Land Valuation and Pricing

A conservation easement deduction is a charitable deduction for permanently restricting your land’s use. Perpetuity is a condition, not an option.

No site is best for everyone. Pick by how it sources inventory and earns fees, because that decides listing quality far more than catalog size.

There is no single number. Clearing, water, septic and permits each have published government figures, and one structural trigger changes the total entirely.

USDA schedules put drilled wells near $3,900 to $22,900. Deeper wells cost less per foot, wider casing costs more, and water rights can cost more.

Published county fees run roughly $250 to $600, plus a private contractor. Land fails if it percolates slower than code allows, or faster.

It is not an exemption. Texas appraises qualifying land on productivity value, not market value, and changing use triggers three years of rollback tax.

Septic cost on raw land is set by soil, not by house size. Conventional systems are cheapest. Every alternative exists because the soil failed.

Land survey cost is driven by record research, monument recovery and terrain, not by acreage. ALTA surveys cost more because the standard requires more.

Land clearing costs $27 to $1,196 per acre. Vegetation density, disposal method and job size drive the spread, not the contractor you pick.

US farm real estate averaged $4,500 an acre in 2026. State values run from $735 in New Mexico to $23,600 in Rhode Island, a 32-fold spread.