Urban flight to rural land

Triple C

Triple C

Well-Known Member
Buddy of mine that lives in ATL just closed on a piece of property bout 20 minutes from my place. Ended up offering more than asking price after losing another tract a few weeks earlier due to an offer above asking price. The realtor he used is someone I referred who also serves as my consulting forester. He's been selling rural land for many years. Told me never in his career has he seen higher demand for rural land from folks wanting a place to escape, to the point that tracts are now being bid over asking price. At the time, he had 8 tracts under contract. I've never known rural land in our area sell for even asking price...always below.

Seems between the Covid lockdown and the meltdown of law and order in urban cities, folks down here are looking for an escape to their own little sanctuary. Just curious if you guys are seeing the same in your area?
 
3 weeks ago I had a very nice couple drive by the house and stopped me in the yard asking if I knew of any land in our area for sale. They chose our area based on our schools (great rating small class sizes). Said they were looking to get out of "the city" and move to the country. I told them that eventually if enough people move to the country it will become a suburb....lol. I did pass on information about 135 acres being sold not too far from me.

It lead to an interesting conversation with my wife though. It seems that there is a shortage of houses nationwide. This lead us to entertain the idea of putting our house along with 40-80 acres on the market to see what's out there. Granted we don't need to sell, have to, or even really want to. But if someone is willing to pay above market value or even our asking price if would be kind of silly not to.

But to answer your question: Yes we are seeing more and more people relocate to our area. They're mainly looking for 10-20 acres to build on.

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I have been following "housing market" talk in Kentucky and it is the same here. People losing out on over asking price offers. I'm wondering if my property is worth 300g yet?

G
 
PineSapJunky said:
3 weeks ago I had a very nice couple drive by the house and stopped me in the yard asking if I knew of any land in our area for sale. They chose our area based on our schools (great rating small class sizes). Said they were looking to get out of "the city" and move to the country. I told them that eventually if enough people move to the country it will become a suburb....lol. I did pass on information about 135 acres being sold not too far from me.

It lead to an interesting conversation with my wife though. It seems that there is a shortage of houses nationwide. This lead us to entertain the idea of putting our house along with 40-80 acres on the market to see what's out there. Granted we don't need to sell, have to, or even really want to. But if someone is willing to pay above market value or even our asking price if would be kind of silly not to.

But to answer your question: Yes we are seeing more and more people relocate to our area. They're mainly looking for 10-20 acres to build on.

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One thing to consider is if you sell, what are you looking to replace your property with.
It may cost you more depending on where you buy.
Also, think of the value of the dollar as opposed to the amount.
I sold 36 acres I had when I bought the 80 acre farm. On paper it looks impressive, bought for 660 an acre and sold for 1500.
When you realize I could buy gas and milk for slightly over a dollar a gallon when I bought it and they were both about 4 when I sold it isn't all that great.
Still, I wanted the 80 with a pond and it was very close to the 71 acre farm so I'm happy.
Good luck with whatever you decide!

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I'm betting more of this will be going on, especially if Biden wins. I'm not sure we'll see much of it in the more rural Midwest, not many people are willing to live in "flyover" country, which is fine by me; but I bet there will be quite an exodus to the more rural areas of the East mainly, and maybe to some extent in the west too.
 
Merle Hawggard said:
One thing to consider is if you sell, what are you looking to replace your property with.
It may cost you more depending on where you buy.
Also, think of the value of the dollar as opposed to the amount.
I sold 36 acres I had when I bought the 80 acre farm. On paper it looks impressive, bought for 660 an acre and sold for 1500.
When you realize I could buy gas and milk for slightly over a dollar a gallon when I bought it and they were both about 4 when I sold it isn't all that great.
Still, I wanted the 80 with a pond and it was very close to the 71 acre farm so I'm happy.
Good luck with whatever you decide!

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I'm in a unique situation. Me and my wife currently own 240 acres that butts up to my in-laws 1200 acres (that she'll inherit half of). Our house and land we put on the market resides on the south side of our property with my in-laws being to the north. We could sell our house and 40 acres and still have plenty of room to spread out. I will only sell if my asking price is met or higher. I am currently way overpriced in my area but like I said. If someone is willing to pay it......show me the money

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Let's just hope it doesn't turn into the "California Model."

1. Vote for the wrong people, and make the place you live so bad that you can't stand to live there anymore.
2. Give up and move to another place.
3. Start voting for the same kind of people at the new place and ruin it too.
4. Blame all of the problems you created on the Earth's climate.
 
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South of my 100 acres there is a 71 acre parcel that sold for 159,800 back in March. He now supposedly has an offer for 7,000/acre for part of it (not sure many acres). I offered to buy 33 acres of it that fit nicely with mine. He wants $300,000 for it. No thanks.
 
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This is the product of unintended stimulus. I wish interest rates were 20% on mortgages again. Equity and savings minded folks are being trampled by willful debt zombies.

I said it the day the 10-year treasury yield crashed back in March. "Everyone's home just went up in price $30,000." When the 10-yr yield crashed, mortgage rates moved with it. Suddenly everybody on the hunt could get $30,000 more for the same monthly payment, so they ran as fast they could with at and above asking prices for more expensive houses. When those ran out, everyone else went back to what they were looking at and just bid up the price so they could finally get into something.

The housing market has just ran away from me here, and I refuse to chase it. I know I'm in better financial shape than 80% of the people in my city, and I can't compete for homes in the bottom 20% of city. I have no idea how any of these folks are doing it.
 
Things are crazy in upstate NY as well, I believe We are up in the 50-75% range. I’m bumming because I was looking to pick up some adjoining property:(. Still, there are deals to be found. Same thing is going on downstate. Folks are leaving Gotham in droves. The property next to us was purchased by 3 young Brooklyn families as a weekend get away. It’s been occupied full time since the Kung flu hit. Between the civil unrest and a life built around mass transit, Gotham is changing in ways I could not have imagined.
 
our lumber costs for building pole barns has tripled since February. People are buying buildings like they're going out of style anyway. I have inside information that steel is going up next.
 
I can tell you Vt is being flooded. Houses that have sat idle for years are selling sight unseen, and above asking price. If you do any kind of inspection, or transaction associated with real estate, you ain't got time to sleep.
 
OkieKubota said:
I bought a Treated 4”x4”x8’ today at Lowe’s for $18...about fell over...
Click to expand...

The 8’ smaller landscaping timbers are still selling for $4 at the farm store ( I picked a couple up for making scrape “trees” in plots), people might have to start framing with those!:eek:
 
I am seeing land being sold that never hits the open market. I am seeing land being listed at higher than normal prices as well and selling. I know some folks who are looking to sell....up. Meaning sell there place for more than it's worth and then by more land at a lower price.....but everything is up. And they are seemingly struggling to even be able to replace what they have.

I see a lot of people willing to leave the big city behind.....there seems to be plenty of reason out there to do so at the moment.....
 
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