Who here owns 5 or more acres?

[punk-a-doodle]

I've got 18.5 acres that I bought in 2006, inbetween New Waverly & Coldspring Texas. It backs up to the Sam Houston National Forest, so I'll never have to worry about neighbors on that side. I used Capital Farm Credit, since they do house length loans for just land. It's great - they're also a co-op, so once a year, I'll get a dividend check that's pretty much one month's payment. I refinanced in 2009 and doubled the loan amount so I could do some improvements: cut trees (solid woods), dig up the stumps, fence (hog fence plus 2 strands barbless wire), driveway, water well, electric and a pole barn. THAT completely tripled my yearly taxes and the county had recently changed the ag-exemption rules and it now states that property must be at least 20 acres. In any case, I'm just biding my time until I can afford to build a house. Could be another 5-10 years. I'm in no real rush. I've got a good set up currently - I live with my folks, 20 minutes from downtown Houston, where I work, and they have 4 acres and plenty of room for my horses and chickens. Dad's already stated that when they do sell their house, he's going to move with me. Mom is unsure. She's got multiple myeloma, so doesn't want to get too far from MD Anderson, but she loves country living. So, no one's going anywhere just yet.

My dream is a log home. Not too big, but with a wraparound porch.

Thanks so much for that NP! Really helpful info here, especially since TX is one place we are looking at land wise. Is the change to 20 acres for ag-exemption state wide, or county? Any other tips for TX lands?

 

[Moochie]

Are you guys rich or have really good jobs? Homes here in Cali are expensive if they have acreage. My dream home 2 towns away is $335k and it has 2.2 acres, it's also a big one story house but in that town most of the houses are going for that range of price. That's expensive to me because my dad bought the current house we live in for around $80k in cash...
I really want more room which is why we [my mom and I] want the empty lot next to us, if we bought that lot our property total would be an acre or almost 1 acre. There's a home in a poop neighborhood with 5 acres, mom and I were thinking about it but it was too much walking around. No clue on the price, the owners just abandoned the house and the bank didn't want it so some negotiation is taking place on what to do with it.
There's one equestrian home with 60 acres near Thousand Oaks selling for like $13 million or so, I don't quite remember the exact price. It's just so hard to find a place out here with 1+ acres that's within our price range [and the house is big enough].

 

[speckledhen]

Moochie, California prices are generally very high. Location makes a humongous difference in real estate prices and property taxes. We live on a very small military pension every month.

 

[Back2MyRoots]

My family has a little over 300 acres combined. It's all trust land, passed from generation to generation. It's used and maintained by all. In our very rural area here in Alabama, acreage is only worth a little over $5,000 each. We have 2 barns, and a few other out-building plus 4 homes on the land and the whole lot is only valued at around $430,000! Now that's refreshing at tax season, though I can't imagine what it would be like in some other state, like California!

 

[punk-a-doodle]

335k on 2 acres. Heart...stopped beating.

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Sounds amazing Back2.

 

[speckledhen]

Clarified something by looking closer at my tax bill, but that also created a new puzzle. The homestead exemption, which is about $2000 off of the 40% of the assessed home value, is still in force. No idea why we were told it was removed, so now, we don't get why the house taxes went up $150 per year a couple of years ago with no increase in assessed value on the house. So, that is a new question to ask.

There was a freeze on value that was just unfrozen, hence the tax value of my house on the 2.22 acres is now supposedly almost $30K more this year than last year, adding yet another $150 in property tax, which means since we bought in 2002, that portion of the taxes are double what we originally paid per year. My pal Don actually took it upon himself to call the tax assessor's office here and speak to them and what they've done is make up for all the years those values were frozen at one time, hence, my two lots have gone up by almost 500% in property tax. Now, common sense would tell anyone that folks living here on a fixed income would have trouble paying that. And in this market, they'd also have trouble selling the land.

 

[Moochie]

I know it's crazy. 335k is blecky... My mom wanted 115k for it and the agent said NOPE lol. Oh well, hopefully the lot won't be too expensive. You guys with a lot of acres are lucky! I would love more room for adventuring.

 

[NickyPick]

Thanks so much for that NP! Really helpful info here, especially since TX is one place we are looking at land wise. Is the change to 20 acres for ag-exemption state wide, or county? Any other tips for TX lands?

I just checked with San Jacinto county. I really don't know about others - they can all set their own rules, so you'd need to check with the county tax office. They did give me a list of things that qualified for tax exemptions: 20 acres for hay or trees. 3 acres for Pecans or Christmas trees! (and now we're thinking of planting Pecans). Then there's certain animal amounts that you'd need to own/breed/sell per year that would also qualify for an exemption. I raise horses, but the requirement of breeding/selling 5 per year is really kind of ridiculous in this market!

 

[speckledhen]

Just found out that charter school amendment passed in GA, which is another property tax hit, at least until and unless we can dump that school portion when DH turns 62. Good grief, is there any good news??