# What is the appeal of owning land? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 25, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922 "2016-08-25T16:42:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/1 "2016-08-25T16:42:37Z")
I know a good number of people who often talk about wanting to own land. I have asked them what they wanted to do with the land, and they had no idea. What is so great about owning land that you aren’t going to do anything with? I just don’t get it. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/2 "2016-08-25T17:04:26Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > I have asked them what they wanted to do with the land, and they had no idea. I think something must be lost in the translation here. People who want to buy land generally have some purpose in mind, even if only as an investment. There’s no appeal of owning land if you have no reason to do so. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/3 "2016-08-25T17:04:57Z")
They aren’t making any more of it. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/4 "2016-08-25T17:07:43Z")
If you buy it then it’s _your_ land, so with only a few restrictions you can do whatever you want with it. If you want to go out on your land and dig hole you can. You don’t need to ask permission from anyone. There are occasionally limits, mineral rights may limit the size of that hole, but in general it’s yours to do with as you see fit. We don’t have wilderness any more where you can go do that without owning the land, so if you like that feeling of freedom you need to own some land. ETA: And also the investment mentioned above. Almost all land that you can buy will increase in value over time. There can be costs to owning land though, primarily taxes, but you may be required to maintain it in a certain way also. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/5 "2016-08-25T17:07:57Z")
I have plenty of reasons for wanting to own land. Mostly, I want the room to do stuff that takes up room. Also, I want to be away from, or at least, not as close to, people. I had this growing up, and I miss it terribly. ---
**Author:** ![Bone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bone/32/407_2.png) [@Bone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bone)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/6 "2016-08-25T17:11:09Z")
Privacy, security, quiet-ness, liberty. 5-10 acres would be perfect, close enough to commute to work, far enough to be away from folks if I want to. Too bad where I live that would cost at least $2M - for the land alone. ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 5:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/7 "2016-08-25T17:25:46Z")
I go to the remote parts of our western ranch and know there aren’t other people within 5 or 10 miles of me. I like it very much there, and for precisely that reason. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/8 "2016-08-25T17:28:52Z")
Yep. As said above. I’m on two acres. Heavily wooded. Can’t see or hear neighbors. I used to have 40ac of unimproved land. That’s about the right amount for me. We would camp on it, and target shoot and just hang out. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/9 "2016-08-25T17:32:29Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > They aren’t making any more of it. One could argue that for the immediate future, they’re making less of it. The generic wish to “own land” might be, in some cases where there’s no firmer reason, leftover echoes of the “Five Acres and Independence”/Back to the Land movements. Somehow, living on a few acres and raising your own food etc. seems like a wise and worthy ideal, even if you’ve never dug potatoes out of anything but gravy. (In a diner, because you can’t cook.) ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/10 "2016-08-25T17:56:35Z")
\*\*What is the appeal of owning land? \*\* Land generally is a good investment, it rarely goes down in value and often goes up, up, up. ---
**Author:** ![madsircool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/madsircool/32/3432_2.png) [@madsircool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/madsircool)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/11 "2016-08-25T18:13:08Z")
[![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/WCOzqP9Dt9E/hqdefault.jpg "Woody Allen - Love and Death: A small piece of land") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WCOzqP9Dt9E) ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/12 "2016-08-25T18:22:47Z")
> [@Dallas\_Jones](#): > > \*\*What is the appeal of owning land? \*\* > > Land generally is a good investment, it rarely goes down in value and often goes up, up, up. We ended up selling our 40 acres. It was originally zoned agricultural, but was going to be re-zoned and the taxes would go from nearly nothing to a few thousand a year. Undeveloped land is taxed heavily in Colorado. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/13 "2016-08-25T18:25:49Z")
Funny, we just bought some land because my husband’s been wanting some. If you ask him why, he doesn’t really know, except for being further away from people. Where we live now, we have neighbors on either side, but none of us ever bothers each other, so far as I can tell. Anyway, things we’ve talked about doing at the new place: A vineyard A garden A shooting range A goat farm Boarding other people’s horses Getting some rescue dogs Breeding some Dobermans Breeding some Dobergoats Letting our grown kids live there in tiny houses or mobile homes Putting up a really sweet clothesline Letting the cat out sometimes ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/14 "2016-08-25T18:28:50Z")
> [@Shodan](#): > > They aren’t making any more of it. [Pfft!](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0H9XGBmQKU) ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/15 "2016-08-25T18:40:13Z")
I want to own land so I can look at it. Land is perty unlike water. ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/16 "2016-08-25T18:47:00Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Breeding some Dobergoats [http://peopleoflancaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/image-300x264.jpeg](http://peopleoflancaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/image-300x264.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Sattua](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sattua/32/11906_2.png) [@Sattua](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sattua)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/17 "2016-08-25T18:54:38Z")
I don’t know about just owning it. Having your house on it, that I get. Space. Privacy. All the things everyone else has talked about. Mostly I want plenty of room for whatever gardening/landscaping/animal plans I might make, and I don’t want neighbors watching me. Our house is on 3.5 clear acres. We love it. Riding the lawnmower is my husband’s idea of zen meditation. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 6:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/18 "2016-08-25T18:56:42Z")
> [@Omar\_Little](#): > > [http://peopleoflancaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/image-300x264.jpeg](http://peopleoflancaster.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/image-300x264.jpeg) Ah, scratch that. They aren’t as cute as I thought they would be! ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/19 "2016-08-25T19:25:25Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Ah, scratch that. They aren’t as cute as I thought they would be! Time to put the land on the market. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2016, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922/20 "2016-08-25T19:27:11Z")
People often want to buy land not merely because it’s a good investment, but out of other, more “romantic” reasons- they own _something_ they can go visit, not a piece of paper stored elsewhere that claims you own something equally insubstantial. I think it’s a more sane manifestation of the goldbug mentality, e.g. that it has inherent value as opposed to all these phantom mutual funds and bonds and what-not. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-the-appeal-of-owning-land/763922.md?page=2)