O/T Untillable Land Values?

I have a chance to buy a parcel of land in about 2 months at auction, there is 40 acres total, 30 of it is very rough and rolling hills and woods, creek, etc, hunters dream, and there is 10 acres of tillable hay ground. Its been a very long time since ive seen any wooded acres sell, The last parcel I seen sell was 40 acres again, Non Tillable, but along black top road (the parcel I may buy is on gravel) it sold for $1350 in south central Minnesota, Just wondering if that is high priced, low, or what you would feel it would be worth? It can become residential property if needed. Thanks Everyone!

I would bet it would go for 5-10K per acre. There is a high demand for hobby farms.

The auctioneer didnt think it would bring over $2,000 per acre, but he thought that may be on the high end, I have no idea what would be a price that I feel I could say wow I got it cheap?

How far are you from twin cities?

I priced a farm west of Chanhassen, just about rolled me over on the price.

try doing a search on the net,something like land values in minnesota.dont know if its available everywhere but here you can search by counties and theres several different classes of land.

i bought 26acres of untillable ground in march, terrible ground, doesnt even grow good trees, i paid 2600 a acre an thought i got a pretty good deal. ground around here in central iowa is priced way to high. but at the grain prices people are paying it. but just wait in a couple years it will be back down where it should be. ground at the prices today will not pay for themselves.
johndeeregene

central Ohio, this spring a farm of 246 acres sold for 7.9 million. 80 acres was not tillable, can't even grow good trees,can't even build on it.

Hello, I have always thought that land is high, but it still keeps going up. The thing about land is that it will always be worth something. The prices sometimes fall, but they always rally and exceed the point at which they fell. So, bottom line, in my opinion, is that you cannot go wrong in buying land. If the land you are looking at is not way over the current market value in your area, then you cannot go wrong.

> it sold for $1350 in south central Minnesota

Sounds cheap to me, mustn't be real far from me, New Ulm area....

I really never checked it out much, but $2000 woulda been my wild guess.

--->Paul

tractorbafoon, If that was here in Central Texas it would be 8 to 10 K/acre! @ 1350/acre, I would have Hocked my first born child to buy it,,, if it bordered my place! LOL! That is only 54000 less than the cost of a new Dsl Pickup!!!
Later,
John A.

It would be "cheap" at $2000 per acre. Only $80,000..

[i:654c4848f0]"or what you would feel it would be worth?"[/i:654c4848f0]
[i:654c4848f0]"a price that I feel I could say wow I got it cheap"[/i:654c4848f0]

I don't [b:654c4848f0]feel[/b:654c4848f0] a whole lot one way or the other about the price of land. Now if you ask me what I [b:654c4848f0]Think[/b:654c4848f0] about the price of land I may be able to give you an answer.

But keep us informed with a follow up post.

I don't think you'd have to pay more than $1500 per acre, at most $2000 if you really want it, and be very realistic that you'll likely own it. I can give you the name of a reality agent in my home town near Mille Lacs lake who could offer you several parcels similar to what you described in the price range that I mentioned. I had a chance to buy 34 acres of land similar to what you described this past spring (mine was more open, less woods) for just at that $1,000 per acre. When it came right down to it, I ended up passing and my next door neighbor bought it. He is a very good guy and I'm glad he got it. My reason for passing is that I am hoping land adjoining my current property will be coming up for sale in the near future and I want to have funds available at that time.

For quite a while over the past 10 years, wooded land was going for more than tillable here in SE MN. City hunters have (or had) a lot of money to throw around I guess.

One 80-acre parcel with only 30 tillable sold for $2200 here last winter as hunting land and that was pretty cheap compared to how high things had been selling. A 280-acre farm with no usable buildings and only about 80 not-very-good tillable acres sold for $2750/acre two years ago. And back during the real estate bubble, a bit of land was selling for $3500/acre for hunting. The guy who bought the farm next to mine about 10 years ago has had it for sale as a hunting paradise for about 8 years, but won't take less than $3500/acre.

I haven't seen any land for under $2000/acre here since the the 1990s, though.

If the government, using everyone's taxes, would get entirely out of the farm business, land prices would go down to where younger men could get started in farming. Unfortunately, with social security payments, there is no requirement for older men to sell their farmland. With government tax-supported subsidies, there is no requirement for un-skilled farmers to stop farming. With government tax-supported subsidies there is no need to farmers to stop raising crops un-suitable for the land on which the crops are being raised. If the federal government would stop taking peoples taxes to "play farmer", land values would return to the prices compatible with the amounts that the land could produce.

The Mennonites and the Amish drive land values here especially on marginal soil. Theoretically they are not supposed to take subsidies and I understand the vast majority do not.
These two groups are still poised to get big money from selling to developers in places such as southeast Pennsylvania. This helps makes them big players for ground in other areas. Their churches help with generous terms on financing with their "home" farms such as low interest and extended time if need be.
There have been others besides the Mennonites and Amish that have cashed in their farms outside of Philadelphia, New York, and Boston and have moved to other areas of the Northeast. It is not unusual for them to fetch 250,000 dollars per acre in recent years in the shadows of these cities.
Then there are the farmers you cited that are older, have their financial house in order and exhibit a "got to have it and nobody else will" attitude towards certain prime parcels.
Not a young struggling farmers game anymore. I never had the advantage of big money and have my share of marginal ground. I think I have good management ability but it is near impossible to compete with "big money" or "exotic financing."

I think you are dreaming. High crop prices are driving land values, not anything the government is doing. When corn is $7 a bushel, and some of these guys can average 200 bushels per acre, a gross of $1400 per acre supports some pretty high land prices. Farming is a big money game, has been for years, and it ain't changing anytime soon. Basically, now days you either inherit or marry it.

it seems to me land values do follow crop prices,very closely.crop values go up,farmers can make more money.they can make more money ,they start hunting more land even marginal land . demand for land increases so does the price. i mean lets face it,if 20 farmers want one parcel of land selling at auction its simply worth more than a parcel of land where only one guy wants it.its simply supply and demand. trouble is the supply of land is fixed always has been. here the real problem for guys starting out.He probably cant afford those prices to start with simply because he doesnt have the cash reserve or credit. a old farmer,or shall we say a successful farmer(two different things) can simply because he has that reserve and can afford sit on it over a longer period of time waiting for the payoff. to him those loan payments are tax writeoffs. he has suffecient income to live,while a young guy with a family starting out has to make that land pay. heres a little fact for you,according to the last census,farmers,actual farmers not the so called farmers, actually decreased accross the board in the us by something like 30%. heres another fact.42% of the places in the us operated as so called farms have never made one dollar of income!,they operate in the red each year....heres you at tip to help you if your starting out..and trust me I'm not being mean or anything here. DO NOT try to make your farm pay for itself!,that will come later. for every hour you spend actually farming,spend the same hour organizing your books and keeping meticulous records.dont be afraid or ashamed to take gov tax breaks.believe it or not you dont need MY tax money to buy a place, most of the time your OWN will buy most of it! you simply give it to the bank instead of the gov! heres another tip.most of those old guys you see,have been at it for years.they got into it for the long haul and spent a lifetime aquiring what they have.very few went out one morning looked at a tractor and started making money.most have done whatever they could to survive at it.farming today is not simply feeding your family.its big buisness,and the better business man you are the more chance you have of making it.

The Federal Government obviously needs to set up a cabinet level department to get these old codgers out of farming; just who in the hail do they think they are? I'm not sure how old is too old.........55, 60?

Let me ask you boonville,how low do land prices have to be for a young man to start out? How old /what age should a man be forced to quit farming and sell out? IS a guy just starting out a skilled or unskilled farmer? Ive seen a lot of things in my days,but ive never seen someone consistantly grow a crop on land unsuitable for that crop,ive seen a lot of new guys TRY to raise such a crop but they invariably fail. Perhaps you are refering to crop insurance? That is just what it says it is,insurance a farmer BUYS just like you buy car insurance.if you never have a wreck is your insurance a good deal or a waste of money? now if some crazy insurance salesman sells you insurance on a crop of corn on unirrigated land in the middle of the desert, i think its the salesmans fault. And it seems to me land prices do follow crop prices. But let me tell you something right along with that,if that large scale farmer that makes a profit of 12-1500$ an acre can do it so can you!! all you have to do is do exactly as he does. You say you cant? why not? you see it goes both ways,you can argue till your blue in the face about the right and wrong of things. or you can simply bite the bullet,,throw your life savings into the ground and take your chances just like he does.I seriously doubt he can make it rain any more than you can!

It would bring $2,000-$2500 an acre if it were here in Central MO.

The small size of the parcel drives it up some.

Gene