Are Texas property buyers turning into a 21st-century Oliver Wendell Douglas? Oliver was the rural-loving Manhattan lawyer on 1960s sitcom Green Acres who wanted nothing more in life but to farm the land.
OK, maybe you’re too young to remember that show. But it did provide the mindset that, sometimes, as the show’s theme song goes, “farm livin’ is the life for me.”
The modern-day comparison is that an increasing number of Texans are making rural land purchases. Make that a record $1.69 billion in statewide acquisitions in the fourth quarter of 2020, according to the Texas Land Market Latest Developments report compiled by the Texas Real Estate Research Center.
In North Texas, rural sales were up more than 22.5 percent year-over-year, according to the report. Statewide, 552,707 acres of rural land changed hands in 7,684 transactions, up 28.9 percent from last year. The typical sale was 1,139 acres. The report breaks Texas into seven regions. The North Texas market fell into Northeast Texas Region 4 where sales and rural land costs rose.
“Prices rose throughout this region, from Fort Worth on the west through the Piney Woods along the Louisiana border,” the new report said. “The regional price rose 4 percent to $5,036 per acre. Currently, market professionals report a flood of interest in land purchases.”
Higher demand, of course, means higher rural land prices. Rural acreage went for $3,064 per acre, up 3.1 percent from a year ago.
Why the interest in rural Texas? The report cited social distancing and the need for lockdowns because of the COVID-19 pandemic and periods of urban unrest. It also could be attributed to the current trend of low inventory and rising housing costs.
Also, don’t discount the increasing trend to working remotely. You can lead a project from your rural home office then have time to plow the back 80.
“Taken together, the third- and fourth-quarter results signal an active and rising market with strong demand for land in most areas of Texas,” Charles Gilliland, research economist for the Texas Real Estate Research Center, said in a statement. “Currently, market professionals report a flood of interest in land purchases.”
Will it last? If ’60s TV taught us anything, it’s that if people discover “a bubblin’ crude. Oil … black gold, Texas tea” on their rural property, they’re making like The Beverly Hillbillies and moving to the city.
