Land Price Increases

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In Finger Lakes of NY. Bought our place for $300/acre 40 years ago. Probably in excess of $5,000/acre now. Mennonite dairy farmers bidding for any land available. Good open land that is 100% tillable is $10,000/acre.
 
Recently heard somebody comment that if you didn't want to sell your land around here you better price it way high. On that note though I would warn folks that there apparently are a lot of speculators out there and it pays to do quite a bit of research before pricing or agreeing on a price. We have been getting a lot of junk mail, and texts, from real estate folks offering quick sales.
 
I bought my 230 acres in 1998 from my mom @ $1200/acre and that was market price around here. just read the Farm Bureau paper this morning and average farm ground in my county is $7660/acre. Up 1.7% since 2019. No end in site.
 
Housing market is doing the same thing. People want out of the big cities and the violence there. They are moving further out with less regulation and threats.

Remember this past summer when the face mask were being forced on folks? On the lake of The Ozarks, Mo at party cove there were a hundred boats with folks partying with no mask on Labor Day weekend. It made the national news. Right after that home prices went up and time on the market went down.

I know of one situation where the seller had the house ready to show and knew what it was worth. The realtor came by to get some pictures and confirm the listing. She left at 4PM and came back at 6PM to show the property, and sold it.
 
Ok why expand if its not profitable
I'm sure there are some common reasons why guys buy land at these prices. In this scenario, the buyers were my cousins. I know several reasons they wanted to purchase land. The purchased acres would not be profitable but they own a couple thousand acres and have little debt so on the whole it makes sense.

They brought all the kids back home to farm and expanded, we did the opposite and leaned out. They need the increased revenue to help support all the kids.

The land is the same as my families and is fully tiled and corn averages 250 bu/ac. So it's good stuff.

And it's walking distance from their (and our) home farm. There's a long story behind all of this but we farmed those acres for my entire life up until a few years ago. These days you can't sit back on your heels. You have to be aggressive and that family certainly has been.
 
What seems to be selling here (actually over by Baker City) is not the farm or ranch ground. It is the 20-40-80 acres of alkali flats and rock patches. These people are not interested in farming. They want a place away from the big city. They want some acreage. They don't care that it is an unproductive site. Either that or they don't know any better. They want to be out of town but they don't want to be over here 30 miles out of town with a small mountain pass between here and any services during the winter.
 

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