The last land that sold here, private sale, brought $14,000 an acre, for a 50 acre tract. Now, it was sold to a Mennonite, and I'm sure he'd sold some land back in Pennsylvania before coming here, so he may have already had the money as far as I know. It was all tillable, but had no buildings on it, and they put up a big house, barn, and shed, so that added to the cost.
They have about half the place planted in produce and tobacco, and the rest is rented to a local farmer. The other half of that farm sold a couple of years ago for $12,000 an acre to another Mennonite, and it had an older house. It's about a mile from me as the crow flies, the same distance in the opposite direction as another farm that also brought $12,000 an acre a couple of years back.
It's hard to say just what land is worth here, as the Mennonites buy just about all of it, and they look at it differently that I would. They are here in large numbers, and have to have the land in order to stay here, so they pay whatever it takes to buy it. I own 300 acres, and the thought has crossed my mind more than once to sell out and go somewhere that land is not so high, and buy more. But, my family has owned this land since the mid-1800's, so it's part of my heritage to stay here, and besides, I really don't want to live anywhere else. Besides, land everywhere around here is too damn high, and I'd have to more than likely move a long ways off to find cheap land.
