Land Prices are Absurd--Rant About It!

So, I grew up in Boundary County, ID on a little hobby farm. Once I get some more experience as an aircraft mechanic, I intend to go home and work at a specific company in Sandpoint. Just out of curiosity, I looked into land prices for the area since our property is really close to the highway and I wanted to maybe buy some place a bit quieter. Lo and behold, land costs are insane. How are locals able to even consider something like a bit of bare land they can cultivate into something? I'm okay with staying where I grew up, but still. Though, now that I type this out, I realize that the only recourse for them is to just move away or wait until something changes and opportunists show up. I think I'll just settle down there, mill up a little lumber, and build a tiny house. This is a land cost rant thread.

P.S. I'm gonna shamelessly plug that my mother is planning on selling half our land. She and I would be stoked to have a permy as a neighbor. It's the south end that's further from the highway with a better treeline.

Maybe land is expensive because people believe the story it will not get cheaper!!
If people refused to purchase, prices may fall.
But people extend their finances and pay a stupid price, and maybe they believe it will rise again, and they will make money.
But when they sell, they realise they cannot buy anything for less, because everybody else is playing the same game!!

Ben, welcome to the forum!

Land prices are high everywhere.

Now is the time to sell not buy.

I recently got a bid on the property where our daughter lives which is over twice what I paid for it.

Our daughter says that the bid is a lowball figure because the land in that area is selling for much more than that bid.

Anne Miller wrote:Ben, welcome to the forum!

Land prices are high everywhere.

Now is the time to sell not buy.

I recently got a bid on the property where our daughter lives which is over twice what I paid for it.

Our daughter says that the bid is a lowball figure because the land in that area is selling for much more than that bid.

Someone's got to set an example by selling below market. I've been urging my mother to drop her price. Else it will sit there for years like various other similar ones.

We are making more people, but we are not making more land. More mouths to feed, more living spaces needed.

Because of that, land holds value as a hard asset. It's better than gold, literally. Gold just sits there. Land can be leased to cover the out-of-pocket expenses (interest, taxes) or it can be developed with intensive housing -- and they lease out the land to the homeowners! You own the house, but lease the land it sits on. This is how it works now -- it's the only way a new home is affordable. Madness -- but if you are focused on turning money into more money, pretty savvy.

If you are a giant investment fund, catering to high worth investors, land (like utilities) becomes a repository for hard wealth that ensures the frenzies of the stock/bond yo-yo don't wipe out your investors' core wealth. It's like the pendulum of the moon, which regulates the rotation of Earth and keeps it from spinning out of control. (It probably won't be long before a homestead on the moon is the only affordable option, haha.)

Ben Taylor wrote: Someone's got to set an example by selling below market.

It happens. I bought my property several years ago for less than the back taxes owed by the previous owner. I think because of people in that position and some other factors, the county wasn't getting their money. They changed the rules and if the property isn't your legal homestead (there's a state constitutional amendment, not certain if people know about it or if the courts respect it), it goes to collections and within 2 months they will auction your property out from under you. I was extremely fortunate when I had terrible injuries that I was able to get my taxes paid. I very easily could have been in the hospital the whole time and not knowing about the change might have lost my land over what at the time was around $60.

The growth of people sending out letters trying to buy up land and preying on people when they are down on their luck is disturbing. I have heard a few people that act as if they are some sort of saviors by swooping in and grabbing up land for pennies on the dollar from people dealing with hard times. My view of that is quite the opposite. It's one thing for an unimproved property to be a decade behind on taxes and the person cutting their losses in pursuit of a different direction in life. It feels like something completely different if someone is trying to do something with a property, having some tragedy befall them and have to make a huge sacrifice to pay their taxes in a few months time, sell, or lose their land. I don't know what the deal is if they are getting away with it, if you get the difference of the arbitrary sale price and the 1 year worth of back taxes. or if it has been challenged in court yet. I understand it wasn't sustainable for them to let people go forever without paying, but being 2 months late and your land gets auctioned seems outrageous to me.

One important point to make here is that just because someone is seeing certain prices doesn't mean everything is like that in the area. I spent a couple years looking before I found my property. After I bought it and started searching for various things in the area, I ended up coming across dozens of more deals somewhat similar in price per acre. Basically my point is just because a couple of places list certain prices doesn't mean that's all you can get in the area. It's quite possible that people are making purchases from other sites or auctions far below what you might be seeing currently. I went in purposely not jumping on any deals right away and it paid off for me. It's a long term and expensive investment, not something that I would do offhandedly in a few weeks or months time if looking for the right property at the right price.

In any event, we have been through a period of rough times where the majority of people who were going to sell at a reasonable price, or be forced to sell, have already done so. Time marches on of course, so new situations will present themselves, but they will be less common for a while. Not nearly as many people were looking at unimproved or rural land 5+ years ago. Now more people are treating them like tokens to be shined up and sold to the highest bidder instead of a place to live. Even with the price of land going up, I couldn't get an apartment in town for a year by selling my land today. Even if it seems for nothing and my land gets sold and cleared when I die, I'd rather pay the taxes and keep the land covered in trees.

Ben Taylor wrote:[Someone's got to set an example by selling below market. I've been urging my mother to drop her price. Else it will sit there for years like various other similar ones.

If your Mom drops her price an investors possibly will grab the property to make a profit.

Either way, there could be winners all around.

Anne Miller wrote:If your Mom drops her price an investors possibly will grab the property to make a profit.

Eh. She wants to be choosy about who buys it. Make sure they'll be good neighbors