Residential Lots Fall More Than Homes - WSJ
Prices of Residential Lots Fall More Than Those of Homes
By June Fletcher
From The Wall Street Journal Online
During the real-estate boom and recent slowdown, the focus has been almost entirely on the price of homes. But land prices have taken an even wilder ride.
Residential lot prices in or near many metro areas across the country, including Boston, Washington, D.C., and Naples, Fla., have plummeted in the past year -- some as much as 29%. Big landowners are feeling the pain, too. According to Chicago-based Grubb & Ellis, a commercial brokerage, the median price of parcels averaging between 40 and 94 acres is $162,000 per acre year-to-date, 28% below the 2004 price.
The falling prices contradict the view that buying land is a safer bet than investing in bricks and mortar. In fact, lot prices have been far more volatile lately, buffeted by zoning laws, environmental regulations and other market forces. Meanwhile, adjusting for inflation, the cost to build a good-quality single-family house has remained relatively stable since 1980 at around $100 to $125 a square foot, according to Joseph Gyourko, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "Land is a risky investment," Mr. Gyourko says...
By June Fletcher
From The Wall Street Journal Online
During the real-estate boom and recent slowdown, the focus has been almost entirely on the price of homes. But land prices have taken an even wilder ride.
Residential lot prices in or near many metro areas across the country, including Boston, Washington, D.C., and Naples, Fla., have plummeted in the past year -- some as much as 29%. Big landowners are feeling the pain, too. According to Chicago-based Grubb & Ellis, a commercial brokerage, the median price of parcels averaging between 40 and 94 acres is $162,000 per acre year-to-date, 28% below the 2004 price.
The falling prices contradict the view that buying land is a safer bet than investing in bricks and mortar. In fact, lot prices have been far more volatile lately, buffeted by zoning laws, environmental regulations and other market forces. Meanwhile, adjusting for inflation, the cost to build a good-quality single-family house has remained relatively stable since 1980 at around $100 to $125 a square foot, according to Joseph Gyourko, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. "Land is a risky investment," Mr. Gyourko says...
posted by Patrick Leblanc at 9:55 PM
<< Home