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Who owns the land in America?


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2009 Apr 12, 1:57pm   9,919 views  19 comments

by Patrick   ➕follow (55)   💰tip   ignore  

federal land ownership

After running across an unsubstantiated comment that 70% of the land in Britain is owned by 1% of the population, I tried to look up the distribution of private land ownership in the United States, but couldn't find much except how much land is owned by the Federal Government, as in the above image.

I did also find that Ted Turner is the largest single landowner, personally owning about 4% of the state of New Mexico.

Does anyone on the blog know what percent of the US is privately owned by the top 1% of the land-owning population?

It would be especially interesting to see who owns the best land in big US cities.

Patrick

Comments 1 - 19 of 19        Search these comments

1   nameless   2009 Apr 12, 3:32pm  

As of 1997, top 100 individuals and families collectively owned ~1% of all land in the country. It appears that they have increased their holdings since then. For example, Ted Turner was said to own 1.3 million acres in 1997, went to 2 million acres in 2003, and he probably owns even more now.

The picture is blurred a lot by the fact that much land is owned not by individuals or families but by public or private companies.
For example, Plum Creek Timber Co. owns around 8 million acres across many states. Privately held Sierra Pacific Industries owns 1.7 million acres in California. PG&E is a big CA landowner, too.

2   anonymous   2009 Apr 12, 4:25pm  

Mmmmm, Land..............

At some point the question needs to be asked, it depends on what your definition of 'own' is. As with anything else these days, the obfuscation of ownership walks one into a 30 year mortgage, that just when you're getting ready to pay it off, wages have leveled, inflation has kicked your savings ass, and now that you 'own' your house, you're on the phone with GOD(i mean WFC) for a reverse mortgage. Yikes! Talk about capturing labour. sorry for the off topic post, i've been reading too much on the FED and all the good they've done

3   DennisN   2009 Apr 12, 6:24pm  

Southern California Edison, IIRC, owns huge tracts of watershed land around Shaver Lake, Huntington Lake, and Edison Lake, in order to protect the power generated by stations at the dams.

There's a good book entitled "The King of California: J. G. Boswell and the Making of a Secret American Empire". It's been a few years since I read it but IIRC Boswell owned a huge portion of the southern central valley and basicall had the legislature at his beck and call.

www.amazon.com/King-California-Boswell-Making-American/dp/1586482815

Your question is going to be difficult to track down since guys like Boswell own huge amounts of land whereas really rich guys like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet probably don't own that much land.

4   DennisN   2009 Apr 12, 6:44pm  

Jack Simplot's company owns huge tracts here in Idaho.

I would guess a large portion of land is owned by companies not necessarily thought of as major landowners. IIRC when Lockheed had hard times in the early 1970's they sold most of their Sunnyvale campus off to their insurance companies and leased it back from them. At least this was the story I heard back when I worked there. This might be the tip of the iceberg of such holdings by insurance companies.

Entire states such as Mass. and Virginia were the properties of single companies, chartered by the British government. In the west, a handful of guys got huge Spanish land grants.

If nobody has put together a list before, I would guess you would have to investigate the land holdings of major companies in the following industries:

Agriculture
Forrest products
Mining
Insurance
Railroads

5   nameless   2009 Apr 12, 6:54pm  

"like Boswell own huge amounts of land whereas really rich guys like Bill Gates and Warren Buffet probably don’t own that much land."

that is a good point, perhaps the question should be about the percentage of land value. Ted Turner might own 2 million acres of barren New Mexico desert, and Donald Trump might only own a hundred or so acres of Manhattan (as well as buildings on that land), but that would put them both roughly in the same league in terms of net worth.

6   DennisN   2009 Apr 12, 7:23pm  

This bio of the late Jack Simplot has some interesting observations.

http://blog.oregonlive.com/oregonianextra/2008/05/profile_of_billionaire_jr_simp.html

Simplot either doesn't know how much land he owns or simply won't say, but the leased portions of his holdings exceed 3 million acres -- a land mass nearly the size of Connecticut. . . .

Among his dozen large cattle ranches is the nation's largest, situated near Paisley, Ore.: the 137-mile-long, 64-mile-wide ZX Ranch. The last huge spread in Texas, King Ranch, was split up in a transaction several years ago.

7   DinOR   2009 Apr 13, 12:43am  

Funny, a realtor in LV once told me that the reason property there would do nothing but escalate ( bubbles be damned ) was b/c the fed gov. owned something like 97% of the state of NV?

It seemed like a stretch but even a casual glance at Rand McNally and it's plainly obvious that between "gunnery ranges" huge sprawling bases and BLM land, it certainly seems plausible? Given the collapse in RE values there, evidently even 3% private ownership was not enough to sustain a bubble of this magnitude?

Anyone that's ever made a wrong turn out of Lakeview, OR and wound up in Paisley knows there isn't much there? I saw an abandoned barn, some tractor tires and empty 55 gal. drums, and not much else? Still... it's about as purdy as it gets.

8   DennisN   2009 Apr 13, 3:28am  

So does he live under a bridge?

9   DinOR   2009 Apr 13, 5:18am  

DennisN,

LOL! And since when does land need be inhabited to attract litigation? I suppose if you bought land for it's timber... then yeah, having a fire would be a real drag?

Still and all, he's not without his points. "I" have considered raw land for 'some' of those very reason. But certainly not as an infestment. I don't think anyone that posts here will live long enough to see that pan out? But for personal use, for some it could make sense. I'm looking along Agency Lake ( Upper Klamath ) Chiloquin or the Sprague River area.

We've long argued that in most cases simply renting a very nice hotel room or other rental pencils out over owning a second home. And... in 'most' cases, that's hard to argue? With, the exception of S. Oregon. You can get 5 acres for 5 grand so at that point, what's the big deal? You could always park your motorhome there until you felt the time was right to build. If ever?

What we pay for a hotel room each month we go down there would more than cover the monthly payment. At the end of a couple of years you would have it paid off and could pretty much do what you like.

10   justme   2009 Apr 13, 7:47am  

It is not so much about who owns the land, as about who owns the *valuable* land...

11   justme   2009 Apr 13, 8:32am  

I guess "nameless" said that already. What matters is the "fraction of total land value".

12   carrieon   2009 Apr 13, 12:33pm  

Who owns the land in America? It isn't you or what's listed on the registar of deeds at the court house. It's the people or corporation to whom you pay your property taxes. If you don't believe me, then stop paying your property taxes and watch what happens to your property.

13   justme   2009 Apr 14, 12:31am  

Barry Ritholtz says Goldman Sachs profits came about by moving the fiscal quarter from Dec-Feb to Jan-Mar, and ignoring the losses from Dec.

http://www.ritholtz.com/blog/2009/04/how-to-puff-up-earnings-goldman-sachs-style/

14   DinOR   2009 Apr 14, 1:32am  

carrieon,

I've been saying that for years!

"Yep, no stock market for ME! I only invest in Real Estate. Why I 'own' this property outright!"

Pffftt, whatever dude.

15   EBGuy   2009 Apr 14, 4:56am  

We’ve long argued that in most cases simply renting a very nice hotel room or other rental pencils out over owning a second home.
Revisiting this one tenth fractional home at the Sea Ranch.
2004: $ 85,000
2005/6: $119,000
2006 late: $ 99,000
2009: $ 85,000

Main house rents for $937.25 for the weekend (two nights). Monthly dues for owners are around $300 per month (includes PITI). You might consider it a wash (except for that darn opportunity cost).

You could always park your motorhome there until you felt the time was right to build.
That may work in OR, but try that on the Sonoma coast and see how long your neighbors will let it slide (I believe the zoning ordinance says you can park a trailer for one year if you are actively building on the site). Myself, I have a yurt vacation home(steading) fantasy :-)

16   DinOR   2009 Apr 14, 6:08am  

EBGuy,

And I have no objections WHATsoever where Yurts are concerned! It always irks me when western wildfires are on the move for weeks in advance and 'some' people STILL can't seem to get out to their vac. property to take sensible and reasonable precautions!?

Hell, with a yurt, you could have taken the damn thing down and set up somewhere else in that amount of time? I've read several insurance company studies and they found many fires 'sweep' well above rooftop level but homes still burn to the ground -hours- after the main fire has passed due to:

6" deep pine needles in roof gutters

Hot embers finding the woodpile directly adjacent said dwelling

Propane bottles stacked directly adjacent said woodpile

I mean -stupid- and perfectly preventable stuff. BUT... they can't be bothered and it 'does' have insurance...

One of the biggest frustrations during "da boom" was the manipulative and exploitive behavior by infestors taking advantage of even the most sensible vacations seekers? At the height, a (1) month fractional share on the OR coast was completely out of whack. Who here has that kind of money?

17   sa   2009 Apr 14, 7:36am  

CNBC Says: Intel Profit tops forecast

Bloomberg Says: Intel Profit falls 55%

Different ways of looking at things.

18   sa   2009 Apr 14, 7:37am  

For the Topic:

I own 0.18 acres of land, don't mess with me.

19   wcalleallegre   2009 Apr 17, 6:15am  

The Lord says "all the earth is mine and everything in it".

We are just stewards of the earth.

Earthly speaking the governments owns all the land because because you pay property taxes. If you don't pay it will be taken by the government. Is there such thing as no real estate tax anywhere?

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