Where is the cheapest land to buy?
April 24, 2020 Land For Sale
Are you bouncing around the idea of buying your next hunting property so you can get away from leasing? There are many benefits to owning the land, such as creating your list of rules and gaining equity in the property instead of watching your leasing dollars disappear each year. If this is the direction you're heading in, you've probably started wondering where you can find the cheapest land.It's not hard to figure out where the cheapest land is going to be as an area of land will usually follow the rules of supply and demand. If a property has a location that makes it appealing to a lot of people, such as being close to a city or near a beach, it will increase the value. If the property has a feature that makes it profitable to own, such as ready to go farmland, more people will want it.
Luckily for hunters looking to buy land, the hidden, off the beaten path land can provide some of the best hunting and the seclusion most hunters desire. Knowing these basic principles will make narrowing down the locations with the cheapest land in any state easier. Look for property away from civilization(location), and preferably with land features that make it hard to develop or use. If you're in it for the bargain, there are amazing deals in many states across the US, but you'll end up hunting near a desert, mountain, or swamp.
The Cheapest Land per Acre in the US
The state that has the cheapest land per acre in the US is Nevada. This is because there are multi-acre listings that come out to each acre costing less than $200. Nevada is a state that hosts both desert environments and mountains, as well as a low density of people. While both situations are considered beautiful for nature enthusiasts, they make it difficult to use the land. The small population density places a majority of the land area in Nevada out away from cities and other people, another key we've discussed for lowering the price of land. This makes Nevada the cheapest state per acre to buy a property.
Southwest
Get on any national land listing site and search for property. If you sort the listings by price from lowest to highest, you'll notice a trend. Along with Nevada, you'll find states like Arizona and New Mexico at the top again and again. This is because they have very similar terrain to Nevada. They have large areas of deserts with mountains on the Northern side, making it a delicate state to develop. There are natural areas of the country that are more prone to development, which drives the population to congregate in those areas. Areas such as those around Phoenix, the city with the highest population in the state by almost 1 million people. The farther away you get from these areas, the more likely you are to stumble across what appears to be a deal too good to be true to become a landowner.
Texas
If you break down Texas by terrain, you have around eight significant areas. The state uses these areas to manage the Whitetail deer hunting instead of breaking it into the over 200 counties in Texas. The primary environmental sector of the Western side of the state is very similar to New Mexico. It is mostly desert and mountains with very little agricultural value to the land. This will drive the price down for pieces of land in the area. That being said, you'd still be buying a property in Texas. Texas is home to the highest population of hunters in the US. They also harvest the most whitetail deer, have the highest wild hog population, and collect the most dove each season compared to all of the other States. You'd be buying into a sportsman's paradise. The state is covered in well-managed ranches where deer are fed year-round and grown into world-class trophies. If you find yourself on the correct piece of property, you may be able to reap the benefits of your neighboring ranch, be sure to be respectful and maintain a healthy relationship with them.
Swamplands
When people think of Florida, they think of white beaches and sunshine, and for a majority of the population, this is true. If you look at the state, it's this skinny piece of land with water on three sides of it. If you study the population of Florida, except for Orlando, everyone congregates to the sea. In the interior of the state, there are thousands of acres of vacant property and sugar farmland. This is where you find your cheap escape to Florida. Lots in the middle of the state aren't desirable for development because most of the state is a swamp, bringing a host of mosquitos, snakes, and alligators along with difficulty in getting a permit to do anything with the land.
If you look past this, though, you can find some fantastic properties for hog hunting. While they aren't the 250lb monsters from the North, Florida has a good population of whitetail deer. And when you're ready to hear a thunder chicken, you'll find the only population of Osceola in the US. It only takes about 2 hours to cross the state, so no matter where your bargain property is located, you can still escape to the beautiful beaches and fantastic fishing that draws most of the people to Florida.
Likewise to Florida, land prices in Louisiana and Arkansas suffer from the same style landscape. Thanks to the Mississippi River, there are lots of areas that suffer from being part of a wetland. This makes permitting difficult, planting a nightmare, and building requires a ton of soil changes. Many investors aren't in the market for these kinds of challenges; therefore, there are many land deals to be found.
Appalachian Mountains
Rural areas of each state are broken up into different style tracks of land. If you think of Georgia, you have 100-1000 acre tracts of land for hunting and farming. If you go to the midwest, they turn into 5000+ acre tracts for ranching. In the Appalachians such as West Virginia out to Tennessee, you get a ton of smaller, ten or so acre tracts of land. This is a high supply area for our supply and demand curve. The steep landscape brought by the mountains can also make this a low demand area. When you have a high supply and low demand for anything, the price will be driven down. These little pieces of land may be unappealing to the farmer or businessman, but they can provide beautiful views and plenty of wildlife.
North
The last place to consider looking for cheap land in the United States would be the Northern states. While they don't suffer from being a wetland or being a hot, desert, they have a unique problem. It gets frigid in the North. Many people aren't looking to live out in the country where the temperatures drop below 0. The same properties that are frozen for a good part of the year may hold some of the biggest bucks in the US. Although the growing season is shorter, there is a lot of agriculture to support a healthy deer population, and the deer need the extra fat to survive the extreme cold. This unique recipe can make buying a property in the northern parts of the states an excellent option for hunters.
No matter where you live in the US, there are deals to be found. One of the biggest things hunters have on their side when looking for hunting land is that the areas with the rough terrain away from people are often the least disturbed with some fantastic wildlife.