I promise… this ALMOST Exact mindset of “ground too high, doesn’t pencil out” was to this same degree & difficulty 25 years ago. I bought an 80 with half ROUGH tillable for $115k then. The best I could get for rent was “I’ll plant your food plot if I can farm it for FREE”. Corn was like $1.50-2.00 a bushel-Ish. It had negative cash flow. I had so many buddies or folks I knew that were hunters that thought it made no sense to buy land. INTEREST on that farm was 7.5%. I still remember a billion comments like “for your payment, you could go on 2-3 outfitted hunts a year for that $!!!” It was “as difficult” or “close” 25 years ago as it was today. There were just as many guys that said “no way” or “can’t do it” back then.
When commodities went up and interest rates went down…. Prices shot up a good bit. Like “it used to be $1500 an acre. Now it’s 2500 an acre! Or $3500 later on, etc etc”. & SOME guys thought those jumps were insane & didn’t buy. Or I knew a few that said “dang, I’m cashing in!! These prices are stupid!! I’m selling!!!”
Honestly…. Any point in time I’ve watched land over 30+ years now… it’s always been “hard”. “I dunno if I should?!?!?!” “Nervous”. Whatever. Right NOW- today - prices are reasonably high. Interest is a bit high. Income is “ok”…. Not great. It could get more or less attractive but the “value of land”, risk, willingness to pull trigger, etc - it’s not that much different in reality. Maybe a bit more difficult in one way or another but all the same fundamentals are at play. Just buy some. In reality… even buying a bit…. It’s a “forced savings account” that if u don’t lock in…. MOST people (including myself) will just find other places to spend $ & usually spend it on things that won’t be there in 10 years.
