Rates are crashing and fuel to the moon!

I walked out with 2 boxes of those pizzas today at the loves. Might as well had a red carpet rolled out in front of me walking back to the fuel island

 

My mother got a new Caddy pretty regular. They helped all 5 of us get a car of some sort once we acquired their license. I was pretty hard on bicycles and always seemed to have a top of the line Mongoose till putcha was discovered anyway. I did have share a room with my ho ### brother though. Bunk beds to boot. We had to help cut fire wood actually load what Dad cut. Wash trucks, grease em do tires #### like that. I’m the only one outta the 5 that has anything to do with a truck now

 

No, the most common successor is large agri-business.



Even if the kids/heirs don't sell the land and chose to rent it out to the "trusted long term employee" - how is that person going to get the funding to run the farm? They can't use the land for collateral and they're not going to have enough saved when they're earning $70,000 a year.

 

Let's set aside the discussion of lifestyle choices.

A quick search tells me that median income in Mt Pleasant, MI is $40,000, while median home price is $230,000. Which means the median earner can't afford the median house, at least without manual under writing and PMI.

Back in 2017, median home price was $110,000 and median income was $37,000, which just barely qualifies a person with basic credit for a mortgage.

This is what we're talking about - income isn't keeping pace with the cost of living. It's still workable - for now. If trends continue, frugality isn't going to be enough.

 

...and they're proud about replacing natural born citizens with imported labor all while giving (actually building) them a place to live with a vehicle to drive with zero English speaking abilities lol. But hey, that whole extra dollar an hour will surely help real Americans!

 

Successor vs selling.

The majority of farmers would much rather see their life’s work continue rather than sell. If the place is profitable (in an economic sense, not just cash flow positive), a feasible succession plan can be worked out. If it’s not profitable, the assets should just be sold.

The real problem is that very few family farms are profitable.

 

Or with the current value of bare ground the decision to keep fighting to keep even a moderately profitable small farm, versus the instant reward/retirement of selling is a temptation that is harder to resist, especially when the younger generations may not be motivated to keep fighting.

This escalation of property values beyond what traditional local income sources can support is nothing new in Idaho. In the 70s this was happening where I was in the Sandpoint/Couer d'Alene area. Folks from other states, especially California, could sell their high price property there and buy/build substantial properties here, which has been driving property values higher than local income levels typically support.

This trend went into hyper mode during Covid when suddenly folks in many industries were allowed to or required to work remotely, and took the opportunity to escape from other states while retaining their higher salaries.

 

Our low income is due to college being a college town. One of my friends makes 30 an hour driving a haul truck. Not pulling a trailer or dealing with an cdl. Easy work and home every night and off on weekends. My son was making 26 an hour at the cheese plant strait out of high school before he left for trade school. It’s cheaper to live here than most places. On the house price. Those were from a while ago. They are closing for less now. My paw bought one for about 120k. But, I agree with costs being high.

 

My Dad was pretty well off and Retired from the Navy after 25 years. Fought in WW2 and grew up when horse and buggy was a thing. We lived poorer than most people did but not because of money. He had almost a million when he died in the early 90's and had 18-23 percent bonds. I did not have a color tv or microwave until I was almost a teen. Had smaller hobby type farm that Dad always worked us doing everything to learn hard work and appreciate how life really is, not fair and you need to be ready for anything.

 

Ok, for those with geek tendencies, here is a really neat tool to look at housing affordability (median price vs your income.)

Spoiler: stay out of the Western US if you want to be able to buy a home....

Interactive map: Where in the U.S. can you afford a home on your income?