Should you Choose Regular Land for Sale when Several States give it Away?

From time to time, we all hear about how small towns in America, in places like Ohio or Iowa or Michigan, are quickly turning into ghost towns. At one time, people just left these towns for the better job opportunities that the big cities offered. These days, people leave these towns because even the kind of small-town jobs that these towns used to have for those who wished to remain are beginning to dry up. Still, the governments in these places are not ready to throw in the towel yet. Working together with economic development groups, they have chosen to fight for the possibilities they still see in these towns. The way the Homestead Act of centuries past allowed settlers to just find unclaimed land and to call it their own, many of these states are allowing people to come in and lay claim to county land. This isn't land for sale that they offer you; the land is free. Nebraska, a state that has battled with the problem of having a vast land area and almost no people, has enacted a new Homestead act. Alaska has done the same, offering vast parcels of land for free. There were no takers when they did that though. If you are someone who has the heart of an early settler, you might be amazed to know that America is still open to that sort of thing. If the idea appeals to you, this is where you need to head.

Consider the community of Marne in southern Iowa about 100 miles from Des Moines. This isn't some postindustrial wasteland. It's a beautiful green, wooded area with fertile soil and vast expanses of unspoiled natural scenery. This beautiful farming community has nevertheless had quite a time getting young people to stay. Apparently, young people aren't really interested in family farming anymore. The town's housing development office has decided that free land might be just the ticket to revive a little interest in the town. To take advantage of the giveaway, all that an applicant needs is a serious intent to build a home on the land he gets. As soon as an applicant submits his plan to build a house there, he gets the land for free. Regular land for sale couldn't be as picturesquely set as the land they give you for free in Marne.

Speaking of picturesqueness, consider the town of Beatrice in Nebraska, an area that gained most of its population through the Homesteading act of 1862. The town, a hundred miles from Omaha isn't really one of those dying, abandoned towns. It has a healthy population of 13,000 and is a thriving community. The town is giving away free parcels of land to people not to try to boost the local population but to get people to set up home here so that they will pay property taxes and utility fees. The town is a bit short of money. If they offered land for sale, one wonders if they wouldn't achieve their aim a lot more easily. After all, this is a town that's only 40 miles from Lincoln.