Is your acreage enough?

[Anonymous Poster]

I just bought back 25 acres my father sold in the late 70's, it was near my house and I was scared of nosie neighbors. He had gotten 1500, and I had to pay 15000. So I guess the moral is, hold on to land if possible, the cash doesn't last long.

 

[B7500]

"hold on to land if possible, the cash doesn't last long."

So very true. You were smart to buy it back. Good for you!
-Terry

 

[MossRoad]

We currently live on 1+ acre in an older neighborhood. We also own about 20- acres a few miles away. What's keeping us from moving to the 20 acres? A few things...

The first is our neighbors.... We like them! All of them! Both sides, behind us, across the street, katty-corner, all of them.

The second is the kids' school is about 6 blocks away.

Third, it only takes us 7 minutes to get to work.

It is just too convenient to leave. We are very fortunate to be in this situation.

One word of the wise to you... If you really want more land, buy it as soon as possible, as it never gets any less expensive. Land prices here skyrocketed about 10 years ago. Land that was going for $2000/acre is now going for $15,000/lot... usually around 1/2 acre or less. It is disgusting. I don't know how my kids will find a decent piece of property if they want one in 20 years. It won't be there.

In the mid 1950s my father and a partner bought up 20 acres for around $20,000 and sold 15 lots for $2000 per lot. The sold 4 more lots on a 90' escarpment overlooking water and the University of Notre Dame for $2500 because they were worth so much more /w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif. In 1995, when my father was dying of cancer, we talked quite a bit. He said he regretted chopping up the land and should have hung on to all of it for his kids. It would have been worth many hundreds of thousands of dollars, but we wouldn't have sold it either. /w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

 

[B7500]

MossRoad,

"We are very fortunate to be in this situation."

You truly are very fortunate. I am happy for you. My experience in life has been that even well intentioned neighbors can be a real pain in the *!x;"$. They don't even hear their dog barking at five in the morning or their kids skateboarding down MY driveway. Actually, once when I lived in San Diego, my neighbor across the street sat on his porch all day waiting for his wife to come home.... with a 357 on his lap for reasons I never did find out.
I know that is extreme but naaa; I'll take my chances with the occasional deer that wants a taste of the salt lick I put out for her. I love the solitude, play on my tractor and listen to nature. To me, it doesn't get any better then that!
-Terry

 

[cstocks]

Tawoo,

I can see that you and I would make great neighbors.... each on our thousand, make that ten thousand, acres!/w3tcompact/icons/laugh.gif

 

[BigDave]

I own 5 wooded acres and couldn't be happier. I have two neighbors each about 300ft away through the woods. Far enough not to hear them all of the time, but close enough to walk down the trail to pay them a visit. In back of our land, the smallest dimension, is school property & the local park. It nice to take a stroll down to the park without ever touching a road. The really best part, is on a Friday night when their is a high school football/soccer/lacrosse game. The National Anthem softly echos through the woods to our back deck: this sound leads to my contentment on so many levels. I like to say we have to most patriotic backyard in America. Five acres doesn't lock the world out, but it just gives enough space to feel comfortable.

 

[B7500]

"I can see that you and I would make great neighbors.... each on our thousand, make that ten thousand,
acres!"

Thanks Chris,
I was beginning to think I was the weird one
-Terry

 

[Inspector507]

I would love more room here.......I have just 1.67 acres. I'd love to have many, many more. I just couldn't maintain it like I have to on this "spread". The city limits is across the road....I love it

Jerry

 

[Robert_in_NY]

We have around 110 acres +/- a few. I haven't tallied it up as we just bought around 45 more acres next to us and we are looking at another 60 acres that is between two of our parcels. Yet, I don't have any room to do anything? Anything less then 20 acres is not enough if you have a tractor. Bare minumum to make a tractor happy is 20. I guess that just means you guys with a few acres just have to use your tractor that much more to keep it happy.

 

[BigDave]

So far, I'm averaging 10hrs a month on only 5 acres. Now the choice is to make the tractor happier, or the wife happier. Tough choice. /w3tcompact/icons/wink.gif