I recently started shopping for land. Requirements are pretty simple:
Within ~250 miles of Danbury, CT
Flat enough to park semitrailers
No planning and zoning, or parking semitrailers is otherwise permitted by right
At least 50' of road frontage
Must be in NY, NJ, or PA
Cleared is ideal, but open to clearing land, and doing minor grading
Rural, middle of no where, out of sight-out-of mind is preferred
Ideally near to or South of I90.
2 acre minimum
$100k budget
I saw multiple listings that meet these requirements. I reach out to the realtor…and its already sold or pending. Some of the listings have been up for 100+ days, even some 500+ days and they all sold within the last 30 days. Listings that were posted recently (less than 1 week) all have offers on them. No contingencies, no inspections, cash offers.
One property was an empty 3.5 acre field, bad soil that can't be farmed, according to the realtor 3 attempts at drilling a well were unsuccessful, and it will need a drip septic system. There's an easement across the property for anyone to access a cemetery on the other side of it, and transmission lines overhead with an easement for them.
Listing was up for 840 days when I saw it, asking $40,000. I offered the ask and was told that they have 4 other buyers, all cash buyers, no inspections, no contingencies.
Realtor wouldn't tell me the current high offer until after closing but said it was "well above ask." Property ended up selling for $85,000.
What happened over the last month or two where every piece of cheap vacant land suddenly sold?
I'm on the other side…why did everything just sell?
byu/Ornery_Ads inRealEstate
Posted by Ornery_Ads
5 Comments
Let me know if you find the answer. I am curious too. Insider buying up land? Is there a major employer moving in?
Looks like someone is buying up.
Probably buying up to pre empt the buying frenzy when rates drop over the next 18 months
Observing a similar trend in other areas too. While your case may have some other explanations, the larger trend is “Rural land” is more attractive now because it feels scarce and underpriced compared to urban/suburban housing… investors and regular folks are both seeing some value in “cheap land” even if it’s objectively undesirable.
This is less about families looking to build right now and more about hedging inflation, and positioning for tomorrow.
You see this trend in other states as well (northeast by far is far more attractive than building in the tornado corridor and other places in the middle of nowhere). Theres a lot of innovation in building technology. With 3D-printed concrete homes, modular construction, and automation driving or expected to bring down build costs, the premium in the future won’t be the structure — it will be the land itself (that was a good cbs 60 minutes piece on the 3-D concrete company as well and others are following). Investors are forward-looking, and they know you can mass-produce walls and roofs but you can’t mass-produce acres of land.
Investors taking advantage of a shit economy.