Land Prices?

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mncattle

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What are you guys starting to see for ag land prices. Tillable land around here is starting to come down somewhat depending on what auction you are at. Non tillable land is down quite a bit.

The last few months I have seen good tillable land going anywhere from $2000 to $5000 and acre. I still can not see how guys can justify paying 5,000 for tillable land.

I am just wondering what you are seeing around the country for prices and how about you guys up in Canada too what are you seeing for land values?

Andy
 
You from Minnesota Andy?

Land doesn't sell very often up here, as all the oldtimers say it's stupid to raise cattle, but they want a pretty penny for their farms. Pasture prices, per acre, realistically, should be between $100 to $300 an acre, with crop land $250 to $600 an acre...in our area. But as I said, too many oldtimers figure their quarter or two of land is worth a gold mine, aka double to triple the real price.

I know one fella with 160 acres, house, barn and outdoor wood stove. $118,000. House is three shacks strung together. Land is pretty good pasture land. Regardless, the only people I know that are interested in it, aren't going to even think about it until it hits $50,000... I don't blame them. Without the house and barn, I value the land at about $40,000 dollars tops, $32,000 on the low end. And the house and barn ain't much.
 
ya I from Minnesota

If I remember right from reading the forum you are from the Rainy River District part of Ontairo?

Well in my opinion alot of land is still too high. You can get range type land up in the Northwest part of the state for 500-1000 per acre but one of the biggest factors was alot of city guys buying land for hunting and that drove alot of land values up.

I was at a land auction last week or two and an 80 sold for 2,000 an acre and that probably was not too bad of a deal since I am down where they grow alot of corn. Still alot of money but at least looking at a farming stand point you can make it work on paper.
 
Where in Minnesota?

Yep. RR District.

We had a lot of guys from Illinois, Wisconsin and the like up here for years picking up every piece of hunt land they could find when our dollar was 60 cents to the US dollar. Lots of parcels and even quarters being bought at ridiculous prices. It was good in the fact that it allowed the older guys that wanted to get out of cow punching, the chance to sell without losing their shirts. When our dollar hit a 1.10 US and oil was over $120, all those people said to heck with it and all the land values dropped back down. Or at least they should have. Some people think that the land prices never drop, only go up and up. That may work near the big centers, but not around here.

One of my neighbours experimented with 12 acres of corn last year. Didn't think it would amount to much, as they planted it really late, June 23rd. Come October 1st, it was over 8 feet with a good ear on it. So I guess our area is going to start going to grow more corn. I know the neighbours are planting 60 acres this year.
 
The people from California,Texas and Minnesota and Michigan a nd teh east coast has ran our land prices up, We are not in farm country at all so all we have is pasture and timber and it is rough hilly and rocky country and is is hard to find a large parcel 300acres to 500acres for less than $1500 pr acre

A smaller tract from 80 to 300 is around $1700 and a 40 or 80 might run $2000 or it was a couple yrs ago now people are still trying to get those prices and nothing is selling

there is a 2 -60 acre with nothing on them and they have been for sale for 2 yrs 1 at 129,900 and one at 120,000 they were both bought 8 yrs ago for less than $50k and the owners have done nothing with them as they are both out of state owners
1 hads about 30 acres of open pasture and 30 acres of scrub timber and cedars the other is mostly open
 
..."160 acres, house, barn and outdoor wood stove. $118,000.".....

That little ponderosa would bring $1.8 million around here. Or you could go with 42 acres, with an old house and cattle handling pens for $785,000.

This is in central Texas.

Prices are not too depressed around here, thanks to Houston and Austin idiots.
 
Hey now - lets watch the Houston idiots slur there - And ESPECIALLY dont group us Houston folk in with the Austin crowd. Anywhere you get a large population of folks in a small area, the larger tracts around it are going to be more expensive. Its a fact of life - people hate being crammed into a city, and want some peace/quiet on the weekends, so they buy country land too. It does run the prices up, but there are still good deals to be had. You just have to look

Just 2 years ago, we picked up 800 acres, of land 55 miles outside of houston WITH a 1 year old barn and apartment, 2 tractors, and various pieces of equipment, along with 50% mineral rights AND producing wells already on site, for not even $700/acre....I am about to add another 1800 acres to it, for $300/acre b/c a landowner has sold off all her street access, and just found out she cant sell to anyone except someone touching it...which I happen to do.

So PLEASE dont group Houston with Austin...were not a bunch of Obama loving hippies...there are some good folks here.
 
marksmu":eunittop said:
Hey now - lets watch the Houston idiots slur there - And ESPECIALLY dont group us Houston folk in with the Austin crowd. Anywhere you get a large population of folks in a small area, the larger tracts around it are going to be more expensive. Its a fact of life - people hate being crammed into a city, and want some peace/quiet on the weekends, so they buy country land too. It does run the prices up, but there are still good deals to be had. You just have to look

Just 2 years ago, we picked up 800 acres, of land 55 miles outside of houston WITH a 1 year old barn and apartment, 2 tractors, and various pieces of equipment, along with 50% mineral rights AND producing wells already on site, for not even $700/acre....I am about to add another 1800 acres to it, for $300/acre b/c a landowner has sold off all her street access, and just found out she cant sell to anyone except someone touching it...which I happen to do.

So PLEASE dont group Houston with Austin...were not a bunch of Obama loving hippies...there are some good folks here.

I am amazed at that number. You can't touch anything around here for 700 an acre of we would have bought it.

When we were looking to relocate, land was going for 2500 an acre at least, that's with no fence, no pens, no minerals, nothing. We looked at a house near Malone with 25 acres with it and an option to buy more. House was literally leaning, needed tons of work. Old barn, old fence, pens that would not hold a thirty year old mule, one stock tank for 160,000.00 The realtor even said it wasn't worth it, but the family all wanted their share of the bucks. House wasn't worth 40K. It is still on the market, I believe. And yes, a lot of buyers were city people who were looking to get away from it all. And it does drive up land prices.

Greedy people do, too. That's where this whole housing mess started.
 
Here the great housing speculative boom has finally crashed. The speculators who need to get out are having great difficulty in extracting themselves. A real estate broker/developer in my home county has two tracts for sale. 120 acres and 100 acres respectively (both good ground; but fences and barns are in very poor states). He listed both at $5000 per acre. I have looked at both and the agent says they will take ~$4000 per acre. I kinda think that is still too rich. Both have been on the market (to my knowledge) for over a year and no takers. I looked at another 209 acres in a poor section of a much less desirable county. Awfully hilly but good grasses and fair fences. They are asking $3500 an acre. I could be wrong but I think THAT is way too high. It is hard to say what anything is worth because there aren't many good comparables from the last 12 months. 2003 - 2007 was such a speculative time that I don't think you can draw anything from those comps.
 
a guy that likes to buy an sale land here bought 1500acs for $1500 an ac.went in an redone all the fences.put in water to the place.an splitt it up into smaller farms.put in fancy entrances.an he wanted $5000 an ac.but he ended up selling it for $1500 an ac.after all the work he done on it.
 
I will say what I have noticed, is that large tracts, (tracts over 300 acres) tend to go for much less than smaller tracts. I consider anything smaller than 200 acres quite small for ag purposes at least..500 acres seems to be a real breaking point...at 500 acres, if the owner is not willing to divide the price comes off much more steep as well. Also akward shaped property, property with pipelines, and property with drainage problems...all much cheaper. There are some good deals, that just need some TLC....

Our property at $700/ac has drainage issues, but that worked to my advantage, as I rerouted the water to duck ponds. Its an old rice farm, of which much (60%) was still in old levys...a single mold board plow, and 3 way blade made quick work of them, and then cutting some ditches, left us with a lot of good dry land, and several nice little duck ponds....I dont lease them, b/c ducks are my passion, but my neighbor does, and he gets $5000 hole, with only weekend day passes...no overnight hunters, and off the property by noon.

Huntin ducks is big business down here.
 
I agree it gets cheaper the more you buy, like a lot of stuff, but really, the price of land has gotten out of hand. It needs to go down and I hope it does. No one is going to be able to afford it, and when they do, it won't be worth what they bought in for.

Sound familiar?
 
The proverbial chicken and egg. On one hand, I hope prices do come down. On the other hand, if they do, I'm left high and dry with a huge mortgage and no equity. :roll:
 
i don't see land going down much.
a lot of people are looking for a safe place for thier money.
some are buying gold but if you think about it it's justa shiny rock and dollars are just paper but land on the other hand has real value.
i'd trade my 401k today for land if i could.
jmo.
 
I completely agree...I know alot of folks who are looking to dump cash into land to get it out of the banks. I myself would love to move quite a bit of cash into land, but I have my eye on a piece that is touchin me already, and though its likely going to come my way, it hasnt officially happened yet. I will certainly be excited though if it does. I dont feel safe with all my money in the banks the way its all been going.
 
marksmu":oy3qui6x said:
I completely agree...I know alot of folks who are looking to dump cash into land to get it out of the banks. I myself would love to move quite a bit of cash into land, but I have my eye on a piece that is touchin me already, and though its likely going to come my way, it hasnt officially happened yet. I will certainly be excited though if it does. I dont feel safe with all my money in the banks the way its all been going.

It's insured to $250,000....a couple could have 5 insured accounts minimum.
 
Its insured now, but with the way this administration is going, you never know what he is going to steal from you next. It could be your land, but I am betting he is after more liquid assets, such as cash. There has already been lots of chatter about nationalizing everyone's personal 401K accounts b/c the government is better with your money than you are. Pour your retirement fund into a general retirement fund, and then determine how you get to live later in life.

In my mind, I would much rather have an income producing asset than flat out cash. Especially an income producing asset, that also has a very strong history of increasing in value.
 

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