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["Marie McHarry" <mmcharry AT gmail.com>]

 On Mon, Jun 23, 2008 at 6:51 AM,  <Clansgian AT wmconnect.com> wrote:
> Over the past many years the advice has been that one must secure some land
> in the country because soon all the retiring Gentleman Farmer Esquires will 
> be
> moving to the country and drive up prices.
>
> The current general fall in real estate prices not withstanding, high fuel
> prices have already begun to have an effect on real estate:

This is true for the gentlemen who live in the country and commute to
work. Some scenic Illinois counties, however, that used to be a good
place for the Amish to set up new communities because the ground was
prime farmland are now running into the problem of hunters buying up
tracts of land, building a lavish hunting lodge, and driving up land
prices (and, of course, real estate taxes) as a result. The price of
gas is not going to affect the stockbrokers, lawyers, and the like you
buy these hunting acreages.

However, you're quite right about the spread of subdivisions into
cornfields. I don't see any new ones getting started (and the started
ones aren't doing well -- lots of marked lots with nothing but weeds
on them). Over the last 10 years, Springfield has grown a whole lot of
downtown upscale apartments, which are handy for legislative staff
(walking distance to the Capitol and to the increasing number of
decent restaurants -- almost all of which have locally grown salads
and veggies in season).

Marie

Marie