People purchase land for many reasons. Land can be used for residential real estate, commercial real estate, farming, or left alone to appreciate and let nature roam. Some people purchase land to start a homestead, build a custom home, build apartment complexes, start farms, or have their personal space.
Whatever your reason, you’ll want to consider the following factors when making your purchase: location, buildable, condition of the lots, restrictions, zoning and utilities, possible environmental hazards, area population growth and development, and cost.
If you’re looking to homestead or farm, you’ll want to make sure that your land is arable. If you’re looking to build a home to raise a family in, you will want to check out your local community and school district.
Some do’s of buying land include:
- Working with a real estate agent
- Have your finances in order (land purchases are often done in cash)
- Consider the value of homes in the neighborhood
- Take utilities and road access into account and do consider incentives
Some don’ts of buying land include: don’t expect to get a loan; don’t skip the environmental tests; don’t forget the survey; don’t talk to the neighbors, and don’t assume you can have the property rezoned.
A word of advice is to not tell your future potential neighbors that you’re planning on building a home before you build it. This can cause some problems for people who don’t want new construction or the noise of it.
States with the Cheapest Land for Sale
Land prices in the U.S. vary greatly, with some states going as high as $200,000 per acre (New Jersey). If you’re not too picky about where you’re purchasing, you can find many cheaper options. The least expensive states for land are going to be found mostly in the western parts of the country.
In several states, local governments are actively giving away land to be used for homesteading or small farms. Their goal is to hopefully create an industry with farming, which will attract more people into small towns and expand jobs in the area. Some of these towns include:
- Mankato, Kansas
- Marquette, Kansas
- Lincoln, Kansas
- Plainville, Kansas
- Osborne, Kansas
- Muskegon, Michigan
- Curtis, Nebraska
- Loup City, Nebraska
- Elwood, Nebraska
- Manilla, Iowa
- Marne, Iowa
- New Richland, Minnesota
- Claremont, Minnesota
- Flagler, Colorado
Before the pandemic, people generally considered the real estate market to be balanced. The lowest averages sat around $2,000 per acre and the highest were $200,000 per acre. It wasn’t a horrible experience to buy or sell a house in 2019, depending on where you were looking.
But after the pandemic struck, the cost of real estate soared. It became a seller's market that buyers could only hope to survive. The value of land, regardless of its condition, increased dramatically. So, when looking at average costs of acres across the United States, be sure to look for references that are recent.
Lowest Median Cost Per Acre
InMyArea.com performed a study that took a look at the median prices per acre in 2021 and found that Arizona had the cheapest median cost per acre, at $4,164. The data includes the price of land with existing homes and the cost of land designated as a homesite were also included so that you can have some comparison.
We chose to use this data because medians more accurately represent the data because they cannot be skewed depending on how high the highs are or how low the lows are—like averages.