Price of timber?? $350K 53AC just sold for $134K after clear cut; Make sense??

[schoolsout]

So you're looking at getting $600 per acre.

Yea, that's about right

This area has already been thinned once. If I had to guess, if it was full of planted pines, it would be near $2k/acre price, I'm guessing. Pines are about 20 years old on this part of property.

 

[Groo]

red pine for utility poles can bring in bigger bucks than veneer quality hard maple.

 

[beppington]

I was just told that in my area (same area as the original scenario: N Cent FL) harvested pine trees used to sell for $40/ ton but now is down to about $12/ ton.

But I don't know how much weight worth of harvested pine trees you might get off of 1 acre.

Anybody?

 

[dmccarty]

When we sold some of our timber we sold by the board feet. Their are at least three scales used to determine the amount of board feet in a log and each scale produces a different value.

I THOUGHT that the only time trees were sold by weight or by the cord was for firewood or pulp but this might depend on what companies are doing locally.

Pines trees in my area grow much denser per acre than say oak. The pines also produce more board feet per tree than the oaks. So pine will give more money per acre than oak.

When we sold, we managed to sell at the peak of the timber market which was $400 per thousand board feet. I checked the price a couple years ago and the price was $200/MBF. M is thousand aka Roman value not modern digital value.

I cannot remember exactly but it seems like after expenses our timber sold for about 2/3's the price of the land.

So their price is POSSIBLE. But given what I THINK I know of current timber and land prices it is doubtful he got as good of a price as we did. NC used to have a phone number, and I think know they have a website, showing what the price of timber has been in different regions of the state over the last couple of quarters. You might want to check to see if FLA has this information available.

The WSJ had a story about politics and property values in FLA. Houses in Volusia county dropped from an average of over $200,000 to $98,000.

My guess is he got what value he could from the trees and just dumped the land to pay off the mortgage.

We looked at some land before we bought ours. The two guys selling the land were going to timber and then sell the land. This seemed to be their way of making money. We offered them asking price for the land if they did not timber. They said no. So did we. We saw a couple parcels where the trees had been timbered and the land was then sold.

Later,
Dan

 

[Larry Caldwell]

I have about 35 acres of merchantable Douglas Fir that I'm waiting for prices to bump on. If I can sell the timber for $550/thousand board feet Scribner, I will clear about $150,000 after logging expenses. It's about 50 year old second growth, with only a few big logs mixed in. Prices skyrocketed last year when the Chinese started buying logs, but when they quit the price dropped just as fast. I missed the window. Next time I have a crew lined up ready to go when logs hit my trigger price.

I may have to wait 10 years, which is OK, since I don't really need the money. Meanwhile, the trees are putting on 4% a year in growth, so it's a paying investment. I planted 4500 seedlings when I bought the place in '94, planning to have some trees to show the buyers when I get around to selling, after I harvest. They will be 30 years old or so when age finally makes me sell out, or if I'm lucky and they make 40 years I may log them myself.

 

[MarkV]

I have about 35 acres of merchantable Douglas Fir that I'm waiting for prices to bump on. If I can sell the timber for $550/thousand board feet Scribner, I will clear about $150,000 after logging expenses. It's about 50 year old second growth, with only a few big logs mixed in. Prices skyrocketed last year when the Chinese started buying logs, but when they quit the price dropped just as fast. I missed the window. Next time I have a crew lined up ready to go when logs hit my trigger price.

I may have to wait 10 years, which is OK, since I don't really need the money. Meanwhile, the trees are putting on 4% a year in growth, so it's a paying investment. I planted 4500 seedlings when I bought the place in '94, planning to have some trees to show the buyers when I get around to selling, after I harvest. They will be 30 years old or so when age finally makes me sell out, or if I'm lucky and they make 40 years I may log them myself.

Wow, your Oregon timber brings much more per acre than our N. Georgia pine timber. We had 70 acres cut this year that was over 45 years old. That turned out to be a problem for us. The trees were larger than the saw timber mills locally took so they had to be hauled much farther. That cost a seller money. Pulp wood is king here so timber stands are managed for pulp harvest mostly. Generally you look at $1K to $1.5K per acre in the current market.

Guess the point is that every market varies and you need to know your market before judging what the timber on a tract is worth. What Larry can get in Oregon would be a dream here.

MarkV

 

[samhudson3]

So it comes down to how big the trees are, what the market is like in your area and logging costs.[/QUOTE]

This is the formula, and to keep tax breaks intact, you gotta replant so deduct that cost as well.

 

[YanmarFever]

Its quite simple... HE WORKED FOR THE GOVERNMENT :laughing::laughing::laughing:

 

[Pete Judd]

A couple of years ago, I logged a 5 acre parcel before I sold it, same as Larry, but it was 800 bucks per Mbf. Several 6-7 log loads on the truck. A lot different up here in the PNW. 2 K or more per load. I did the logging myself, and just hired a self loading log truck to take them to the mill. I left a lot of trees for real estate value, but still cleared over 25 grand for the timber.

 

[schoolsout]

At least down here in SC, trees for lumber aren't fetching much money whereas pulpwood trees are doing well.