That is crazy. Last time I looked, land was going for about 25,000 a bare acre. But most areas worth buying are 5 acre minimums.
A run down house on a couple of acres will cost you 250,000-350,000.
That would seem great, except the average wage here is around 15-20 bucks an hour.
Its cliche, but it is mostly out of staters (Cali), that are bringing huge piles of cash and buying up everything sight unseen.
Sell crappy little house in California for 900,000 dollars, buy house for 250,000 dollars and a rental for 250,000 dollars or leverage several.
Retire and rent house(s) for 1,500 a month and take life easy.
That being said, some of my best paying and good over all customers are out of staters. Them being used to high prices has over time actually raised our rates as well, which is a good thing.
So it's a conundrum.