My partner and I sold out of our NY homestead two months ago and moved to Northwest Arkansas. We’re very happy to be free from being behind the iron wall of the NE. We’re from La and Tx originally, so feel more at home being back down South. However, the arbitrage of selling out from NY to Arkansas may not be as great as we thought it would be.
Its hard to believe how high (bubblishious) land prices are. Sellers who speculated on vacant land are asking 200%, 300%, and 400% more than they paid. Getting 20% or 30% returns in the stock market are hard to come buy and makes one feel like a Robber Barron. I’m not against folks making a capital gain, but this is sociopathic, especially when NO improvements have been made to the properties.
As it is, cracks may finally be showing. Firstly, nothing solves high prices better than high prices. The buyers simply dry up. Land can only be flipped so many times at horrific increases before there are no more greater fools. To this, interest rates are increasing, which is kryptonite to real estate. As it is, one needs a loan the size of a home loan to buy many of these vacant land properties and then you need another one to build a home, not that these speculators intend to build homes. They are just playing the role of parasite.
So, we continue to be patient and learn the region. The gamble is waiting to see if prices and options improve, or if some how prices stagnate or keep going up. After years of gardening, canning, keeping chickens , etc, we really feel anxious during this time of uncertainty and are ready to launch our next homestead, but we are going to have to pray for patience and perseverance to see where this is going. It’s always fun to watch what y’all are doing.