Lateral Support

Ok, so it has been quite a bit of time since my last post.  With two teenage daughters, notice to proceed on 50 or so appraisal reports, and returning for post graduate education, left over time is in short supply.


However, this is rather important.


During my class, and particularly a quiz I just took, it occurred to me that there are always parallels in life.  We are studying property rights, and one of my quiz questions was "what is lateral support".  Defined by my text it is "The right of lateral and subjacent support is the right to have land supported by the adjoining land or the soil beneath."  Real Estate Law, Robert J. Aalberts, 2012.


What if we replace the word land by the word "value"?  Is there some particular right of property owners to be 'supported' in their values by adjacent values or 'lateral support' of other property and other financial instruments and perhaps even the fiscal policies of our government.

Consider this:  

It seems to me that our lateral support is rapidly disappearing.  Perhaps we ought to take action, quickly!

To buy or not to buy

So my current analysis of land values in a certain southeastern metro Atlanta county revealed that over the past 24 months, the majority of vacant land transfers have been, NOT.  What does that mean?  Well, looking at the thirty some odd sales of vacant land, more than twenty were deeds under power - you know, foreclosures.  That is a pretty significant number for a county with a land size more than 300 square miles and two major interstates running through it.

Although we are seeing some return of commercial market activity, it seems that land ownership is still mostly speculative.  And, lenders seem unwilling to continue taking the risk of a loan without payment and are taking property back for resale, sometimes, apparently, for $0.30 on the $1.00.  If you still have cash, now might be a great time to speculate.