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I am thinking about retiring somewhere in the Columbia SC or Augusta GA area or somewhere in between, which will still be many years from now, but was thinking about going ahead and buy some land in a area where I want to live.
It will probably be 30-35 years before I retire, so is it foolish to be thinking of buying raw land now? I know I would have to pay taxes and have some sort of insurance on it, but another thing that concerns me about buying too soon is development around the land, right of ways, etc.
Would I be wise to buy now, or a few years from now, or wait and buy 30 years from now? I was thinking while I could afford something like this now and found the perfect place if I should buy now. I will still keep my current property and the SC land would mainly be a "winter home".
In the long term, I can't imagine losing money on land. There are scenarios where the value could temporarily go down, but the overall trend is upward. An elderly lady here in FL bought acreage for $1800 when she was young, and sold it for $2.1 million! If it turns out you don't want to live there sometime in the future, you can always sell it to pay for something else. Just do a lot of research to make sure there isn't something fundamentally wrong with the land- overpriced, flood zone, next to a toxic dump, or whatever.
The only thing I would say is that 30 years is a long time and your choice of a retirement locale might change by then. It is certain to be less expensive now than it will be in 30 years and if you decide you don't want to live on that land when you retire, you can always sell the property and buy elsewhere.
I second the opinion of the 2 above. Of course, there are a couple of things to consider, including whether you're paying cash or financing. I believe long term you'll come out ahead. If you do have development around you, it will increase the land value and you can sell that and buy something else if it's not what you want.
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