In an earlier post, I mentioned that smaller rural tracts were in great demand here in Medina Co. This was not reflected in the stats from the Real Estate Center at Texas A&M, so I asked what size acreage was being tracked. Turns out, the tract size was concealing the boom. Once adjusted for 50 acres and below, the numbers changed drastically, see below. The graph shows a “stumble, bumble” from Covid in 2019-2020, then a rapid increase in both prices and volume.
Not all regions of Texas are behaving this way, as it seems to be associated with large metropolitan areas. I am not a sociologist, but it seems people just want to get away from cities and that I can understand. Unfortunately, I work in tracts 300 acres and above and while that market is recovering well from Covid, it does not have the strength that the smaller tract market does.
The take away from this is small tract owners should hang on for awhile to see where prices are going while buyers should be prepared to come in strong if they want their “home on the range”.
Work for most people keeps them an hour or so to the major population centers. Ive noticed though that tracts of land even as far as 2 or 3 hours from major metro areas are also are being bought up. Land prices continue to rise.