# More rural land?n



## Matt B (May 15, 2008)

I've read a few things around the Internet about people moving from the country to more urban areas due to the economy. Has anyone noticed the supply of country land becoming more plentiful? I hate that this is happening (if it is) but at the same time I'm planning to move out to the boonies sometime in the near future so I'm excited about the possible choices I may have.


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## horsepoor21 (Mar 14, 2007)

Yes ,I have noticed this too and we are excited as well ! We're hoping to find a place in either rural SD ,ND or MN ..... Would be Alaska of course if we had the money ! LOL


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

It does make sense for less gas needed to get to work.

If it keeps happening, then maybe in a year or so, I'll have a better chance to get my name on some land of my own.

Angie


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## beowoulf90 (Jan 13, 2004)

If this is a real trend it will make me happier... We will be able to sell our place now and get something more rural... Which will please both me and the DW. We bought our place 17 years ago and then you might have gotten 10 cars a day past our place, now it's 10 cars every 15 minutes(more during rush hours) since they built the develoment adjacent to our land.. It's not quiet or as relaxing as it used to be...

But if more are buying in the suburbs, urban areas that will free up more rural land for us...:goodjob:


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## Deb862 (Jun 22, 2005)

I wish!! Here in upstate NY there is practically nothing of any value for sale due to the recent big natural gas find that covers most of central and western NY. This completely blew our chance of ever getting a homestead here. Glad somebody can find a plethora of land for sale!


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## francismilker (Jan 12, 2006)

On the contrary folks, people like us really are moving closer to town to save on expenses. The problem is: the land they're selling worth about $200 per acre is being bought up by out of staters who are looking to own a "ranch". Around here (SE OKLA.), most of the doctors and lawyers from town are buying every piece of land they can get their hands on and putting in cattle operations. The prices they're paying for the land and the improvements they're making make it evident that they obviously need a tax right-off..... Because, they aren't going to pay for it with cows..


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## Macybaby (Jun 16, 2006)

We are faced with the same issue as Francismilker. In our case the out of staters are buying it up for "hunting land". They think $1,000 to $2,000 an acre is a real deal, and that has priced a lot of land out of the ball park for many locals. 

Two years ago our county re-evaluted their formula for deterining if land was agricultural or not. When we bought our place, they calculated that we paid about $950 an acre for the land. Thier "ag" use was set at under $900 so we didn't qualify for the ag use tax rate. They could not do anything about it for the first year so we paid higher taxes. After they changed their rule, we quailified and had our taxes go down.

Cathy


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## tiogacounty (Oct 27, 2005)

Obviously there are lots of different answers to this question, depending on location. Unfortunately, our once rural area has become a long distance commuter suburb for the NYC area. The trend started 20+ years ago and hopefully it peaked in 2005-06. Regrettably, a lot of these folks got sucked into a dream of a better life and thought that the cure was five hours of commuting every day. Now the tide is turning. This year all the local, overburdened and obscenely costly school districts are reporting drastic enrollment drops. In one case over a thousand students. It is a mixed bag though. A lot of these folks were simply driven to their knees by the economy and the extreme energy penalty of commuting and paying the utility bills on the stupid McMansions they bought. As the economy continues to collapse, I think we will see really hard times here. Electric rates will soon climb by 40% or more, and a lot of these folks got stupid and bought houses 3-4X bigger than they needed to, because they were told they can. So, no big drops in rural land here, as there isn't a lot left. However, drop by and get a jaw dropping deal on a giant, poorly built house with a $7K tax bill and electric heat at $1000/month. They are everywhere.


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## Helena (May 10, 2002)

In our part of PA the prices are up especially this time of year due to hunting season coming. Land and houses have gone up in price but it angers me to think that the local people have a hard time buying homes because of the "city" people buying their hunting land and homes. Of course, it is the "country" people who get the money from these sales but hard for the localswith little money. Of course, after this weeks news I suppose it might just be harder to borrow money. Just saw an ad for a ...second vacation home...selling for $199,000 !!!! My question is what do these people do for a living that can buy a home at this cost ?? And it sure wasn't any little shack of a house either !! But again that is the whole problem I suppose. Want bigger and larger for show. Think I will just be thankful for the little farmhouse and homestead we now have and enjoy life. You know the saying...Live simply so others may simply live...:icecream:


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## adamtheha (Mar 14, 2007)

Here in Alberta, the price of farmland went up 10% in 2007. No telling what will happen in 2008, with all the bank defaults and stuff. Prices of houses are dropping pretty hard here, but not because of defaults, it's just a drop in demand.
I just laugh when I see people with a city mindset living in the country. They buy all their food at the grocery store, run miles of power lines to their house, city water, and garbage pick up! Then they plant a tiny garden and call that "country living". 
Please don't be offended if this describes you, but what I call country living is really subsistence farming, where most of what you consume is produced on your own land.
It makes no sense to buy things that you can provide for yourself, like firewood, rainwater collection, and solar electric.


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## nancy237 (May 29, 2008)

adamtheha said:


> Here in Alberta, the price of farmland went up 10% in 2007. No telling what will happen in 2008, with all the bank defaults and stuff. Prices of houses are dropping pretty hard here, but not because of defaults, it's just a drop in demand.
> I just laugh when I see people with a city mindset living in the country. They buy all their food at the grocery store, run miles of power lines to their house, city water, and garbage pick up! Then they plant a tiny garden and call that "country living".
> Please don't be offended if this describes you, but what I call country living is really subsistence farming, where most of what you consume is produced on your own land.
> It makes no sense to buy things that you can provide for yourself, like firewood, rainwater collection, and solar electric.


Maybe it is a start for them and a gradual shift. Everyone decides what they prefer to grow/raise or do themselves and what they prefer to buy.
Maybe they have demanding jobs and have more money than time.
Maybe they won the lottery and prefer not to tell others. 
If we make they move to the country we definitely will not be 
raising all we eat at first...Is that bad???


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## adamtheha (Mar 14, 2007)

nancy237 said:


> Maybe it is a start for them and a gradual shift. Everyone decides what they prefer to grow/raise or do themselves and what they prefer to buy.
> Maybe they have demanding jobs and have more money than time.
> Maybe they won the lottery and prefer not to tell others.
> If we make they move to the country we definitely will not be
> raising all we eat at first...Is that bad???


Unfortunately, at least out here, the shift is going the opposite way. People are abandoning their gardens and going to the grocery store. I see miles and miles of carefully manicured lawn with a few mature trees, surrounded by vast fields of canola. Canola doesn't make very good soup if it's all you have.
You're probably exactly right about the jobs though, but when things go sour with the job, they won't know how to provide for themselves!

I'm just lamenting the loss of the the "hardy" subsistance farmer in Canada. There are still a few of those critters, but just the stubborn ones.

It would be different if people were expanding their capacity bit by bit, but that's not really happening out here. Still too much easy money flowing, lots of (relatively) cheap food in the stores.


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## EarthSheltered (May 9, 2008)

My part of PA has been hit by the Natural Gas Windfall as well. Crappy Mt. ground good for nothing but hunting is $5000 an acre...Farmland has always been high here for the last twenty years, when the Amish moved in. They finance themselves, so they can afford to pay anything per acre for good farmland, and they do pay $$$. I'm glad they are here, it keeps the area farms, and very neat, well kept productive ones at that. I'm also glad we bought our farm right before the boom! 

I do feel for the younger generation who are trying to get a start. Some of the local people have started just telling others at Church, etc. if they are thinking of selling their homes, instead of calling a Realtor. That way, the local kids get a chance at it first. But farms, not a chance of buying them cheap.


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