O/T Land Question

Wife wants to move out east closer to her family. At this point, its just discussion. No plans made yet. I am open to the idea, but it has to be on an acreage i wont live in town again. I know this is a hard question to answer, but how much would 20 acres m/l with existing home in nice shape, say 4 bedroom. . .cost in rural eastern PA? Just a rough figure , land at least partially cleared would be nice. Thanks for any input!

Good question, a lot of us will be waiting to hear the answer to that one.

$80,000 in my area of Central NY if a person looked carefully (I'm 60 miles from PA). That for a place with views, mature trees, drilled well, working 1000 gallon septic, etc.

I bought a pretty nice ranch house, newer pole barn and 24 acres of "young growth" woods for $52,000 about 2 years ago in Northern Michigan.

Sell the farm, boys, we are headed east! Good grief that's a lot of land for your money. Around here 10 acres with house and a few outbuildings runs 200-250k. Tillage country though.

~10 years ago we spent $215K for 10 acres, house, barn, garage w/ office near Gettysburg, PA. In current economy, might not be able to sell it for that now. This was all cleared and fenced for horses.

YMMV,

Kirk

52 k wont even buy a ww2 era house in town around these parts! Thats a heck of a deal in my book.

Not all the east is like that. I bought 8 acres in the middle of the NY Adirondacks (bordering state forest) and it was $7000 per acre (Hamilton County). That was just woods - no improvements. And down in the northern NJ by the NY "upstate" border and only 7-10 miles from the Hudson River, NYC and the George Washington Bridge - land is $1,000,000 per acre. My great-grandparents used to have a small 35 acre farm there. If I had it now, I would not be able to afford the first tax payment.

I bought 16 acres of mature woods this spring here in Otsego County NY for $7800. Huge hemlock, hard maples, and white ash with a full-time trout stream running along the border. Around 55 miles from the New York state capital of Albany and 20 miles from the tourist trap of Cooperstown. About 180 miles north of NYC if anyone cares. All out clean water is piped down to the city people.

I do a Website for a local and small real estate company. I'm not trying to promote anything. I rarely even read it when I post the ads. But this gives a small view of recent "asking" prices here.

http://www.countryboyrealtybranch.com/listings/listings.htm

Disclaimer- this is all just guess work and opinion.
With all the money thrown at land owners in the Chesapeake Bay watershed, and the natural gas boom in PA, I can't imagine there are very many bargains to be had.
I'm about as far north as LJD, but farther west, in southern Cayuga county. You would be lucky to get a decent 4 bedroom house here for $150,000. Open land $6000/acre. Woodland a third of open land.
BUT- Real estate is all about location. You can travel a few miles and find a totally different picture. I'm sure what you would like is out there. The question is being able to find it.
Best of luck.

For a place like that and looking around in Eastern PA take out a subscription to Lancaster Farming comes weekly you get all you need to know about that area.North of Lancaster about 50 or 75 miles is some very poor looking areas that would probably have some of the cheapest real estate in East PA.

Here in southwestern pa in my neck of the woods, land and especially farm land is being developed into fields of mansions. I am currently looking for a decent sized farm in Cambria or Somerset county and a hundred acres seems to be $500,000.00 or more but most are dairies. Good luck. Stay away from any towns!

Go to "Zillow.com" enter the area you want and look around for land prices. Also they have places for sale.
Walt

Why don"t ya tell em bout your taxes up there?

friends own house & lot in northern NJ where you talk about, pay their taxes by the month

Much depends on you age and health. We moved 60 miles out of the city and lived there for 13 years after we retired. Then we realized that services that we were going to need were not available to us there.

We moved back to the city 2 years ago for convenience and the services that we are going to need.

(quoted from post at 19:55:03 12/09/12) Why don"t ya tell em bout your taxes up there?

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I own 342 acres, paid $75K for it, house, barns garage. Taxes run about 6K. Still deals to be had in the St Lawrence valley area of NY, St Lawrence, Franklin,Jefferson counties, jsut isn't a lot of work in the area.

Taxes are very high for some and not that bad for others. Worst taxes are those that buy or build new and/or live near city areas. We have a new "city guy" who moved near me, built a new huge house on an old dairy farm and make a horse ranch out of it. He tells me his taxes are $1000 per month. His assessment is probably $600,000.

Also much higher for non residents. I own a farm in northern Michigan and pay twice in taxes what I would if I claimed it as my main residence.

My main residence here in NY has a large farm house, two older barns, one new barn/workshop, all solar electric, 20 acres of farm fields and 60 acres of hardwoods, two ponds and one full time trout stream. My total taxes (school, county, and state) are $1900 per year. If this wasn't my primary residence the taxes would be higher. The biggest tax is the local school tax.
Beautiful mountain views, 20 miles from the nearest small city of Oneonta (had a Lowes, Home Depot, and Tractor Supply) and 50-60 miles to the capital region of Albany.

50 miles from me there in the Albany area taxes are 2-3 times what they are here. Higher assessment and higher rates.

Only tax "problem" I've had here was a last bunch of hardwoods I bought recently. I paid $7800. Surveyor calls it 16 acres and the tax map shows it as 20 acres. I paid $7800 less then a year ago and the assessor said it is worth $45,000. So I took it to tax court and won. Assessment is now $200 less then I paid for it. New tax bill for state and county taxes is $155. Haven't seen the school tax bill yet but will likely be around $250 just for that parcel.

Here in NY we pay a lot of gas and cigarette tax (unless you buy from the Mohawk Indians). I don't smoke but if I still did - it's $10 a pack for name brands. Today reg gas is $3.75 and diesel is $4.36.

I have two sons who live in Colorado and they have more taxes and regs then we have here.

My parents bought a small house on a 1/4 acre lot for $6000 in 1945. I grew up there. Borough of Cresskill (dutch for water cress in the creek). Small vegetable farming area about 10 miles from NYC in northern NJ. Three years ago my mom's house sold for $280,000 and the buyer knocked it down. He just wanted the land. He also bought the house next door - also on 1/4 acre for $350,000 and knocked that one down to. Having 1/2 an acre allowed him to build a big new house. They call them "McMansions" down there.

yeah - I know a guy with a hunting cabin near syracuse. Passed down from his dad. I think it's about 80 wooded acres, with a small cabin.

He pay's about $450 a month in taxes on it.

He's going to have to get rid of it sooner or later - it's a good 5 hour ride from where he lives, so he only gets up there a couple times a year - and the huntings not really THAT much better up there than locally.

Hard to justify spending that kind of money just to hold onto it for sentimental reasons.

On the other hand, it's a sin that he CAN'T hold onto it. His dad built it back in the days where you didn't have to rent your land from the government.

I can see paying SOME taxes, but 5 grand a year??? That's not a tax, it's rent.

Not right.

I bought 50 acres of woods and a few small fields in Jefferson County 15 years ago for $8000. Town of Worth in the Tug Hill area. Sold it last summer for $60,000. Seems land near Fort Drum has gone up a lot.

these folks live in Ramsey NJ

(quoted from post at 09:23:49 12/10/12) I bought 50 acres of woods and a few small fields in Jefferson County 15 years ago for $8000. Town of Worth in the Tug Hill area. Sold it last summer for $60,000. Seems land near Fort Drum has gone up a lot.

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Well, yeah, near Drum it has. Ya gotta shop around!