Sprawl on the defensive, says Financial Times

The Financial Times reported July 18 on a sure sign that sprawl is on the defensive, at least for now: Some developers are selling outlying land back to agricultural interests, having concluded that the market for constructing houses on it has disappeared. In Newark, Illinois, outside of Chicago, Lakewood Homes sold 290 acres in April to an agricultural investor for nearly 40 percent less than Lakewood paid for the land in November 2005. “Hancock Agricultural Investment Group, one of the biggest institutional farmland owners in the US, recently bought land in California wine country from a builder liquidating his property at below market values,” the newspaper also reported. The depressed market for distant suburban houses and a strong demand for agricultural products such as corn are changing the economics of land at the metropolitan fringe.