Should You Invest in Land in East Texas?

While I can’t tell you if you should invest in land, I can tell you why I do:

Land as an investment has additional aspects to it that you cannot get with stocks, CDs or mutual funds: 1) you can enjoy the land, 2) you can re-model your investment to create greater value – basically, with land you have OPTIONS that are not available in other investments.

While owning stocks and mutual funds is very enjoyable when increasing in value (or at least holding your money together) my kids have never said “Hey Dad, can we play with your Dell Computer stock certificates?” They have asked to go fishing, build a campfire for smores, shoot BB guns or camp out on that investment. Our friends want to go canoeing, watch deer, cook out or hunt dove on that investment.

If you are not happy with your returns on a stock or mutual fund, you also have two options: 1) get over it, 2) sell it. Owning land, you can build a weekend or retirement home or cabin, improve it, divide it and sell part, hunt on it, lease it or farm it – you can remodel your investment.  Our government has been spending a lot of money recently; commodities, gold and land have always been the assets to own in inflationary periods.

The cliché is true- land is a finite commodity. You can’t make more of it and land can’t be overbuilt like the housing market. It is simply supply and demand. Texas is expected to add 13,000,000 new residents in the next 20 years. For the last 3 years, Texas has created more new jobs than the other 49 states combined. Those jobs – primarily due to Texas’ business friendly environment and right-to-work attitude, along with some of the most affordable housing in the country, no state income tax, and a diverse landscape, are driving that growth. As the boundaries of Dallas and other Texas metro areas creep into present rural areas, the ‘country’ moves closer, which means an increase in the demand for and the value of surrounding rural land for folks looking to have a weekend place to get out of town, build a new permanent home or just do as they please on their own piece of ground.