Land prices in KY

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Just thought I would post some prices as I just heard the results of a farm auction this past weekend. Old (3 generation) farm was broken up and sold in 3 separate parcels ... Pulaski County, Kentucky

Smallest was 33 acres with an old house (only marginally liveable), good access, mostly farmable acreage: $41,000.

Second piece, 55 acres, the original farmhouse, 5 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms ... one of those that was built onto repeatedly, but in good condition; one or two barns, pond, most of the acreage farmable: $82,000 (not absolutely sure on this but in the low 80s). House and 6 acres are now for sale for $38,000 I think the buyer said, all he wanted was the farm land.

Biggest piece, 150+ acres, 3000 lb tobacco base, 5 barns, 2 houses and all the machinery (4 tractors, etc.) $220,000. I have a feeling some of this may end up subdivided and resold.

Land prices, if you have "cash money" and/or can arrange the balance in financing, are going down in this area. Several reasons, but a lot of it is the basic economy ... one of the big companies just shut down last summer and is moving ... nothing else coming in. For awhile the super high gas prices made it so expensive to commute any distance (and a lot of local people do commute to Lexington, which is a 65 mile drive one-way) ... that a lot of the small farms are in trouble.

Add that to the fact that most of the cash crop here has always been tobacco ... the only cash crop that could be grown on some of these small farms ... and then realize that the tobacco quotas have been cut by nearly 75% over the last 2 years ... and you have small farms that are going under. Their traditional cash crop income has been cut by at 75% ... they have no alternate cash crop that will provide anywhere near the cash income that tobacco did. Many of them that already relied on an outside income have been laid off, or the companies are shutting down.

So I think a lot of people that were paying for farms/ major improvements ... operating on borrowed money ... are in real trouble and bailing out ... and there isn't anyone locally that can afford to purchase at the prices that were common 2 or 3 years ago.

-- SFM in KY (timberln@hyperaction.net), December 04, 2001

Answers

Land prices here in my part of Ky. are not going down. They are asking and getting $4000 to $5000 an acre here for marginal land. I guess we are just too close to Lexington! We paid less than $800 an acre for ours 10 years ago. If we wanted to move, we could make a nice profit. Don't want to though unless too many city people start moving here!

-- ugly (here@home.com), December 06, 2001.

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