TheLandJournal.com

Today there are almost 100,000 acres of land that has been scorched by flames in Georgia. A fire started from an electric wire being hit by a tree. Many people have had to evacuate their homes and the fires have not been put out yet so more damage is on it’s way. Here is an excerpt from the New York Times telling the latest:

Spread of Wildfires Is Feared in Georgia

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: May 7, 2007
WAYCROSS, Ga., May 6 (AP) — Lightning strikes that started three new fires, gusty winds and continued dry conditions threatened Sunday to spread the wildfires that have already charred 100,000 acres in southeast Georgia.

Officials with the Georgia Emergency Management Agency are also worrying about the impact of the gigantic blaze on the wildlife in the Great Okefenokee Swamp.

The two largest fires, which started when a tree fell on a power line on April 16, are mostly in Ware County and have burned 98,400 acres, or about 153 square miles.

One of the fires is 80 percent contained, and the other 45 percent.

Officials are also worried about Keep reading →

What is one way to increase the value of land? Improve it! With this idea, I went out this weekend to a ranch to clear brush along a creek and fence line. The fence line had to be cleared in order to put up a fence and the creek needed clearing to improve the views of the ranch, as well as, eliminate cedars that were “drinking” all the creek water.

This was my first time to drive a dozer so I had no idea what it would be like. I asked the company I rented it from how hard it was to use. The answer was “there are just a couple joysticks so it’s really easy to work with.” It sounded good to me so I booked the rental. I rented a bull dozer from a town about 12 miles away for $350 per day plus a $90 delivery fee.

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I have traveled all around this great nation of ours over the last 2 years and every where I go rural real estate professionals tell me how much land has appreciated in their area in the last 5 years. My question to you is: how long will it last? In my home state of Texas the average price per acre for rural land in 2003 was $1,097.00 compared to last year in 2006 the average price per acre for rural land was $1,825.00. In fact, last year alone saw an annual increase of 23% for rural land in Texas according to Dr. Charles Gilliland of Texas A&M’s Real Estate Center. It is the same story every where I go, from Washington State to South Carolina. While other real estate markets have seen a drastic pull back over the last year, rural real estate just keeps trucking along.

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I spent all day last Thursday at the 17th Annual Outlook for Texas Land Markets hosted by the Texas A&M Real Estate Center. If you have never attended this event, you should really put it on your calendar for next year. They do a great job. One stat that leaped off the page to me was that land in Far West Texas (Trans Pecos) appreciated at 71% in 2006. Dr. Charles Gilliland did a great job in discussing several economic factors that drove these land prices up including: ethanol, increased interest in mineral rights and mineral leases, and influx of buyers that want to get away from the incredible growth that is going on in most urban markets. These all make perfect sense, but I think there may be another factor that drove up these land values.

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Absolutely, without a doubt, Yes. Over the past 5 years that we have been advertising farms, ranches and waterfront properties for sale online, we have seen a huge difference in responses from buyers to properties that have great photos versus properties with lousy photos or no photos at all. For this to make sense go back to the one main reason why the internet really took off in the first place – it’s visual aspect. You can share photos with family, upload videos of a trip, see a used Christmas tree on eBay, live webcams of local traffic, and see hundreds of homes for sale before you even leave your office to visit them.

Here are a few reasons why you should always post photos with your real estate for sale online:

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Yesterday LandsofAmerica.com was mentioned as being on the top 100 most trafficked Real Estate websites on the Internet.

Here is a partial quote from the article on Inman News:

Hitwise identified several “Fast Movers” in the real estate category, which are sites that have experienced substantial rank increases for the past four months ending in March. HomeRealtyWA.com moved up 509 places during that period, followed by HouseValueFinder.com (289 places), ResortQuestRE.com (184 places) and HomeServices.com (166 places).

Other fast-moving real estate sites include MadRate.com, AllianceRE.net, Homethinking.com, LandsofAmerica.com, AgentEvaluator.com and RentJillsHouse.com.

Stay tuned….we believe it’s going to get better and better.

Ask most long-time residents of rural Alabama their opinion of what land is selling for these days and you will probably get a long-winded answer about how local folks can’t buy land in Alabama now. I believe it’s a simple demand/supply relationship that causes this. The overwhelming majority of buyers of rural Alabama properties are absentee or are retirees from surrounding metropolitan areas and the State of Florida. These buyers have disposable income and an eye for investing in rural areas. These buyers also tend to be very mobile in their real estate investments, in that they do not care where their investment is so much as the lifestyle benefits it affords them. Rural Alabama attracts a large portion of this buyer pool because, in large part, Alabama land is still comparatively undervalued when you look at other states and areas of the country these buyers are willing to consider.

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All we ever deal with on LandsofAmerica.com is private individuals selling their land they own. The Press Release below is the perfect opportunity to bring up the topic of Private vs. Public land - which is more enjoyable? Which is more available? Which is more accessible? All these answers depend on your own personal situation.

In Texas private land makes up 98% of the state so there is a lot that can be sold. In states like Colorado there is a lot of public land where you can just pull over to the side of the road and hike off fishing and hunting so there is not as much that can be bought and sold in general. One way this land is becoming more available is through smaller tracts of land for sale in Colorado.

Private land counts on the owners to fund and manage the land and the wildlife it serves. Private land relies on the members of government to manage it and the public to fund it through various means. It’s a special situation below because so many millions of people that love the outdoors are all coming together to make sure the public land is being taken care of properly.

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United States Population
July 1, 1900 76,094,000
July 1, 1950 152,271,417
July 1, 2006 298,444,215

United States Acreage
July 1, 1900 2.3 billion acres
July 1, 1950 2.3 billion acres
July 1, 2006 2.3 billion acres

After diving into this topic I found it amazing how much land there really is available in the United States alone. We hear about the United States population rising drastically and new people moving to the United States all the time. The first thought is “how much land do we have left?” Amazingly enough there is still plenty of land for us all. As you can see from the statistics below there are still quite a few acres left to settle.

United States Land Statistics
Developed: 66 million acres
Rural residential: 73 million acres
Crop land: 349 million acres
Range and Pasture land: 788 million acres
Forestland: 747 million
—USDA Economic Research Service

A great example of what many perceive to be a state running out of land is Florida. So many condos, townhouses and high rises have been developed that we immediately figure there is no more open country. The amount of acres that have been developed is close to ten million now which makes me think, “well that state is out of country land,” but in reality there are 34,558,261 acres in Florida so there is still plenty of room for another development or two. Out of this acreage it’s nice to see some of the horse farms, riverfront properties and other Florida land for sale that is still pristine and untouched. They might not be making more of it but there is still plenty of untouched land to buy and enjoy.

Question: How much rural land is left?
Answer: Plenty

Why would you buy land when you can get it for free?

ANCHORAGE, Alaska — Anderson, a little town in Alaska’s interior, has no gas station, no grocery store and no traffic lights, but it does have plenty of woodsy land — and it’s free to anyone willing to put down roots in the often-frozen ground.

In a modern twist on the homesteading movement that populated the Plains in the 1800s, the community of 300 people is offering 26 large lots on spruce-covered land in a part of Alaska that has spectacular views of the Northern lights and Mount McKinley, North America’s highest peak.

And what’s an occasional day of 60-below cold in a town removed from big-city ills?

“It’s Mayberry,” said Anderson high-school teacher Daryl Frisbie, whose social studies class explored ways to boost the town’s dwindling population. Students developed a Web site and Power Point presentation, then persuaded the City Council to give it a go.

“Are you tired of the hustle and bustle of the Lower 48, crime, poor schools, and the high cost of living?” the Web site asks. “Make your new home in the Last Frontier!”

The 1.3-acre lots will be awarded to the first people who apply for them and submit $500 refundable deposits beginning at 9 a.m. Monday. Each winning applicant must build a house measuring at least 1,000 square feet within two years. Power and phone hookups are already available.

City Clerk Nancy Hollis said people who apply in person or have someone stand in for them will have the best shot, since the post office doesn’t open until noon and deliveries are even later from the regional hub of Fairbanks, 75 miles away.

People seeking more information are calling from such places as California, Texas, Idaho and Florida.

Locals eyeing the sites include 15-year-old newcomer Brittney Warner, a student who worked on the project. The 10th-grader, her parents and three siblings moved to Anderson two months ago from Boise, Idaho, when her father got a job at nearby Clear Air Force Station.

Warner calls her new community “very nice, small, very outdoorsy” — a place that would be even better if it brought in some new businesses. Residents now have to drive at least 20 miles for gasoline or groceries.

Her family is now living in a rental home and planning to apply for one of the lots.

“We already have a house design,” she said.

Cory Furrow, a 26-year-old electrician, said he will be in line, too. Anderson has everything he enjoys — good terrain for snowshoeing and skiing, fishing, and hunting for moose and grizzly bears.

“I’ve lived here my whole life, so when free land comes up in my hometown, I can’t pass that up,” said Furrow, who lives in his family home.

Folks in Anderson say there are some job opportunities within driving distance, including a coal mine, a utility, major hotels and the air station, a ballistic missile early-warning site. Locals also would like to see entrepreneurs among the newcomers.

In addition, they are hoping for families. The high school basketball team had to go coed this year because there weren’t enough boys.

Among the other advantages of Anderson: no property taxes, state income taxes or sales tax, virtually no crime, and no traffic. There are magnificent summers with temperatures as high as 90 degrees and plenty of wide-open space.

“One of the resources that we have is land,” said Mayor Mike Pearson, a mechanic at the air station. “If this works out well, the city’s got lots more property.”

Do you think this is going to bring many people to live in Anderson, Alaska?