I have a friend who has been telling me that this is a great time to buy land with interest rates being the lowest in history.  He owns a parcel that he can pay off, but instead of paying it off, he plans to buy another parcel and pay interest on both.  I told him he would probably be better off paying off what he has instead....but he disagreed saying that the prices will jump and there will be another boom eventually which is when he plans to sell (he has 30+ years before retirement).  Does it really make sense to buy raw land if you cannot pay for it in cash?

No. Buy developed land instead. Almost land that is still vacant in the US in 2010 is vacant for a reason and will cost a fortune to get road, water and electrical service established.

If you do not have a mortgage, this is a good time to get one. Interest rates are low, hyperinflation is coming which will make fixed interest rate payments be nothing, and you can deduct interest payments on your taxes from your primary residence.

It depends on 3 things:

Location, size and price.

The survivalist market is a small one.
:)

But there are a lot of people who are getting fed up with suburbia and want their own place.

"If you do not have a mortgage, this is a good time to get one. Interest rates are low, hyperinflation is coming which will make fixed interest rate payments be nothing, and you can deduct interest payments on your taxes from your primary residence. "

But you cannot deduct from a rental property?  Thought about buying a rental shack but you almost need to be a handyman for this to be worthwhile.

It's hard to charge rent on vacant land.

IS.  THERE.  CASH.  FLOW.

If the answer is "no", then it doesn't matter if you can pay cash and the taxes are low.

You're only SPECULATING, which means you're GAMBLING.  And no rational person does that.

All rational people gamble when the expected payoff ratio exceeds 1.

I gamble if I have privileged information available to me.

If you have insider knowledge about planned redevelopments, etc. it might be a good idea to do this. If you buy random lots of unused land you're going to get fucked by somebody who knows more than you.

The only reason I can see to buy property like that is that you enjoy hunting fishing and camping and want to benefit from your investments, not just see them on paper.

Just got my quarterly 401(k) statement. Ugh.  I may pull out about $25K and do something with it.  Anyone have a recommendation?

>I may pull out about $25K and do something with it.  Anyone have a recommendation? 

With mortgage lenders wanting 20% down, I won't be in that place for about 2 more years. I'm thinking of borrowing about that much from my 401k to pay off my car and student loans. By the time the 401k-loan is paid off, I'll have enough for 20% down in my neighborhood (about $40-50k). For some crack addled reason, prices in my neighborhood haven't dropped since the peak of the bubble.

"But you cannot deduct from a rental property?"

That's correct. It has to be your primary residence, so you move in there and rent the one you have paid off.

There's also another rule where if you are selling your home you can do it tax free on profits, but you can only do this one every 4 years or something. Check with your accountant for the details on that one.

"prices in my neighborhood haven't dropped since the peak of the bubble"

That's pretty typical, but it doesn't mean they are actually selling for that price. People aren't willing to "settle" for less until it's too late.

>>Almost land that is still vacant in the US in 2010 is vacant for a reason

This is crap.  There's still undeveloped land out there that is in prime or near prime locations.  Even in Connecticut.

That said, it would be NICE to leave some trees around.