Why Buy Land Now?

Here are a few facts about land for you to consider.

• Land is the investment vehicle of choice for 2008 and 2009.
• According to the USDA, there are 2.2 billion acres in the United States. Of the total amount of land, 1.6 billion acres can be bought and sold.
• 97% of the United States is designated as rural land

What the experts are saying
In yet another blog post I read on LandThink.com, “The demand for land will continue to be strong in the next few years especially compared to other forms of real estate. In fact, the major media is reporting a strong, positive message in recent articles about land.”

The article went on to site the several recent media stories about the reasons to buy land now. Below are some of those compelling sources:

LANDFLIP.com conducted a poll asking “When are you likely to purchase land? 73% responded said they plan to purchase land in the next 12 months!”

New York Times article claims, “The real estate market may have cooled, but investor demand may soon be heating up for at least one type of property: land. The time is ripe to start looking; I haven’t seen this market in 20 years.”

Bloomberg.com claims, “Farmland is having its biggest revival in almost 30 years as demand for corn and soybeans from Asia and the ethanol industry drive commodity prices to record highs. From Iowa to South Dakota to Wyoming, gains in rural land prices have ranged from 78 percent to more than 200 percent.”

New York Times again predicts, “‘Farm values probably will rise at an annual rate of 6 percent to 10 percent in the next five years,’ said Murray Wise, of Westchester Group Inc. manager of $550 million of global farm tracts. In comparison, the median U.S. home is forecast to gain 1.2 percent through 2010, the Mortgage Bankers Association in Washington said.”

DailyWealth.com said “Timberland has actually beaten the stock market since 1960 (as far back as data goes). Stocks did extremely well in that time… up nearly 12% a year. But the total return on timberland was even better, at nearly 14%. Another nice thing is timber is completely uncorrelated to the stock market. It makes sense… the trees have never heard of the Nasdaq bubble… and they don’t know what a War on Terror is.”

Smart Money Magazine recently posed the question of “What To Do With $100,000?” And the conclusion was to “put money into real estate — yes, even now. With all the Sturm und Drang over the housing market, it’s easy to forget that real estate still presents the opportunity to purchase a valuable asset for what amounts to pennies on the dollar, greatly magnifying the return on investment.”

The article went on to say, “There’s another way to sidestep the volatility of the housing market: Forget about a house, and buy land. As the old saying goes, they aren’t making any more of it. The house is what deteriorates over time. It’s the land that appreciates,” says Morris Davis, a real estate professor at the University of Wisconsin who has studied land values.

ABC News recently featured Donald Trump where he spoke about the current market. He claims that “there has never been a better time to buy, and smart buyers can use this to their advantage by pursuing real estate in prime locations at reduced prices.”

The Land Report cites in a recent survey of potential buyers that of their subscribers, “64 percent plan on buying/selling land in the next 5 years. And that 53 percent purchased land in the last 5 years.

All these expert opinions lead to one conclusion. It’s simple - now is the time to buy land.