while deciding if we should move i was shocked to see how much land goes for in other areas, around here {maryland}you can not get an ac.for under 50 thousand that would be w/ a permit to build, ag. ac. go for 30 -35 thousand.we sat down and did the fun job of laying all the bills out and seeing what we owe. we came to the conclusion way to much. i saw ads for land 20 ac and a house for less then i owe on my 2nd.morgage!. we made the 5 yr. plan... fix up, pay down get out. we do not need much to live on but our cost of living around here is so high you just cant save. what is land prices like around you all,what can a family of 6 get by on? we need 2 to 3 thousand just to pay our basic bills no frills at all, we got stuck in the credit card thing and are slowly getting out. health insurance for our family costs us over 400 a month and that does not include car, home and buisness insurance. not wanting to be nosey but i sure donot want to be here in 10 yrs. w/ no way out.

-- renee oneill (oneillsr@home.com), August 28, 2000

Answers

A real nice 4-bedroom house house down the road from me, on 5 acres with a creek running through it, fenced pasture, surrounded by oak and fir sold last spring for $125K, that was a steal. There is no sales tax in OR but there is income tax, electricity is 5- 6c per KW, but LPG & fuel oil is high. There is a 10 acre homestead a couple of miles west of here with a sort of rambling house, 3-4 B'rooms, barn, chicken coop, shop, other out buildings, fenced pasture,spring & creek, (the same creek as above)paved road, etc. $180K (asking price). Generally though, land here on the I-5 corridor is spendy, I have 18 acres for sale, raw land, some timber, hardwoods, septic approval, phone & electric available, paved road, great valley view, for $49K. I have been looking around and MO. seem to be where the bargains are.

-- Hendo (OR) (redgate@echoweb.net), August 28, 2000.

Land prices have pretty well tripled since I bought my farm about nine years ago. Across the ridge there is three acres in a hollow listed at I think $16,600, but it is close to town, on a newly repaved road with electric and natural gas access.

Some examples from here in Westcentral TN:

6.75 acres, pasture, timber, year-round stream, new survey, 10 miles from town, $19,800.

20 acres open pasture & woods, year-round stream, $33,500.

35.3 acres, well, septic, two ponds, two barns, fenced & cross fenced, $54,900.

150 acres on Duck River, 60 acres level river bottom land, rest woods, cabin on river with 800 square feet, separate tenant house, $250,000.

6 acres with electric and gas available. $11,500.

22 acres with ranch style 3,600 square feet house, barn, outbuildings, creek and pond. $255,600.

8 acres, fronts two roads, half pasture, spring branch, $35,000.

Except for the three cities in the county there is no zoning. Country population is about 16,500 and it is a good sized county.

Sounds like you have a nice plan in place.

-- Ken S. in TN (scharabo@aol.com), August 28, 2000.

Renee, I'm probably about an hour and a half east of you in North Harford Co. We bought our land four years ago, and paid about $7,500 an acre. I know it's gone up some since then. You could probably get something real nice for around $15,000 an acre. We found the larger the parcel of land the better deal you get. Wer'e in cow country....about 25 min. to the nearest town, but we wanted it that way!

We love the small town-ness of the place and the schools are very nice. Not too long ago the middle school rated #8 on a national level. Which is important to me, since I don't have the patience to home school three boys.

Wildlife abounds here, which is also important to me, bald eagles on a regular basis as well as bobcats once in a great while. Don't get discouraged, keep looking, leave yourself open to the possibilities and something WILL turn up.

-- Judy in Md. (Trailhppr@msn.com), August 28, 2000.

Here (30 miles west of Knoxville) land is going up. My 2+ acres has gone up in apprasied value 7% in 2 years, and land is getting expensive. The 3/4 acre lot that borders my property is listed at $15,900. Lake front lots are selling for $20K+, and there is a 123 acre farm for sale about 15 minutes outside of town that is listed at $550,000!

However, 30 minutes further west there is 1000 acres for sale, at $800 / acre (at least according to the billboard on I-40).

Overall though, I like it here. Taxes are still cheap, insurance is still cheap. Job opportunities are good, but then again I'm close enough to Knoxville and Oak Ridge I can commute if need be. We were until just recently a single income family, and though it was tight at times we got by - but no c.c. debt and we don't drive new vehicles.

-- Eric in TN (ems@nac.net), August 28, 2000.

Here in central NH, a one-acre lot will go for anywhere from $13,000 to $25,000 (not waterfront). Larger parcels go down on the per-acre price -- if you get farther away from the towns, you might find land as low as a thou. and acre in large parcels. Property taxes are high. But it seems like a lot of people move up here to get away from higher prices farther south along the Atlantic Seaboard. We had been looking into Missouri and Oklahoma, but my husband is convinced we couldn't take the summer heat there, so I did some more looking and found really good land prices in northern Maine -- but I don't know yet if we will head that direction. Don't know enough about the other important factors. But I was seeing forty acre parcels -- lots of them -- for $7,000 to $20,000, depending on the quality of the land and the access. Also some larger parcels within the same price range. And the climate wouldn't bother me, since it still isn't as far north as Alaska, where I'm from!! Actually, I like winter activities almost better than summer. But we will have to wait and see what happens next year, now, as it is too late to be moving onto raw land this year.

-- Kathleen Sanderson (stonycft@worldpath.net), August 28, 2000.

In Kitsap County, WA, (across the water from Seattle), A buildable lot will run $35-65,000. A buildable lot could be anywhere from a small lot to 5 or even 10 acres, depending on the zoning. I live in an area which has a one single family residence to every 5 acres (unless the property had been subdivided before the zoning was set.) The lady across the road has a 2+1/2 acre lot which cost about the same as my 4-5 acres. At first she thought she'd paid high, but when i pointed out that mine was still only "a buildable lot" -- and that she had water all ready to her property, she agreed that she'd paid a fair price. Obviously, 5-10 acres is more value than 2 acres, and that will be reflected somewhat in the price, but not as a straight across thing. By which I mean, if 2+1/2 acres = 35,000, 5 acres will not = $70,000, but will be closer to the same....if it is still just "a buildable lot" according to the zoning.

-- snoozy (allen@oz.net), August 28, 2000.

St. Lawrence county N.Y. I'm looking in the paper and here is what I see

3 1/2 a for $2300. or trade .

4 bdroom house 1 car garage 7.6 a needs work 30,000

23a with pond 1500 road frontage 25,000

3 bedroom 2 car agrage 20a also 3 bedroom mobile home to rent out 30,ooo

These prices are to me on the high end .I have seen 100a raw land for 25,000 ,

-- Patty Gamble (fodfarms@slic.com), August 28, 2000.

Here in Iowa the land prices are all over the board. If I have time I will look up the land value survey that the land grant University does for you.

Prices range from a low of $400 - $500/ acre for timber to $4,000 for prime crop ground. These are bare land prices and there is usually a premium for smaller parcels.

I have seen fairly large houses in very small towns (<1000) in southern Iowa go for as little as $25,000+ and they are usually on large lots. True they are at least an hour from a major city and need a lot of loving care, but usually are basically sound.

We bought our huge Victorian on 120 acres with lots of buildings on the edge of a small town for $125,000. We did get lucky when we bought it, but deals are there if you have patience.

-- beckie (sunshine_horses@yahoo.com), August 28, 2000.

We are in eastern KS about 70 miles south of Topeka. Land around here is generally reasonable (believe me, $30-35K is NOT reasonable). There is a small place not far from here 5 acres, small house, Nice red wooden barn, several other outbuilding, and 2 wells for $56,000. Another 4 acres, house, barn, outbuildings for $80,000 (I think). If you want raw land the price per acre will depend on whether it is agricultural or pasture, high land or river bottom.

Car tags are expensive, land taxes reasonable, insurance about the same, our family of five gets by on about $24,000 a year. We have debt payments also but no housing payment as we live in a parsonage, so it evens out.

-- Vaughn (vdcjm5@juno.com), August 28, 2000.

I live in Central Indiana. My oldest son just bought 5 acres of farm land for $25,000. 9 Years ago, we bought our 5 acres for only $7,000. Prices have really gone up.

-- Denise Priest (Okie_Doky@hotmail.com), August 28, 2000.

We have in Kansas in a very, very small town an 11,000 sq. ft ware house with 5 office spaces & 3 loading docks & 5 over head doors -- free span building that in the 1970's cost over six hundred thousand to build just part of it/ And it has many more features/ & it sits on the main st/with an 1800's stone mill across the st from it they are in the process of studying to restore! We also own an oldier completely remolded home with new wireing/ plumbing /totally redone with new carpet/ paint wallpaper 6 years ago.It is a large 2 br down with the upstairs completey redone into a large loft. New furnace this year. With a guest house next door that we are in the process of remodeling (as it was a rental property) Barn --garage--big lots/ 2 orchards--garden spots/ herb gardens--the house & warehouse were painted last year. (the guest house would make into a great B&B for fishermen & hunters as the river is across from the warehouse & 2 blks from the house. We are going to put it on the market ourselves for $187,500 /shareing closeing costs. It is a steal for what it is And one mile from a major hwy. We want to move closier to my hubby's work as he has driven over 65 miles one way since 1989. We moved back to this area to care for parents --now we are ready to move back to the area we lived in for years & closier to hubby's work. This is a very, very low price for everything we have to sell. As properties in the flint hills of Ks. go for good prices!!!!! Sonda in Ks.

-- Sonda (sgbruce@birch.net), August 28, 2000.

i bought the land i am on in 1993 and moved here in april 97. land has doubled and more in price since i bought my land. the reason i think can be shown by my neighbors 1 from missouri, 1 from california, 1 from georgia, l from new jersy, 1 from florida and me from arizona. i had looked into finding a way for someone else on this forum for land prices and will post it if any of you are interested in what land goes for in missouri. they will give you one free issue then want you to buy a subscription. i noticed that many of the real estate agencys in the pullication have websites or e-mail addresses. the website is for ozarks mountain living and website only for ordering including the free issue is www.jamisonsvcs.com. the place i bought and am paying for my land is woods and waters inc. they have a good website with any properties they have for sale and a lot of information it is ozarkland.com. i do want to point out that land is cheaper where empolyment means minimum wage and costs more the closer you get to better paying areas so keep this in mind. if any of you are interested and need more information regarding other costs such as taxes and things please e-mail me or post on this forum. gail

-- gail missouri ozarks (gef123@hotmail.com), August 28, 2000.

In Eastern Colorado, basically, the plains, land is about 2000 per acre where we live, just for land, no fence, water or utilities. Further east, where my husband is from on the Colorado/Nebraska border, farm land for dryland crops is about 300 per acre. Homes there in his home town are about 30-60,000 for an older, wood frame home on a regular sized lot. We had hoped to purchase a parcel of land, 160 acres, with barns, outbuildings and a home, which was to go up for auction in June, with a min bid of $35,000. Unfortunatly, a family member of the deceased owners filed a "cease and desist" order against the auctioning of the property, so it is in limbo. Probably won't be sold now. We purchased our 10 acres with a home and a chicken house 6 years ago for $48,000. Had to have a garage and barn added, as well as completely remodel the home. That was a steal for here, and the price has really risen. Sure would be nice to find some fertile ground with a good supply of water, as this area is very dry with poor soil. Ours is just getting good after all work we have put into the garden areas over the years. Good luck, and hope you find something you like! Jan

-- Jan in Colorado (Janice12@aol.com), August 30, 2000.

Renee,

I am about 300 (+or-) miles west of you in Southeast Ohio. I am a real estate broker here. Local land is being subdivided about as fast as the surveyors can draw up new maps. About $3,000-$4,000 per acre in tracts of 5 acres and up. This is for reclaimed strip mine land that was $300 per acre 10 years ago.

I sold a property 25 acres on U.S. route 50 in Vinton county Ohio, with a very nice 2 br house $88,900, last week. I thought it was high, but what do I know (sold in 1 week).

If you decide to move you will do yourself a great service if you figure out a way to make a living before you make your move. Did you ever think about selling Real Estate? ...ED

-- Ed Copp (edcopp@yahoo.com), September 03, 2000.

Boy am I counting my blessings after reading all your posts! Those prices are so high! Our 12 acres with old house, barn, elect pole,garage was 40,000. But it wasn't on the market, we prayed, and we just found it and it was empty so long. Land here is about 3,000 an acre bare, cheaper if you buy more and also how far back it is. There is a log cabin on 12 acres with 2 big barns, new well, septic, for 70,000.

-- Cindy in Ky (solidrockranch@msn.com), September 04, 2000.