Why Buy Land Now?

First, stocks are easy to buy and sell. Second, they’re easy to follow up and down. Third, each company provides information, the quality of which, it may be said, varies.

Fourth, the numbers and ratios associated with companies and stock lend a certainty to forecasts that gives investors confidence in their crystal balls. Quantitative analysis can always be confirmed by the guy on the next barstool who says he plays the market. Fifth, much investing wisdom is free for the listening, such as Buy and Hold. All such wisdom is true, except when it isn’t. Finally, some ordinary people occasionally win, just like in Vegas.

Ordinary cash-strapped, middle-class Americans usually do better investing in rural land.

Unlike stocks, land investments can be deciphered. Documents and numbers are reasonably transparent. Buyers can learn how to evaluate assets and liabilities. Professional help — lawyers, surveyors, foresters, consultants — are available to help research property prior to submitting an offer.

While sales of both new and existing vacation homes dropped to 740,000 units in 2007, down from the record of 1.07 million in 2006, they still accounted for about 12 percent of all home sales, according to a March report from the National Association of Realtors. The median price of a vacation home in 2007 was $195,000.