This post is from GMAC Real Estate Fredericksburg's real estate blog The Burg. To read more Fredericksburg real estate news, analysis & insight, visit The Burg online.
As you may know, I like finding shiny pennies! Today, I am looking for them in land deals, that is, I wanted to find the best acreage deals I could at an affordable price. “Affordable,” of course, is a relative term. For my search today, I defined “affordable” as land with a total price of less than $300,000. I also defined this land as being in Gillespie County near Fredericksburg, no further than 15 miles from town. Preference was given to land with paved road frontage.
First, the broad picture. I felt like land prices in our area were holding their own despite the horror stories you read about in the press. See the charts below comparing the first 4 months of 2007 to the first 4 months of 2008:
| Land Sales from Jan 1 - April 30, 2007 | |||||
| 47 Listings | |||||
| Low | High | Average | Median | ||
| List Price | $29,975 | $2,500,000 | $341,851 | $199,000 | |
| Sales Price | $27,000 | $2,300,000 | $319,194 | $190,000 | |
| List/Sold (%) | 76.56% | 103.45% | 94.33% | 94.71% | |
| Days on Mkt | 46 | 1,256 | 416 | 277 | |
| Land Sales from Jan 1 - April 30, 2008 | |||||
| 45 Listings | |||||
| Low | High | Average | Median | ||
| List Price | $34,900 | $2,279,600 | $336,608 | $181,899 | |
| Sales Price | $29,000 | $2,220,664 | $315,276 | $177,480 | |
| List/Sold (%) | 70.09% | 100.88% | 92.13% | 93.68% | |
| Days on Mkt | 2 | 917 | 310 | 215 | |
Like I thought, land prices appear to be holding pretty steady. The Average Sales Price was $319,194 in 2007 vs. $315,194 in 2008, although the Median Price dropped about 6.5%. Inventory was down in 2008 vs. 2007 by a little more than 5%.
Available Listings
There were 315 acreage listings in Gillespie County. Sales Year-to-Date are running about 11.75 listings/month, resulting in approximately 27 months of supply. In some markets, this would be alarmingly slow; however, in the Hill Country, it is much closer to the norm.
The price range of our land listings runs from just under $50,000 to in excess of $6.6 million, with the average price per listing being $480,000. For purposes of finding my “shiny penny” today, I wanted to stay under $300,000. While prices ran from $4,950/acre to in $50,000/acre, I was able to uncover 2 listings that caught my interest.
One listing consists of 20+ acres at $4,950/acre, but it is accessed by an easement road. Still, the total price was only slightly over $101,000 and one might call this property affordable. The other listing consists of 37 acres on a paved county road. It has nice trees and some topography and is listed at approximately $7,800/acre for a total of $290,000. This one has been on the market for almost a year, so the Sellers may be motivated to sell! I call this my shiny penny in dirt property today.
If you would like to know this type of information before you make a purchase decision, I would like to help! I feel like if I arm my clients with this knowledge, they can get a good idea of relative value and make informed purchase decisions. At GMAC Real Estate Fredericksburg, we analyze the market data to help you make better purchase decisions. We may not have every answer, but we can certainly limit your surprises. Please let us know if we can help!
All prices are subject to change, prior sale, or removal from the market without notice.
Greg can be reached by cell at (830) 456-3622, at the office at (830) 997-6123, or by email.
To read more articles like this, visit The Burg at www.TheBurgBlog.net
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