. Most lots in the US are much bigger (heck, a lot of houses in the US are bigger than my lot).
My wife and I live on an 11 acre plot. 2 of those acres are mowable. (Is that a word?) The rest is woodland and meadow. We have a small creek going through our back yard.
We also own 5 acres of lake front property with two cabins on it in Vermont. My brother and I bought out our parents in the late 90’s. It’s been in the family since 1964. I’d live there is the Mrs. would allow it. She won’t.
I’m of the generation where the more land the merrier Plus I love my Tree houses and Hobbit Holes
My house sits more towards the front than the back, so my front yard is decent-sized and my backyard seems ginormous (where I grew up, down the street, the house was more centered front-to-back)
The first thing I did when I bought the house was put in a chain-link fence in the back yard for my dog.
When I bought the house the back yard had 13 overgrown fruit trees. I cut down 3 the first summer and trimmed up the rest. Now 7 more of them are slated to die this summer.
I let my uncle make a 10x15 vegetable garden in the back corner. Otherwise, the yard is just trees and uneven, weedy grass. Whee!
I love it…Mowable, cuiltivable…great words! I’ve got a buddy with a Brush Hog that comes and mows our meadow each fall. He takes what he wants…and leaves the rest to me and my Pheasant or woodcock hunting buddies
I’m living in a condo townhouse (which I own) in the city, the footprint of which is about 20 feet by 40 feet, with no yard at all.
I also own a wooded lot on the other side of the USA, which is located in a semi-suburban/semi-rural area, and is 1.6 acres. My immediate neighbors there have lots that are 3, 5, and 7 acres in size.
I just moved here from a farmhouse in a rural area that is on 2 acres. The neighbors’ lots average anywhere from 1/2 acre to 350 acres (these are working farms), with the typical size being about 1 to 2 acres.
I grew up in a house in the suburbs that was on 1/2 acre. All the houses in the neighborhood had identical, cookie-cutter-sized lots.
Depends where you live. The US is big, and away from urban areas, land can be cheap. I’m in a formerly rural area near(ish) Boston and I have four acres, only because three acres of it has no frontage and consists of woods and swamp.
Some of the local suburbs have gotten fed up with development and have been imposing some zoning limitations, including minimum two acre lots.
So…it’s pretty much what you’d expect. In the city or near the shore, lots are pretty small and housing density is high. In the suburbs, you’ll get houses on between 1/4 and 2 acres. Head out to the boonies and you’re going to find people with 6, 10, or a couple of hundred acres of land.
Thinking about it, that’s probably about the same as mine, except mine is narrower and possibly slightly longer, say 40’ x 80’. So quite a bit less than a tenth of an acre. And it’s an end-of-terrace (rowhouse), only three bedrooms, and yet it’s worth probably the equivalent of $350,000 or more. (I don’t own it, strictly speaking, I rent off my parents with a view to buying it from them eventually.)
When I watch some of these TV shows where people buy property overseas, it just brings home to me how stupidly expensive property is in SE England. I was watching one the other day where a couple were looking at houses on Vancouver Island with a budget of a hundred thousand (say a little under US$200,000). Here, you couldn’t buy anything, not even the tiniest of tiny flats for that. Over there they were looking at big rambling oceanfront houses with half an acre out back
I now have 1.3 flat grassy acres. Upgrade from a 60x150 shady hillside lot. We’ll see how much fun I have keeping up with the grass mowing this summer.
What do I do with it? Well we have a basketball court, and go out and play soccer with the kids. Honestly around here about all people so with their yards is keep them mowed, sometimes several times a week. Seems to give older men something to do.
50’x200’ - which I think is about a quarter acre.
I plan on moving in about 2 years, and would like to move to at least 1/2 acre, tho 1-5 would be better. Q - that really sounds lovely.
