Just casually looking around for rural land that is close-ish to a big city (so say, for example, anywhere from about 20-70 miles out from the center of a 2-3 million pop city [the city’s metro area completely ends at the 20 mile mark] [it’s not in California either])
a) I don’t find much for sale on the couple of websites I’ve found online
b) what is for sale is insanely expensive (in my opinion, which, in this case, may not be worth shit) - like 50k+ per acre
Am I just suffering from some kind of inflation dementia? Are the days of 5k-10k per acre chunks of land gone? Is it my proximity to the city?
Am I not looking in the right places? Are most of the listings online insanely expensive because they’re fishing for out-of-town suckers? Where do you look then?
Or is that what the going rate is nowadays?
Help! I’ve always had some fascination with one day living on a chunk of land, far enough away from anyone (I’m a bit of a misanthrope like that).
What area are you talking about? There are many variables that go into land prices. A good idea is get the name of a local real estate person and ask them if there is land in that area for the price you are willing to pay. These days most real estate people are hurting so they will be glad to help you out.
I know of land in NC about 10 miles from the beach and it’s around $25k per acre at the high end so there are deals out there even in resort areas.
Unless you’re thinking of living full-time on the land and commuting into the big city (which, IME, tends to diminish the value to you of both city and country), you’re better off looking farther afield.
For example, if you want to work from home or retire to the country, but have occasional access to a big city, you might consider rural properties that are near small cities, which in turn have rail links to the metropolis.
Sadly, I like the creature comforts of metro areas, and I can’t work from home. So a quasi-exurban locale is really the best I can do to satisfy my misanthropy.
I find that the places that sell that land are looking for suckers. That being said, I looked up vacant land prices around Colorado Springs and out on the high plains land can go for as little as $1000/ac while in the mountains it can get up to $10,000/ac out in the hinterlands.
Its generally been my impression over the years that land only gets fairly cheap per acre when you buy a relatively large number of acres. That or its really crappy land in a really crappy location far from anything good.
You might be able to get a small group together to buy a bigger chunck and split it up. But be careful of local laws. You can buy land that can’t be split up or built on if you are careless.
I live about forty miles from Columbus, Ohio in a small city in a rural county. Outside of my city, wooded hilly small parcels on which the trees have been clear-cut at least once (meaning the current trees are not old hardwoods) and on which there are no improvements (buildings, roads, wells) sell for as low as $2,000 an acre. People usually buy these to hunt on. Every feature of a rural tract can add to the price. Mature trees are worth thousands per acre, sometimes tens of thousands per acre. A well on a small parcel can increase the cost per acre considerably. Flat, cleared land costs more because it can be farmed.
This is the case where I live (Oregon ) also. A large acreage or working farm can be purchased for much lower unit cost than a rural building lot or a 1-2 acre “hobby ranch”. Most common are places of 40-200 acres (many are larger, but they are made up of several parcels or tax lots of that size that can be sold separately). Prices generally run from $3000-10,000/acre. Currently state law prohibits anything under 160 acres from being subdivided. It is possible to obtain a variance, but it is a difficult & costly process.
SS
Here in Montana the value of a piece of land varies greatly depending on where it is located (is it near a public road?) what it has on it (a river or stream or mature trees) and whether it is a good place for development (houses or a shopping center). The bottom dropped out of the market and so prices fell 20-40%, depending on where the land was located.
A lot of subsistence farmers had taken out large mortgages when land values were rising and when the economy crashed they had to sell cheap… but most of those have turned over already.
We bought a lot 4 years ago in a new development overlooking a lake. We built a house, but the value of the lots in the development have now dropped about 30% and only one other person has decided to build at this point (many people bought their lots as an investment in 2005-2006).
They’re very hard to find, and next to impossible to get permission to build on if you do find one. There are a few parcels of that size, with existing homes that predate the current zoning restrictions which date to the 1970’s. As you might guess though, they are in demand and usually go for a pretty high price.
Actually, depending on your situation, a larger piece of farmland might prove to be a worthy investment. You can always hold out a few acres for your own use and lease the remainder to a neighboring farm operator, which has the advantage of providing some annual return on your investment.
Conditions that I’ve noted here may vary somewhat in other parts of the state, especially with regard to standard lot size…I live in the far eastern reaches of Oregon, within about 50 miles of the Boise (ID) metro area. It is interesting to note that Oregon’s stringent land-use laws, while they have made it difficult for landowners to capitalize on their invesment, have also been instrumental in preserving open space and quality of life. By contrast, Idaho is the penultimate libertarian state where private property rights reign supreme and zoning laws have been nearly nonexistant until very recently. Consequently, the Boise metro area has been impacted by a huge urban/suburban sprawl. It is instructive to drive west from Boise and observe the cultural and landscape shift as you cross the Oregon line.
SS
It’s basic economics; the price of land is determined by supply and demand. As with anything, though, the true value is not the advertised price, but the price it sells for. It is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. And then there’s quantity discount. All else being equal, the larger the plot the cheaper it will be per acre.
We live in a rural area of west central Ohio. Around these parts, we have “recreational land” and “farmland.” Recreational land has trees and streams and wild animals, and tends to be more expensive than regular 'ol farmland. In some areas of the U.S. the opposite is true. Last I checked, land was going for around $3K to $7K per acre in our part of Ohio, which is not bad considering you can easily commute to Dayton or Columbus from here.
Generally speaking, land tends to be cheap in rural areas where good jobs are scarce. You can still find land for $500/acre in places like SE Ohio and rural areas of Kentucky.
Also, check on water rights/laws. Here in Colorado there is a cutoff for a well at 35ac which is why so many ranches are 40ac M/L or larger. If it is for household use . . . well it’s complicated.
So if you want a 5 acre plot with a victory garden and a few chickens, you have to haul your water (a real hassle) to be within the law.
My dad almost messed up his well. He had put sod down and was watering it. The well water turned very silty.
Scared the crap out of him. It took three days to clear up. My mom was furious because our well water was so good. Great taste.
He put together a pump and gas engine to water the sod with lake water from then on.
Plant some fast growing trees on some of the land. 20 years from now, you have a nice retirement nest egg when you sell the timber. If you’re in Oregon, timber grows fast in the wet climate.
I’m not sure. My uncle sold some timber on his land. The loggers got a share of the $$$ for cutting it and hauling off the logs. My uncle seemed pretty happy with what he got. He replanted some of the land with more trees. My cousin has the land now. I’d think that 50 acres of timber is pretty valuable. But it does take 15 to 20 years to get a harvest.