So Where's the Cheapest Land Now?

Hermit John is mostly correct in his thinking about the economy and the 00000s. It is just inflation that unfortunately we sometimes get taxed on. REMEMBER! Part of your COSTS of owning real estate is TAXES....EACH and EVERY YEAR!!!!! it's something to seriously consider when you buy...BUT, know this ! IT WILL GO UP (sometimes surprisingly MUCH! You pay for your neighbor's votes!

Since you're in IL...Warsaw, IL, Keokuk, IA, Alexandria, MO...just look on the map. They are all next to each other...I believe they call it the Tri-state Area.

Yeah, I've been looking at Southern Illinois, or West Central. I went to school at WIU and I kinda miss that area. I've been checking around at different locations, etc. Something interesting, Pike County is known for great deer hunting. A guy could make a living with guided hunts there.

Western NY land is still cheap until you add in the cost of heat and taxes, then it evens out.

I dealt with realtors and searched for land that I could afford, for two summers here in Maine. They had me driving down 20 mile gravel roads. properties that were miles from the closest powerline. OR where the access was seasonal only. Just to find land that I could afford.

Once I finally began calling phone numbers on hand written signs, that was when I folks who have lists of properties that they have been collecting, and sure enough most everything they had was properties that I could afford.

I see properties 'near' me today with hand written signs "For Sale". and the prices are very reasonable.

The first thing a realtor does is dream of how much he can raise the price and still get bites.

MLS does not show any land in this county for under $1,000 / acre. They are not listed by any realtor. Holding water or not, they are not listed on MLS.

Yet half of the properties that are 'for sale' are asking below $1,000/acre.

I paid $900, my inlaws bought across the road and paid $350.

There is no cheap land in Northwest Missouri. What with the new housing developments and shopping centers the farm land is being eaten up.

Around here, the realtors do the same. The house on 3 acres I mentioned earlier - the owners bought that property a couple years ago from a family member for around $13,000 (if rumor mill is accurate, and it usually is). The house, unless inside it has an alternate dimension and is a great deal larger than it appears on the outside, is rather small and nothing at all special. The three acres sit on the corner of blacktop and a country road on a slight hill and are 99% open unimproved grass with very few trees. There is a shed and maybe another shed or such but no barns, etc. It is fenced. The current owners apparently thought (or the realtor convinced them) that the property has increased so much in value that they are asking just under a hundred thousand. Without fail, everyone around here has laughed in disbelief, yet the place stays on the market hoping for some sucker from the city.

We looked at a fine older two-story farmhouse on 5 acres a couple years ago. The house, older and needing quite a bit of work including a new roof and floor work, I fell in love with (I'm a sucker for old houses of certain types and vintages). There was a summer kitchen, a root cellar with a workshop built over it and a large barn in superb condition. The owner had thought of asking $25,000 (fair due to the amount of work the house would need) but he called a realtor to list it and the realtor convinced him it was worth at least $125,000. Needless to say, it didn't sell. Someone did eventually buy the place (for a lot less) and they've done a nice job restoring it.

The higher prices I give sound fair or even low compared to many states and regions. But land is appraised at $200/acre in MO and if a house needs work (assuming there's a house on the property!) or the land unimproved, then it simply is not worth over $2000 just because. The multitude of long-standing For Sale signs around here attest to that. (By the way, there's plenty of land priced way higher - and a certain tiny majority of it is worth every penny of the asking price if you know what you're looking at .)

Of course, anything is only worth whatever someone will pay for it -- and most around here hope and pray for a city slicker (with more money than smarts) to drive by to snatch up their gem-in-the-rough. Compared to urban prices, $2000+/acre is absolutely stealing! .

~Falcon

I think that if you are comfortable with what the land costs then it is a fair price. My house was considered way overpriced to the locals, I felt that it was rediculously cheap. I bought it for "too much" and I have been happy. Where I moved from I couldn't buy a 10x10 lot with a shed on it for what my house cost. Sometimes paying a little more is more better. I looked at some land that was $300 per acre, it was OK except for it was real steep and had a large cliff on it. Good for growing mushrooms I guess.

I know what ya mean, Ted...We're downstate (Eff. Co.)and it's started down here, too! We looked at some really hilly timber a few weeks ago and this guy was wanting $7500/ac for it! PASS! City folk hunters from out of state will pay 6K to come down just for deer hunting---rent, not buy!

Something like that in my area would run easily $300,000 to $500,000

I want "cheap" land, because I could not possibly afford it any other way. Now, I don't want cheap as in middle-of-the-desert-no-water cheap. But I do want reasonable prices. Compared to $10-60k prices I have seen, I would prefer something a bit lower. We are looking for jobs and homes, and honestly, of the places we are looking, the cheaper the houses and land, the more likely I will pick that one.

I am also looking for West central/southern IL. We are looking for within driving distance to Belleville. I have found some pretty good prices. Much more appealing than in Northern Illinois!

Oh, and I am assuming this is a mistake: http://www.realtor.com/FindHome/Home...8&lnksrc=00002

Ted,

If you have time, you and your family might want to complete the questionnaire on the link below. It's kinda' fun, but it does ask a lot of questions. If memory serves, housing/land prices are included but also lots of other "stuff" to consider when picking a location. Best wishes in finding your place.

http://www.findyourspot.com/

Well I can tell you where it isn't cheap anymore! My neighbors place just went up for sale yesterday. 4.64 acres, 1344 sq ft mobile built in 1978 and an detached garage - the asking price is $400k!!! I figured that would be about what our house would go for, but shoot, if they get $400k for theirs then we should be able to get darn near twice that for our new stickbuilt - and I'd sure as shootin sell too if we did get that kind of offer!

But the big kicker - when I called the real estate office to find out the particulars, they told me the property can be subdivided into 1 acres plots!!!! I'm pretty sure that is inaccurate info - but I've got a call into the county zoning office just to be sure. It's only been a couple of years since we bought our place and the county told us then that none of the lots in the area could be subdivided into anything smaller than what currently were.

Northern Illinois isn't too bad, but there are some serious problems growing, like land speculation and deer overpopulation, tax problems and unemployment. Rural areas with agribusiness as the base do better in such times.

We bought land in Fl 2.5 years ago at 6,000 an acre. our lot is 7 acres. It is 30 minutes to the nearest towns on 3 sides 20 miles to the nearest gas station and 12 hour to the GULF. It suited us fine because we wanted ISOLATED. So what happens? Hurricane Charlie wiped out Punta Gorda and people flocked to buy CHEAP land, but the reverse happened. Our land is located in unincorporated Punta Gorda. Then there was the sale of Babcock Ranch (which our land borders) 190,000 acres to a private developer. Luckily the state bought maybe 170,000 acres for a preserve. So now, everyone is selling, including the orange groves, for an average of 30,000 an acre. I'm afraid that this quiet remote area will become crowded.

The further north you go in FL, the cheaper the land. Lake City area is still pretty reasonable. Even around Gainesville, but it is going up by the month.

I saw the land in MO, very pretty out there, but for us it is WAY too cold. We spent most of our lives in Chicago and don't miss the chaos or the COLD.

From what I have heard, certain parts of upstate New York are extremely cheap. Don't remember exactly where though.

I'm 60 miles south of Seattle in Yelm, I bought 5 acres of raw land here in 2002 for 50k now they want 150k

I know where there is a lodge in Alaska on 8 acres for 800K. I can be a silent partner too!