Moving to the Country

The National Association of Realtors conducted a poll and found that 60% of Baby Boomers (those born between 1946 and 1964) hope or plan on moving to a rural setting when they retire. There are 78 million Boomers, which means around 47 million plan or dream of moving to the country.

Downsizing of their primary residence, since kids are (typically) grown and gone at that point, was a key motivator. Another was lower taxes: a smaller home with lower rural residential tax rates combined with agricultural or recreational acreage that can typically be taxed at reduced rates with a Texas Agricultural Exemption or Texas Wildlife Exemption.

Of course the trade off is they’ll have to swap the noise pollution of cars, sirens and zero lot line neighbors for the sound of frogs, birds and cicadas. They will need to endure the lack of streetlights and headlights for a sky full of stars. And of course they will need to get accustomed to actually traveling 10 miles in 10 minutes instead of a 10 mile, one hour commute.

The move to the country has really been going on- and going strong – since the late 1960’s, but never has there been such a large group of Americans nearing or in the process of retiring and vacating the urban areas. The wealth of this group, combined with the ability to stay connected – even conduct business in the same way from rural locations – will drive country land purchases for decades. Better buy some land.