A couple of places that border me sold a couple of years ago for a little over $15K per acre.

With that amount of money, I'd probably go way up into the rolling plains in NW Texas or the eastern panhandle looking for cheaper land and big deer.

Other play might be Big Bend country.

I agree with txtrophy85. When you purchase a ranch or any other real estate property, I look at future appreciation. The land in the Menard County and surrounding area is priced much lower than the property east in Mason and Gillespie Counties however values are beginning to rise. I feel that the higher priced property values will stop in Menard County as this is where the live oaks and running water transition into rolling mesquite. When folks leave the oil patch, this is where they first see running water and big trees so most of our buyers of the larger tracts come from the west.
While I was raised south of San Antonio and still own land there, my rule of thumb is never purchase land south of Hwy. 90. Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to find a ranch in the Brush Country where minerals are conveyed. If you don't own the minerals or having any say in leasing the ranch, do you really own the surface? Illegal alien traffic is another huge liability, not only running through and cutting fences put crime is out of control and not likely to improve any time soon. Let's face it, South Texas doesn't have the "eye appeal" that most buyers are looking for. For this reason, we are seeing the NW Hill Country appreciate at a higher rate than most of South Texas.
Yes, land is cheaper in OK and NM. Problem is, the land is not Texas and there's still a certain romance to owning a Texas ranch. It has always been that way and I feel that it will never change.
Adios,
Gary

I can always find a buyer for a good south Texas ranch.

It does not have the high peaks that the hill country has activity wise, but it doesn’t have the valleys either.

Certain areas have illegal alien issues but a lot of areas have little to none.

I’ve seen certain areas, namely Frio, Northern Zavala, Southern Uvalde and Atascosa skyrocket in price. We are now getting over $5k/acre in Frio for raw land, a little more in Atascosa.

And while it’s difficult to get minerals, as many landowners don’t have them to convey, it’s not impossible. I have a ranch available right now with a good chunk of minerals available. When we sold ours in 2020 we let 25% of the minerals go.


South Texas has its own beauty, its rougher country but people who are drawn to it, certainly appreciate it. I went to the Hill Country when we moved out down south but I still love the brush country. About 50% of what my yearly sales are, come from South Texas

Western hill country, I’d try buying my neighbors places. I may end up with anywhere from 350-500 acres depending on which neighbors I picked.

The further you get from a major city, the more you get for the money. If it’s convenient, it’s much more expensive.

I've hunted all over Texas and I would be looking for land anywhere north of Lubbock to the Ok state line. There are some gems up there with both whitetail and mulies. Certain areas east of 27 with have occasional elk for a bonus.

Which direction from Abilene?

30 miles SW from downtown ABI, just west of Hwy 277. Send me a PM if interested.

Though not in the area you're looking. In '13 my wife and I decided to purchase a ranch as a weekend get away and our own place to hunt and fish. Three long months of looking at five to ten properties every weekend, but we found our dream ranch. Three years later we built and moved here full time. It's already been stated, the further you get away from the metro plex/big cities the cheaper the land will be. Now you have to go further and further in the any direction to find what you re looking for and can afford. We lived in McKinney and wanted to have a place no more than two hours away. It was still cost prohibited for us two hours in any direction. We began to extended our search to two and half hours away. For us going west of McKinney made the most sense. My wife found two ranches for sale side by side west of Olney. We paid $2K an acre eleven years ago with a 900 sq ft cabin and two small barns. It's now $6.5K an acre and going no place but up. That's with no structures, power or water. We wanted to go south to the hill country down around San Angelo. However, it was too far for weekend trips and too far from the kids and grandkids.

If and when you get serious about a ranch. Take your time. Spend time online and on Google Earth looking. Power and water costs can get very expensive on top of the property costs. Don't rush it! It took ten years but we're finally surrounded by great full time neighbors. We do our best on deer management and we look out for one another.

Saw a place near Vernon on the Red; 348 acres, $750k. 1/2 mile of river frontage. Could use the other 250k on improvements.

I saw this one too. I thought it was a decent deal with the river frontage. Cool little tract.

350 acres up in this country can get real small REAL quick unless you luck into a very large neighbor or neighbors that dont hunt.

X2

Don't know how much location matters but I feel that best bang for your buck is out around Ozona if you're willing to drive. Pretty, good deer, good views and still can be had for around $2k per acre. Another place to look would be out around Ballinger for around $3500 per acre

I always thought Ozona was a dump...then I saw Sheffield.

Ozona area is pretty rough country, tons of deer leases with the players changing constantly and ranchers trying to squeeze a dollar out of anything and everything. 'Very doubtful you'd get any minerals.

and Oklahoma has a very short deer season -

I will add that we hunt South Texas and close to the border - the amount of illegal traffic has slowed WAY down in the past 12 months where we are

Lots of variables. How close to town with a good hospital. Local economy. Neighbors. Jobs. Schools, water table depth, Terrain, Taxes, Fence condition, stock tanks, etc. The list goes on including the buyers goals.

I bought 133 acres of recreational property(AKA junk land) South of Bowie about 40+ years ago for about $400 per acre. That was about the going rate. All trees, hills and rocks. Had to have a road dozed thru it because I hadn’t seen anything but the first 1/8 mile and it was so dense that I didn’t know what direction I was going.

POS would be over rating it for a guy like me that was raised on a productive cotton farm outside of Muleshoe.

Just like in town, neighbors damn sure matter.

Define your goals and financials. Understand rural taxes and how to get tax breaks by raising or leasing for livestock, crops or wildlife.

Don’t want to live there? That opens up another bucket full of variables.

You make great points especially on hospitals and neighbors. Olney's hospital is dated but works for a rural hospital. A new bond was passed last year to build a new hospital. My understanding it's going to look and be modeled off the new hospital in Electra which is really nice. We do have an excellent rehab/gym facility. I spent forty days in the hospital with Covid a bit over four years ago. My rehab was tough, I was glad we have a top notch facility in town and I didn't have to drive to Graham or Wichita Falls. Our nearest Walmart is Graham which is a 30 min drive so not bad. We do have a nice country grocery store and a few good restaurants right in town. All these things matter.

Great neighbors are key. It took a while but we're surrounded. Everyone has keys and access to each others ranch's. We look out for each other. Weekend get togethers are great. My neighbor on my south fence he purchased his ranch which was high fenced from my previous neighbor. He's letting me bring in my own animals to hunt later. Currently I have two Midnight Urial rams on his place to hunt next fall. I'll probably add a couple Ibex to hunt down the line. I've gotten into ram hunting now. The deal is, if something happens to them, I'm out my investment. We're all retired or near retirement. Couldn't ask for more!

Very short gun season. The season it’s self is as long as Texas. I have OTC WT, MD, Elk and Pronghorn on my Oklahoma ranch, I do get bent over on NR tags though

Buying is the easy part.

Make sure you have enough of a budget to handle the expenses, they can add up very quickly especially if the place is rundown. As Will Rogers said, good fences make good neighbors. Good fencing in place is a must.

Unless you can get an Ag. Exemption, the taxes can get out of hand. It takes five (5) years to get the exemption.

I heard there were free ranging elk in western OK, maybe driven down by fires in CO? There are enough to issue tags? What part of the state?

They are all over the state and state has 7 zones, they have OTC tags and harvest is by quota cap. Different areas received them differently. Western and central Oklahoma where release’s from the early 1900’s into WMA’s. Panhandle was part Cimarron national grassland release in KS in the 80’s and added via natural migration from NM. I seen elk in panhandle for as long as I can remember, I helped push for the quota system in panhandle because population was getting out of control.

Ozona area has anthrax isssues. That and it’s prone to catch on fire.

Also, underground water can be iffy in areas