Those scheming a citybreak would do well to
acquire their land as soon as possible. Diminishing supply and increasing
demand are pumping prices of the most desirable country property. While
stratospheric city prices max out their markets, rural prices are still
refreshingly low--but are moving upward, especially in areas within
commuting distance to collar county workplaces.
In country-chic places prices are moving as
fast as leaves in a tornado. Ron Powers, in Far From Home: Life and Loss
in Two American Towns shows how dollar-burdened buyers such as Henry
Kissinger have disfranchised natives from Kent, a small town in
northwestern Connecticut.
Wily Will's wry observation quoted above
was made more than sixty years ago. (Many of Will's observations were wry.
Some were pure corn. Few were whole wheat.) Not only is there a finite
amount of land, quality rural property is disappearing as fast as ice
cream at an August picnic. Cropland, pastures, woods, and civil war
battlefields have been targeted for or are already becoming roads,
shopping centers, office buildings, factories, airports and theme parks.
Penturbia replaced suburbia as the home choice of Americans in the 1970s.
In the first half of this decade, 1.6 million Americans moved from urban
to rural places. All of the big cities but New York City are losing
population while three-quarters of all rural counties are gaining.
Demand for rural homes is accelerating due
to both urban conditions and rural opportunities. The quest for ideal life
in the information overload age finds many Americans desperate for basic
peace and safety for themselves and their families. Public school
conditions have made homeschooling widely utilized. Cities have become
unmanageable. Even weather seems to be signaling change. Natural and
manmade disasters are reported ad nauseam by mainstream media. Each
earthquake, fire, riot, bombing, murder, or rape heads more wagons for the
hills.
Gold fever has been replaced by green
fever. Baby boomers are rejecting corporate servitude and incityous frenzy
for country home businesses amidst scenic vistas. Burned-out corporate
climbers of all ages are repotting themselves in small towns and small
acreages. For many, the current consciousness is phooey on big incomes
with high price tags--let's live better on less where the financial and
psychological costs are sane. Property far beyond the sidewalks is
increasingly seen as a superior place.
Many inconveniences of rural life have been
overcome. The interstate highway system is intact. Electric and telephone
service reaches into the boondocks. Beyond the power poles, affordable
independent home energy systems, cell telephones, and satellite receivers
make even mountaintops habitable and those living there conversant with
the world. Communication clouds have evaporated. This is being written in
a wild Ozarks hollow and can zip through phone wires to a Texas editor's
computer in moments. Unless a thunderstorm threatens to zap the fax/modem,
in which case I will unplug, read a book, and transmit tomorrow.
New commercial centers are growing in
collar counties, those semi-rural counties beyond the suburbs. Boards of
directors are moving both factories and corporate headquarters to rural
settings where land prices, taxes, regulations and wages favor the bottom
line in an increasingly competitive world marketplace. And a safe rural
setting is where CEOs, managers and workers alike increasingly choose to
live. Think of the huge Saturn plant that General Motors built in tiny
Spring Hill, Tennessee, or the billion-dollar plant that Intel built in
Rio Rancho, New Mexico, despite ardent courting by California politicos.
Celebrities are also trend-setters and for
two decades they have been buying and moving to rural venues. High-profile
country property owners include Robert Redford, Ted Turner and Jane Fonda,
Oprah Winfrey, Paul Newman and Tommy Lee Jones. Robert James Waller made
enough on The Bridges of Madison County to live anywhere he wanted--he
chose a thousand acres in West Texas. Of star-grazers, only Barbra
Streisand seems stymied--Manhattan absolutely refuses to sell Central Park
and large acreage is impossible to find in the Yonkers of today.
For many rural wannabes the dilemma is
financial timing--when to sell the rancher for gold and buy a cabin for
copper. In some regions city prices have become so high they are
unaffordable for most and especially for young families. It is certain
that such city and suburban prices will eventually plateau and fall while
adjacent rural prices continue to rise. Local economic and social
conditions create price movement. Southern California homeowners who once
had huge equities have seen that paper fortune fly away. Observe
conditions in your community and use your common sense to judge the right
time to move. This is one of those areas where it may be dangerous to rely
on so-called experts. Have some fun. Call a real estate agent and ask if
it's a good time to sell. Have a friend call the same agent the next day
and ask if it's a good time to buy.
Is a house more important to you as a
short-term investment or as a long-term haven for your family? Many of us
judge money far less important than clean air and water, safety,
community, low stress levels and high freedom levels. One plan many urban
and suburban dwellers use is to buy a place in the country but put up with
city conditions as long as they can. Buy as soon as possible, make
payments, then move after the rural property is paid for or when city
prices appear to have peaked. City pay still averages higher than rural
income so land payments are less strain with city bucks. Identify your
ideal place and buy your piece of rural America as soon as you can. Like
Will said, they ain't making any more of the stuff--and city conditions
sure ain't getting any better.
