small landscape surveyorLooking to buy land in Texas? Better hurry!

Thanks to an increased demand for vacation and recreational property combined with a lack of existing inventory, residential land sales have taken off, seeing double-digit growth and average price per acre increases throughout the last year.

This information comes from the 2015 Texas Small Land Sales Report, released June 1, 2015 by the Texas Association of REALTORS®.

“Land is a hot commodity in Texas,” commented Scott Kesner, chairman odf the Texas Association of REALTORS®. “The demand for Texas real estate and the competitiveness of the market are as strong for small land sales as they are in the residential housing market. Land for weekend getaway homes, ranchettes, and hunting continues to grow in popularity across the state as the Texas economy continues to prosper, particularly in areas surrounding Texas’ major metros.”

According to the report, 5,282 small tracts of land were sold in Texas in 2014. This represents a 20.69% increase from the year before. This level of increase was fairly consistent throughout the state, with all but one of the seven regions seeing growth in the double-digits. Region One, which is made up of the Panhandle and South Plains, was the only region to experience a decrease in this market. Region One saw a 7.93% drop to 116 small land sales in 2014.

For the second year in a row, Region Seven, which includes Austin-Waco-Hill Country, showed the most small land sales of any region. Sales in Region Seven increased 19.16% to 1,722 small land sales during 2014.

Here are a few more noteworthy findings from the report:

  • The average price per acre for TX small land sales increased 3.5% year-over-year.
  • Median tract size for small land sales in TX stayed constant at 20 acres; however most regions showed decreases between 3% and 10% in 2014. The exception was Region Two, where the median tract size grew 54.16% to 120 acres during the same period.