Mixing Apples and Oranges
Are real estate prices in rural South Dakota and Mississippi really twice as much as in Dallas?
That’s the takeaway, at least superficially, from a NYT piece profiling homes in South Dakota, Mississippi, and Dallas that are all now on the market for around $800k.
Prices Per Square Foot; “A Creek Runs Through It”
The catch, of course, is that the South Dakota and Mississippi properties include significant acreage: 16.7 acres and 21.5 acres, respectively.
By contrast, the suburban Dallas home sits on a .20 acre lot.
I have no idea what local land values are in South Dakota and Mississippi, but certainly they’re not zero — especially when the land includes a picturesque creek and woods (South Dakota), or 750′ of river frontage and two, bass-stocked ponds (Mississippi).
Back out some reasonable estimate for the land, and I’m pretty sure that real estate prices in those places aren’t $402 a square foot and $205 a square foot, respectively, but something much lower (vs. Dallas’ $206).
