[oceanplexian]

It's not that it's a "hazard zone", it's that cheap land is bottom of the barrel.

I looked at a lot of these properties. The land is poorly graded, the drainage and soil quality is poor (Will fail a perc test), roads are terrible and wash out, and rural communities often lack basic services. I'm not talking entertainment, I mean your nearest grocery store is a Chevron Gas Station 30 miles away.

A lot more engineering and planning goes into making land livable than simply plopping a house on it and calling it a day.

[cyberax]

Nope. You can buy perfectly good land suitable for habitation for about the same money. I have bought a 100 acre lot with a freaking stream, lake, and a small forest for about $180k. There's even a gravel road to the nearest highway, and it's just 40 minutes away from a fairly large settlement and 2 hours away from a major city.

This is just insane that people keep buying overpriced condos for $2 million apiece in cities, when they can have their own private park.

[bluenomatterwho]

Methinks the kind of financial 'sophistication' which systemically leads to $2 million dollar luxury apartments does not foster the type of person who wants to deal with paying a manager to manage the staff to maintain a personal estate. Yes, I'm kidding, as they certainly wouldn't do these things themselves. Something something about the 'Apollonian' and the 'Mercurial'.