With home prices reaching record highs, many people believe the real estate market is at its peak. According to the Fiscal Times, it’s a seller’s market and most buyers want turnkey properties with homes already built. Despite this trend, for the adventurous few looking to buy land and build their dream homes or country ranch residences, affordable options still exist.
The experts at FindTheHome used county public records to look at the sales of vacant lots since the beginning of 2014. Using this data, they averaged the lot size, sale price, and price per square foot of every vacant lot transaction in each county and found the counties with the cheapest land in each state.
Buying undeveloped land comes with many advantages. Empty land usually does not cost as much as an improved lot. Additionally, it provides maximum creative flexibility — stay within your jurisdiction’s zoning codes, and you can build whatever you want. Perhaps most importantly, though, is the fact that vacant lots can often be better long-term investments.
In Illinois, Ogle County was the cheapest county in which one could buy a vacant lot since 2014. The average vacant lot size spanned 2,413,805 square feet, and the average sale amount for all lots was $564,480. This figure might sound steep for an undeveloped property, but consider that each lot sold for an average of just $0.43 per square foot of vacant land.
Take a look at the graphs below to see how home prices have been trending in Illinois. Is it about time you started to think about investing in a vacant lot in Illinois?
[graphiq id=”kqPMMTx7WpT” title=”Median Home Sale Price in Illinois” width=”600″ height=”536″ url=”https://w.graphiq.com/w/kqPMMTx7WpT” link=”http://trends.findthehome.com/l/34/Illinois” link_text=”Median Home Sale Price in Illinois | FindTheHome”]