I don’t know… I know that land is a viable investment and is not going away. Plus, I know that people are being more choosy about where they spend their money. However, I have seen on places like Ebay and www.landsofamerica.com listing some incredibly mobilehard to believe online values for raw and improved land. It’s like one distressed seller after another is trying to raise enough cash to buy more land at a lower basis than what they bought in there current inventory.

If you are in the market to acquire additional land for your portfolio now is the time to be even more careful. Be certain the property has good legal access, water and is something you can enjoy while the market recovers. Let me know if you think we’ve hit bottom.

Just a quick note to let you know we’re updating our website at www.myfrontierproperties.com. The user interface is cleaner and we will have additional properties listed.

This article was emailed to me from the Land Incorporated newsletter and I really thought it was worth sharing.  Let me know your thoughts.

Land Article of the Month
High-priced land can still be a sensible investment
By Curtis Seltzer
Creative Real Estate Magazine,  May, 2008 at http://www.cremag.com.


America’s historical engine of settlement was the desire for land. Rich people wanted it, as did everyone else.


The stories of how we as a people acquired land from Native Americans, from each other and from public authority is as uncomfortable to read as any slave narrative.


Land, of course, meant that the landless had a way of making a living, and, if not that, at least surviving until better times appeared. Land also meant the prospect of wealth, which each of our Founders understood. Eighteenth century Native Americans called the surveyor’s compass a “land thief,” with good reason.


Today, most Americans do not need land to meet their survival needs. Wealth, too, is no longer land dependent.


A billionaire might occupy no more than 3,000 square feet above Manhattan—3,000 very expensive, very exclusive, very embellished square feet. And all of his wealth would appear in a monthly statement as shares of this or that.


But I think this decoupling of wealth from land is changing; I think we have started to go back to the future.


About nine percent of all U.S. homeowners own a second home. And that base is projected to gain about 160,000 units annually during the near-term future. As population continues to increase, the market for land and second homes will strengthen.


Both the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal have run features in recent months on the migration of wealthy folks back to the countryside. They’re looking to preserve it, not exploit it. But when they sell, they make money.


Want real proof? Cheap land no longer exists.


The transformation of land from something that had value because of what it could produce as food or product to something that has value largely for its aesthetics and
the recreational amenities it affords has profound long-term implications.


The people who buy land today are different. They are not, as a rule, farmers who make their living from farming. They are not, as a rule, trying to build wealth through the accumulation of land.


In a sense, they are voluntary refugees who make their money in the cities but choose to spend discretionary time in country places.


It’s taken a while, but they’ve unwittingly brought with them the inflated values of their economic base.


And that explains why a couple of so-so acres in a so-so West Virginia county about four hours west of Washington, D.C. now sell for $10,000 per acre rather than the $2,000 of ten years ago or the $500 of 20 years ago or the $100 of 30 years ago.


Amenity-driven inflation has priced farmers out of buying farmland for farming and timber owner of buying timberland for timber production…. Read More….

I am getting sick and tired of reading about the doom and gloom of energy prices, the recession, Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac, foreclosures, and the real estate debacle.  I recently read an article that I think put things into perspective.  Take a deep breath and click here–

Skeptical View on Economy

Now of course more bad news has come out, but I think we need to get some perspective and take advantage of the fear in the marketplace and start dipping our feet in to the waters.  There will be some more short term downward pressure on pricing, but since no one can predict the bottom and everyone seems scared it seems like a logical time to me to start buying raw land for the long term.