I found a peice of rural land 25 years ago......

[BackRoad]

We are "cold pizza" rural...by choice. We target practice on our land and watch the bucks grow big. Don't see that changing in our lifetime.

But we still know our neighbors. I finish mow the 82 year old lady neighbor's pasture...simply to see the pleasure it gives her. And just mowed another neighbor's lawn who is on vacation...just to be neighborly.



Little sympathy for anyone complaining about how tough life is starting out today.

Gas crisis in '73, Vietnam War ending in '75, resulting job market in turmoil, inflation and recession in late '70s and the 30 year mortgage interest was 16% in '82 when we bought our first home.

We were dirt poor, but always believed in a brighter future - and that by working hard, we could do better...all within the framework of democracy and capitalism.


It's more about how one views the situation - shrink from the challenge or pursue opportunities. Overcoming obstacles makes one stronger, experienced and more capable.

Uncanny how today's economic environment and blame-everybody-else lack of personal responsibility seems to be much like the situation described in Atlas Shrugged. There is more insight gained each time I read it.

Who is John Galt?

 

[dmccarty]

Today, more than ever, one needs skills that will provide income. If you don't have those skills, one is limited income wise. This is NOT just a US issue either. I was reading an article about employment and education in China. There is very high unemployment for young people, it is about double compared to the US, and about half of the Chinese college graduates have not gotten job offers. One of the graduates that was part of the article has a degree in Philosophy....

My area has large number of technology jobs that cannot be filled. People have been moving to the area for years and the number of house, condos, and apartments being built is astounding. Areas in the cities that used to be industrial are turning into high tech office buildings, restaurants, condos and apartments. Areas a few years ago you would not visit, some times for safety reasons, but mostly because the area was blighted and there was no reason to visit. Now, there are small apartments renting for $2,000 a month. I suspect the people we have hired out of college are making almost, if not more than I am.

Areas that used to be rural are being developed because of the number of people moving to the area. This has been happening for decades but has really taken off in the last few years. It is not just technology companies bringing jobs to the area, there are factory jobs returning as well.

When we bought out place, we figured development would not be dense in most of the county because the soil does not perk, so you often need 5-10 acres to get a septic field, and the county and towns do not have the money to build the infrastructure for water and sewers. However, developers with deep pockets have come in and are building their own infrastructure. We did not see that happening.

There is farm that barely abuts our land. I think that farm has been in the family since the land was granted by the King. The owners were up there in age when we bought land decades ago, and I don't know if the wife is still alive anymore, but it has be obvious that the land is going to get sold when she dies or shortly there after. They lease their pasture for cattle but they have put NO money into the pasture which is really run down. The family does not live on the farm anymore either. The land is just sitting there. They sold timber at the peak of lumber prices, and without measuring the acres they sold, and they sold quite a few acres of mature pines, my guess is they made at least a million dollars on the timber sale. We just found out that their land is being marketed for development. It is not being marketed by a local real estate broker but by a commercial development company. My guess is that the land is work $10-15 million easy if they sell for $20-30,000 an acre. I would be surprised if the land sold for less.

There is a smaller 50ish acre parcel near us that is asking $56,000 an acre.

We have been talking about selling our place but the question is where to go live? We have looked at quite a few places but none of them really are attractive to us, or at least me. There are major issues for the places we have explored moving too, and when we looked at the requirements for a place to live, it is where we live. But development is here and cannot be stopped. There will be a major highway built near us at some point, and a few miles away, but I will still hear the noise. The traffic is going to increase because of the development. What is now a quick trip town with one traffic light is going to be a longer trip with 3-4 traffic lights. The town will almost certainly absorb us, prohibit shooting and hunting on our land, raise our taxes and require a permit to cut down a dead tree... We will have to pay taxes, for no services, while having restrictions placed on our use of our land.

I am afraid at some point, we will have to sell....

One reason we want to sell everything, buy a boat and go see the world while we still can....

Later,
Dan