According to this article from Binghamton Press, New York state landowners (or more precisely, I guess, the owners of mineral rights on the land) are getting “up to 18%” royalties on natural gas revenues. This is in addition to an upfront fee for the mineral rights themselves, in one presumably case amounting to “more than $2400/acre.”
Tags: gas, natural gas, new york state, royalties
Farmers will be paid $3.50 per metric ton of carbon sequestered. Actually the article doesn’t say “farmers,” it says “landowners,” but possibly in this area they are generally equivalent. “The carbon offsets to be purchased through this program will be the result of changes in farming and ranching practices instituted by local landowners as part of a Section 319 Clean Water Initiative…” I infer that they’re being paid for something they were going to do anyway. I have no ideas how much $3.50/ton is in terms of acres or labor hours.
Apparently the farmers are being paid to change their practices. Had they already been farming sustainably, would they still be eligible to be paid?
Source:
WFEC to sponsor State’s First Carbon Sequestration Pilot Program, Sep 3, 2008 2:08 PM
Tags: carbon sequestration, Oklahoma
A 3.5 acre parcel, adjacent to their campus, was purchased for $1,995,000 by a local hospital. They claim it was actualy worth only half that, but they overpaid because they really really wanted it, and therefore they sought a reduced assessment. An appeals court now agrees that sales price is the best indicator of land value.
What would have happened had the hospital refused to pay more than what they claim is the “actual” value of $1 million? There’s a lot we don’t know, including whether the seller was holding for investment or future use, and whether the seller had any particular need for cash. We do know that the buyer used an agent, to keep their identity secret. It seems that the hospital wanted to buy the land to hold it for possible future use. If they’ll now have to pay significant taxes, say 1% to 2% of value, that’d be no more than $40,000/year, pretty nominal relative to the size of the enterprise. (According to their 2006 financial statement, the hospital organization paid their chief executive about $1.3 million, not including expense accounts). And it could be reduced by leasing the land for agriculture or other purposes.
source: Chronical-Telegram, CHP Loses Fight Over Land Value, August 26 2008
Tags: Elyria, holding vacant land
From Rediff India Abroad (”Singur turns Bengal promoters generous” Aug 29 2008″)
Today, Bengal Aerotropolis Projects Ltd, builder of the state’s only private airport and related economic zone at Durgapur, 160 km from Kolkata, indicated it would pay Rs 7.5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh an acre for the 3,500-odd acres that it intends to acquire there along with attractive additional incentives like annuity to land losers for five years, training and jobs for one person per displaced family and alternative land up to a limit of 6 cottahs (1 cottah = 720 sq ft).
This is 25 to 30 per cent more than the current price of land there even if the additional benefits were not taken into account, said an investor with an industrial project and park in the region.
Rs 7.5 Lakh seems to equate to about $21,000, so if this is 30% higher than the current price, we can conclude that agricultural land goes for at least about $16,000/acre. This is considered agricultural land, tho it also contains dwellings. It would be unusual to find agricultural land in the U. S. selling for as much, but the presence of dwellings and the greater population density of India makes the comparison poor.
Tags: Durgapur, India, land prices
That’s the news for the second quarter of 2008, from a Bloomberg report. Values fell in 38 areas and rose in 13. Apparently the remainder of the 100 districts showed no change from the previous quarter. There is a brief report in Japanese which google can sort of translate , as can yahoo babelfish. It seems that these are prices of central city land suitable for high-rise apartments or commercial use, estimated by professional appraisers. There’s also a pdf, in Japanese, with nice maps.
So now I know more about Japanese urban land prices than any U S Government agency seems to know about American urban land prices.
Tags: Japan, land value trends, urban land value
Several large buildable parcels around Bakersfield have sold for less than 25% of previous purchase price, according to the Bakersfield Californian
Ennis Homes Inc., a regional builder based in Porterville, sold two southwest parcels for less than $1.5 million, county records show. Ennis bought the land in 2005 in a pair of transactions totaling more than $8.2 million.
KB Home, a national builder headquartered in Los Angeles, sold a northeast parcel for $765,000, records show. The company bought the land for more than $3.3 million in 2005.
It’s at least the third such transaction locally since the market slipped.
Late last year, a subsidiary of San Diego-based Corky McMillin Cos. made a similar sale to local developer Tom Carosella when selling for $2 million a southwest tract McMillin had bought for $9.6 million.
Source: Land sells for a song Gretchen WennerThe Bakersfield Californian Released : Wednesday, July 23, 2008 4:00 AM (via /www.calibre.com/)
Apparently this is just in and around the city of Lakeland, FL. Prices range from $2,000 (for a parcel at an ATV park) to $23.1 million for 30.8 acres for commercial development. For only $12,500 you can get “1.25 acres of high and dry land. Presently inaccessible. Possible great future investment.” But many of the parcels, even below $20,000, might possibly be suitable for residential construction.
If local officials are wondering why valuable parcels remain vacant, they might consider that the real estate taxes on such properties are negligible. The $23.1 million parcel pays taxes of just $3526. The next three most expensive ask $19.8 million ($403 taxes), $17.88 million ($2780), and $13 million ($76). If the owner’s finances are reasonably stable, there’s not much incentive to sell, is there?
Tags: florida, lakeland, taxes too low, vacant land
US Dep’t of Agriculture publishes annual surveys of agricultural land rents and land values, at the county level. Here’s data for North Dakota, indicating rents are something like 5% of stated land value. Of course, landowners expect not only the 5%, but some increase in land price too.
It’s not clear that this is done on an annual basis for other states. Thanks to Land20 (”Buy land. It isn’t just for the extraordinarily wealthy. It is for all Americans, rich or poor.”) for the link.
Privilege is the main (not exclusive) cause of most (not all) of our economic problems. It is also the source of most large fortunes. If you can accurately forecast the prices of particular privileges, you can become wealthy. If you simply monitor the prices, you will have a better understanding of why it’s so difficult to earn a living. This blog is intended to help those in either endeavor.
This Price of Privilege blog will look at just that, how much people pay to buy (or receive to sell) privileges. Reports will be somewhat arbitrary, at least initially, based on whatever information I happen to find. Tagging conventions may help those interested in particular kinds of privilege. Starting out, all nonspam comments will be welcome.
For a better understanding of how big a problem privilege is, and how it could be effectively dealt with, consult a Henry George School or take a look at my other blog. To see the price of privilege, stay right here.
Update August 24 2008: I just discovered there’s a book by this same title, about the difficulties of wealthy adolescents. This blog has nothing directly to do with that book, altho we might find that in a society where everyone had the obligation to earn an honest living, the problems the book describes wouldn’t exist.
Tags: introduction