Has Texas’ land rush run its course? Record year ends with quarterly sales decline.
March 7, 2022
COLLEGE STATION, Tex. (Texas Real Estate Research Center) – A year in which Texas rural land sales reached unprecedented highs ended with a surprising slowdown. Total land sales for 2021 surpassed 2020 by 17.8 percent. That was despite a fourth quarter with 953 fewer sales than the same period of 2020.
“There were 9,055 Texas land sales in 2021,” said Dr. Charles Gilliland, research economist with the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University, an expert on the state’s rural land market.
In the fourth quarter of 2021, Texas recorded 1,283 rural land sales, significantly fewer than the 2,236 sales in the fourth quarter of 2020.
“Fourth quarter 2020 was crazy,” said Gilliland. “So anything near normal looks pretty calm by comparison. The fourth quarter 2021 drop may just be the result of a lack of inventory to sell.
“Feverish 2021 demand for land, coupled with a dearth of listings, pushed prices up a remarkable 29 percent to $3,954 per acre statewide,” said Gilliland. “Total dollar volume reached a record $3.4 billion, up 97.6 percent over 2020.”
In 2021, a record 846,347 acres changed hands, an increase of 53 percent.
“This continues to be the most active period in Texas land market history,” said Gilliland, who has monitored the state’s land market for 40 years. “The typical tract size sold in 2021 expanded by 14.6 percent to 1,305 acres.”
All regions of Texas posted double-digit price increases and substantial increases in total acres transferred.
