Real Estate Land

Really, we still have cheap lands in the United States of America? If this were true, then this must be part of the provisions of the Homestead Act of 1862, where anybody else can acquire up to 160 acres of open land; provided he lives on the lot continuously for 5 years. After a six-month occupancy, the homesteader becomes eligible to purchase the property at $1.25 per acre. Once the five-year residency period is completed, the homestead applicant pays the government a $15 filing fee before a clear land title is released.

We are in the new millennium and to think that cheap lands are still available beats me. The Homestead Act of 1862 has been repealed and amended on October 21, 1976 and became applicable to all states, except Alaska where extension was granted only in October 21, 1986. Actually under the new law “ Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976” (FLPMA), the federal government took over ownership of public lands and abolished the remaining vestiges of the Homestead Act of 1862.

The FLPMA further declared that, “the public lands be retained in federal ownership, unless as a result of the land use planning procedure provided in this Act, it is determined that disposal of a particular parcel will serve the national interest…”. Moreover, the FLPMA authorized the transfer of jurisdiction of about 264 million acres of public lands, representing 12.5% of all lands in the United States to the “Bureau of Land Management” (BLM). Specifically, the main duty of the BLM is “the management of the public lands and their various resource values so that they are utilized in the combination that will best meet the present and future needs of the American people”.

Owing to this provision, the BLM can occasionally sell public lands at a fair market price. Moreover, the federal law states that all parcels of land sold by BLM should fall on one of the following categories; scattered and secluded tracts that are hard or not viable; tracts acquired by the BLM for a specific function and no longer required for the intended purpose; and land where disposal will serve important public objectives, such as community expansion and economic development.

Therefore, the only cheap lands available are the ones sold by BLM in the western states of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah and Wyoming.

Real Estate Land |