Blog > Has Land Ever Been Cheap
Waiting for Land to Feel Cheap
I asked an old timer if he could remember a time when people didn’t think land was expensive.
He didn’t hesitate.
He said when he was young, folks talked about land the same way they do now. Too high. Too risky. Didn’t make sense. Then he laughed and said, “If you waited for land to feel cheap, you never bought any.”
He said people look back now and assume land must’ve been affordable then. Smaller numbers. Fewer zeros. But he said the economy mattered just as much as the price.
Interest rates were higher. Incomes were lower. Equipment broke more often. One bad year could wipe out several good ones. To them, land felt expensive.
He said every generation measures land the same way. Against what they earn. What they owe. And how uncertain the future feels. When margins are tight, land looks too high. When times are good, it still feels risky.
He said he’s heard the same conversation his whole life.
Land is too high.
It can’t keep going up.
This doesn’t make sense.
There's no way a young person can get started.
“And then,” he said, “years go by and people wish they’d bought it.”
What surprised him, and me, is that even today, beginning farmers are still buying land. Not because it feels cheap, but because they’re willing to think long-term instead of waiting on perfect conditions.
He said nobody he knew ever bought land because it was cheap. They bought it because they believed in it. They believed it would outlast bad years, market swings, and short-term fear.
“Land was never a quick win,” he said. “It was always a long game.”
He paused and said he couldn’t remember a time when most people thought land was a bargain.
“What I do remember,” he said, “is a lot of people wishing they’d bought it when they had the chance.”
Land always feels expensive in the present.
It only feels affordable in hindsight.
Dennis Prussman,
Premier Land & Auction Group
Real Broker, LLC,