Why Buy Land Now?

It is certain that the romantic pull of rural land runs deep. Plenty of buyers in the Lone Star state can attest to that, as their insatiable demand for large acreage land is driving the price of Texas land to all-time highs.

Owning land has always been the American dream. I read a recent article in the San Antonio Express that said, “The romantic pull of rural land runs deep.” The writer cited that in The Tempest, Shakespeare wrote, “I would give a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground.” And that Thomas Jefferson said, “The small landholders are the most precious part of a state.”

People nearing retirement age have been prowling for 100-acre properties and smaller, said Charles Gilliland, research economist with the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M University.

That’s helped lower the average acreage involved in a land sale. But at the same time, real estate agents say some high-dollar investors are looking for a stable place to park their money for a few years, and the have zeroed in on land — lots of land.

“The baby boomers are looking for a place in the countryside,” Gilliland said. “That’s been feeding the market for quite a while.”

As land prices in this region of the country come down to realistic levels again, the new land buyers who have been sitting it out for a while might be advised to jump back in the market. Who wouldn’t jump at the chance to own their own 100 acres in the Hill Country if they knew the time was right and the price was on par with the value?