Out of state land price observations...

[JHbowhunter]

Just doing a little daydreaming of potential land investments with whitetail hunting of primary interest, and putting a home on it...

My search criteria was $500,000 or less, 50 to 250 acres.

 

Started with Ohio - a lot more expensive than I imagined, and most you don't get the mineral rights.  I am not buying land where I don't have 100% rights to anything on my land - period.

Looked at Iowa - holy sh#t it's freaking expensive.  Land of the giants for sure, but whitetail properties and other firms have gobbled it up and are marketing it as prime hunting lands, and the price of tillable land out there for farming is already high to begin with.

Kansas - saw some GREAT opportunities. Not enough trees for my liking, but you get tons of CRP that still pays out and 200+ acres is very affordable.... (Tornado alley, I am sure).

South Carolina - again, lots of land opportunity. Hot humid, snakes, gators I am sure.  But good fishing opportunities for coastal and Lake Marion. Very low taxes in SC, lots of deer.

Maryland - was surprised to see a lot of great land very affordable here, and again, good fishing opportunities in the Chesapeake to Chincoteage & Ocean City areas.

 

Took a glance at Nebraska, seems like you can get a lot of land there very affordable as well, but didn't dig much deeper.

 

Oklahoma - sure looks sweet: https://landandfarm.com/search/?StateIDs=47&MinAcreage=50&MaxAcreage=250&MaxPrice=500000&Sale=True&Lease=True&Auction=True&SortBy=Size&SortOrder=Desc&CurrentPage=1

Could you live in Oklahoma, the heart of "fly over" country.   Living there puts you a lot closer to other states with different big game as well...

 

What are your observations?    

 

I was using landandfarm.com as my search engine...  Not a bad site for that.

Edited November 16, 2017 by JHbowhunter

[3Blade]

I am in no position right now to even think about this seriously. But when I do day dream about escaping this hell hole, my mind always goes to Montana. They have big whitetails and a pretty large menu of other game. My thinking is if you are going to leave, get as far away from NJ as possible. Good luck in your search  

[tcook8296]

If you cant drive to it, you will not enjoy it as much as you think.

Managing an out of state property is a lot of fun, its expensive and a 2nd job

3 to 4 thousand an acre in my neighborhood

Edited November 16, 2017 by tcook8296

[tcook8296]

Sitting on my slice of heaven right now with the bow. The gun season starts tomorrow morning here in Illinois. Bucks are on the move. Couple of us Jersey guys are out. Im thinking something big is going to hit the ground here in the next few days

[JHbowhunter]

If you cant drive to it, you will not enjoy it as much as you think.

Managing an out of state property is a lot of fun, its expensive and a 2nd job

 

Thinking more about LIVING there...  If and when I do this, it's just part of the NJEXIT plan.   I thought of you and Illinois, but like Iowa, land ain't cheap and it gets hard by out of state hunters too. I know you do a great job managing your piece and you put a ton of time in...  Would not rule it out...    (most likely would be Maryland or SC - would be hard for me to give up a coast)

[Tarhunt]

Virginia.

[tcook8296]

Coast? Thats why airplanes were invented. I priced farms in Iowa at around 2000 an acre. Unless you are a resident , you will only get to bowhunt it around every 3 years. Ive pretty much threw in the towel on Nj. This is my 3rd hunt to Illinois this year and hoping for 1 more after this for late season

Edited November 16, 2017 by tcook8296

[_X7]

I traveled through Western Maryland and was impressed by the geography there. Pretty rugged and looks very deerish if that's a word.

[JHbowhunter]

I traveled through Western Maryland and was impressed by the geography there. Pretty rugged and looks very deerish if that's a word.

. I agree - that part looked very much like WV when I drove through it. Deer and bears and turkey.

[rocky]

20-30 years ago great deer hunting property in the midwest was worthless to the farmers. To them if you couldn't plant it, why own it? My how things have changed. Now the good deer hunting properties (creek bottoms, treed swamps, and ground that you can't farm) are worth more! 

[Nanuk]

I dream all the time , I’d like to buy now and start the transition but don’t know where I’d be happier. Won’t go further south then North Carolina ,WV has the worst medical and economy in the US so being this is where I’ll spend my golden years that’s important. Looked into Maine too cold , NY too liberal, Considered Ohio but it is pricey. Virginia is nice too .Never checked Montana but I can’t imagine that being cheap either .

[trapperjake]

Good topic I'm always pricing places out. West Virginia land is cheap sometimes less then a 1000 an acre but almost all mineral rights have been sold off. NY and Maryland seem to be reasonable priced

[Nanuk]

Forget Montana Avg price in was 8k - 15 k

an acre

[chuck172]

I've been looking in  Wayne County Pa. North of Honesdale. Really like the area and the people. I've starting to come to the conclusion that only properties that people don't want are up for sale at decent prices. Land and houses are expensive there too. I keep coming back to my house and land here in Sussex County and I'm starting to appreciate them more and more.

Trying  to find about 10 to 15 acres bordering state land in my Pa. target area is tough. My land borders Stokes on 3 sides, and the Appalachian trail just above me with no neighbors to speak of. Taxes in Pa. would be about 50% less, and the people there are just lots friendlier. I hate this State though.!!

[Axiom]

"my mind always goes to Montana."

 

I drive a Semi truck round and round this country.. occasionally i'll get stuck somewhere out in Bum "F" Egypt and i'll jump on the internet and do some pricing on large tracks of land for sale in various states.. Like the OP, I wouldn't buy ANYTHING that didn't give me full and unadulterated rights to my property.. This may be hard to do in a lot of states out west. 

 

Land prices aside, In my three years of travel I have come to the conclusion Montana is the place for big game hunting.. Herds and herds of Prong horn .. Moose, Elk, white tails and mule deer are easily seen from the HWY.. and in Big Numbers.. Haven't seen any wild Tatonka there as of yet though. 

 

Suggestion.. IMO owning your own HUGE track of land just for hunting is a losing proposition. A waste of money UNLESS you have money to waste.. Why limit yourself to a few dozen or a couple hundred acres?.. 200 acres in my mind is pretty small when you consider the whole of BRWMA is well over 1000 acres.. And to me that is small.. I think a smarter thing to do would be to buy a modest sized lot that connects to  larger Public owned lands.. Like a HUGE state park or National Forest...The larger the better.. Though most here might say "F" that after putting up with another season full of jack a$$es on mtheir favorite WMA, Out west is a totally different animal.. Here you might have 10 hunters per acre on some public lands on opening day of deer season  ​.. while out west U may have 1 per 10,000 acres ... Just my 2 cents worth..