We were one of the last places to experience "the boom"... Investors found a couple parcels over the last 5-10 years, and there has been no looking back. Prices were static if not declining over a near 20 year period from 1985-2005. Since then, asking prices have appreciated by 375%. Rent so far has stayed slightly more realistic over the same period. It's gone up by maybe 25-50%.
Put another way, when I first graduated from university, I could have bought a 1/4 sec with 8 months of off farm gross wages. That was right at the beginning of the boom. I put in a few above market bids, but was outbid by $150-200 every time by outside money. 11 years later, that has skyrocketed to between 40 and 50 months of off farm gross wages. There is not much point in even throwing bids out anymore.
A few other younger guys are still playing the game betting on ever increasing land values, and ultra low interest rates. The idea is that you only have to suffer through perhaps five years of making payments however you can on a block of land, then releverage the equity appreciation (5 years of payments on a 25 year loan will not gain you much equity) as a down payment on more land. Rinse and repeat every 5 years, hoping for a doubling or more... So long as the banks stay appeased, land values continue rocketing skyward, and interest rates remain at rock bottom, the hope is that you can roll out a multi millionaire by the time you're 40. Good Luck.
Put another way, when I first graduated from university, I could have bought a 1/4 sec with 8 months of off farm gross wages. That was right at the beginning of the boom. I put in a few above market bids, but was outbid by $150-200 every time by outside money. 11 years later, that has skyrocketed to between 40 and 50 months of off farm gross wages. There is not much point in even throwing bids out anymore.
A few other younger guys are still playing the game betting on ever increasing land values, and ultra low interest rates. The idea is that you only have to suffer through perhaps five years of making payments however you can on a block of land, then releverage the equity appreciation (5 years of payments on a 25 year loan will not gain you much equity) as a down payment on more land. Rinse and repeat every 5 years, hoping for a doubling or more... So long as the banks stay appeased, land values continue rocketing skyward, and interest rates remain at rock bottom, the hope is that you can roll out a multi millionaire by the time you're 40. Good Luck.
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