In a message dated 1/25/03 3:57:38 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: >Having just moved from Iowa I got to see rural real estate markets in > >operation. Federal, state and local land regulations often discourage >the >conversion of currently-farmed land for other purposes, like indstrial >or >high-density residential use. The number of people engaged in full-time > >farming has continued to decline, and virtually nobody not already engaged >in >farming or from a farming family enters farming. There's thus little >additional demand for farming land, making the real estate market in rural > >areas. When real estate developers can get county boards of supervisors >to >rezone rural land, it quickly enters the thick and competitive market for >all >other types of land. > >DBL I think I meant to say, "making the real estate market in rural areas seem thin and uncompetitive." I'm also reminded that, like one friend of mine, people who work in small towns often buy an old farm house and live in it, while contracting out to some neighbor or farming friend to do a little bit of farming on the land the buyer doesn't use for residential purposes. Thus urban professionals become resident farming landlords in order to live in place that's zoned for farming, without having to suffer a big loss by buying all that farm land they won't farm themselves, thus partially circumventing the government regulations and possibly benefitting from local, state and federal agriculture subsidies as well.
DBL
