By Jared Groce

North Texas rural land sales slowed a bit in April in the counties of Montague, Cooke, Wise and Denton counties, possibly due to the rainy, gloomy weather. Most land brokers are reporting that there are still reporting that the market is unbalanced, with many more buyers than there are sellers. The two hottest categories of land continue to be rural residential and heavily wooded recreational land with surface water. Below is a synopsis of land transaction for the month of April 2019 in five of our North Texas Counties. It includes information from North Texas Real Estate Information Service for farm and ranch raw land data, for 10 or more acres for the month of April 2019.

MONTAGUE COUNTY SELL TO DAYS ON
AREA ACRES PRICE/ACRE LIST PRICE MARKET
Bowie 25.07 $4,627.04 64.71% 57
Nocona 51.340 $3,311.26 94.61% 169
Very little transaction history for the month due to rainfall and lack of inventory.
COOKE COUNTY SELL TO DAYS ON
AREA ACRES PRICE/ACRE LIST PRICE MARKET
Gainesville 11 $10,500.00 91.3% 226
Gainesville 10 $13,000.00 100% 38
Muenster 34 $45,147.06 93.58% 248
Valley View 17.65 $13,881.02 98.39% 294
Gainesville 40.498 $8,642.40 95.89% 102
Collinsville 55.449 $9,406.66 96.28% 705
Cooke still has a large demand for wooded recreational land, as well as rural residential land in the Lindsay and Era School Districts.
WISE COUNTY SELL TO DAYS ON
AREA ACRES PRICE/ACRE LIST PRICE MARKET
Boyd 13.33 $12,775.69 94.63% 79
Bridgeport 15.85 $12,484.23 100% 65
Chico 32.25 $6,511.63 93.69% 260
Boyd 15.19 $14,812.38 100% 2
Decatur 27.82 $10,424.16 92.25% 285
Paradise 108.037 $6,275.63 97% 231
Boyd 71.223 $10,000.00 100% 4
Boyd 456.6 $6,564.55 87.45% 138
Wise County still has a high demand for smaller tracts with heavy tree cover for rural residential use, as well as a high demand for leasable grass for grazing. As with all counties in North Texas, overpriced properties are being overlooked by buyers.
DENTON COUNTY SELL TO DAYS ON
AREA ACRES PRICE/ACRE LIST PRICE MARKET
Sanger 36.86 $13,843.79 98.89% 6
Denton County continues to see explosive growth, as well as diminishing amounts of agricultural land. The most sought after land uses are for small, rural residential and for residential development. Tracts under 20 acres in the Argyle area can sell for as much as $200,000 an acre. Developers are still snatching up any farm land that they can get if it is fairly close to a town or an area with utility infrastructure in place.

By Matt McLemore
With the birth of spring and good rains properties in the other side of our coverage area, including Wichita, Clay, Jack, Archer and Young, have put on their Sunday best. For most land brokers and agents “Tis the selling season.” After a fairly slow winter, activity has definitely picked up in the North Texas area. Buyers seem to be hitting the road looking and willing make offers for properties on the market.

Buyers do seem to be more selective on what they are looking for, so the property itself as well as pricing on the property has an impact on whether the property is actively being shown and seeing offers or remaining stagnant.

The hot properties still seem to be raw land with limited to no improvements. Mostly pasture and good recreation seems to still drive the market and leads to the better price per acre. Farm sells are seeing a less of return on the price per acre than those sold with limited to no cultivation.

Sellers wanting to sell need to be cautious about over valuing their improvements to the property, realizing that there is a more limited market for properties with heavy improvements in the North Texas area at this time, with buyers wanting to take a more hands on approach and establish the property themselves.

To read more pick up a copy of the June 2019 NTFR issue. To subscribe call 940-872-5922.