Have ranch land prices gone down with the the economy?

Depends on the area. Our immediate area is holding fairly steady to moderately increasing(Jones, Haskell, Stonewall, Fisher counties). We are seeing areas where asking prices were $2,500/acre or more start to slide some though.

I have been watching like a hawk and I would say that they are holding. I am hoping to see some decrease as I have money burning a hole in my pocket but so far nothing that makes me want to jump.

I have 71.5 acres for sale in Montague County. Prices aren't really going down since nothing is being defaulted on. However, not a whole lot is selling.

Houses took a big hit but land is holding steady. I figure when folks pulled their money out of stock they bought land with it.

We have actually seen some increased traffic on our website, and phone calls since the financial mess hit. There are more people purchasing with cash that they have pulled out of the stock market.
Also, most of the land lending instituions have always required strong financials..i.e. 15-20% down and good credit rating. They didn't have any of the crazy loan instruments available to house buyers. There is still plenty of money out there now. Don't let the media fool you. It just takes really good credit and anywhere from 20% to 30% down now.

Where I used to hunt in Montague it looks like the prices are steady but sitting for a long time considering the stuff I see on the varous real estate websites. One place next to my old lease has been for sale for almost 3 years. But they want $2,500 an acre on a place you can't build and has a deep creek through it so you can hardly run cattle. If you are looking for a long term investment it might be fine but to hunt it is a waste of money at those prices. I can lease for less than $2,000 a year there and have 1,000 acres and not just own 160 acres.

It seems a lot of original landowners are starting to get out now for some reason..... Don't expect to flip something you buy on the high end when you can still find deals for less than $2,000 if you are good at looking and talking to the right people...

Land prices seem to be really reasonable in Jones County. I have seen land selling for around 1000.00 an acre. This borders Shackleford County which is one of the better hunting counties in the entire state. IS anyone familiar with Jones county and why the land is so much cheaper?

Pull up an aerial map of Jones and Shackelford. The eastern fringe of Jones is really good for deer. All the rest is ag fields with much smaller shelter belts of mesquites between fields so some are good and some don't hold anything. Most of Shackelford is composed of big ranches, solid cover, and elevation changes.

I have a friend who is looking at some land just outside of Lueders off hwy 6 in Jones County....It is really good looking land with heavy cover for 800 acre..he saw deer on the place when he went and looked. Just not familiar with that county and the deer population

What about out east?
Thank you

I can't really help ya any further East than Stephens/Eastland/Throckmorton Counties. We don't do much business out East of there.

so u can jack up the price

how bout jacking up deer lease prices?

my fiancee found several hundred acres w/ timber in east tx for $800 an acre........was end of '06 early '07. Has been clearcut since but is making for some good hunting.

especially when you have the money...right jcb?

According to the research I have done, 9/11 started the beginning of the land rush in North Texas. People started pulling out of the stock market and looking for "safe" havens. The same will likely happen now.

Asking prices are holding steady, but like several have said not a lot is moving and I don't know if those few that are selling are bringing asking price.

This is just a guess, but I think a lot of the reasons prices have not dropped is because the vast majority of owners don't "have" to sell. They saw those prices shooting up over the past several years and threw it on the market just to see if somebody would pay top dollar.

When we were looking there were very few sellers who would wiggle on the price.

As stated above the land prices in dfw-east went drastically up through about 2006. In our area we had alot of outside investors buying up land to hold or some to develop. Now while the prices have not had any significant drop in pricing you definitly are not seeing the sales like they were, and this is do in part to the even tighter financing restrictions that we have seen around here and the slowing in the real estate market as a whole. And alot of that has to do with the fear that is out in society right now. And scott1071 is correct most ppl dont have to sell there land and are far more vested in the property than say a house were 100% financing was so prevelant. But remember this that as in koolades market market price has held at 2500 an acre it varys quite drastically over east of dfw where i work. and the price per acre is very dependant on the quality of land.

Based on what you said and what my family has said who are in the business, you can great deals out there from original owners and estates that have to sell, just not investors who bought in the last few years looking to flip. The place I hunt did just that and just got another 80 acres for about $1,200 an acre in Anderson county. It is complete trees and brush and worth more but the person had to sell quick. Luckily it was right next to the place we hunt so more land. About two years ago a relative of mine who owned a large title company out there said about 10% of his sales were to out of staters just looking to invest. Now that much more property is just sitting there idle doing nothing. Big waste to us who could use it.