The Land Market beyond the Urban Fringe

Abstract

Landownership changes in rural areas beyond the urban fringe open the way for shifts to residential landuse. Sellers, buyers, and local government are the chief participants in the rural-urban conversion process in three landuse zones. Their roles are analyzed in the standard metropolitan statistical area of Rochester, Minnesota. CHARACTERISTICS of rural areas in the United States are changing. Houses stand where crops once grew, and the countryside now has more converts to country living than bona fide farmers. The principal landuse change consists of low-density residential construction when people move to areas with a mixture of residential and traditional rural activities. Studies of the landuse changes on the margins of cities are numerous, but there are few examinations of changing ownership, which is a fundamental issue in the conversion process.1 Changes in landownership almost always precede alterations in landuse. Rural landowners play a pivotal role in the process because they decide how their property will be used or when it will be sold for someone else to use. Buyers and sellers of rural property are the actors in the land market who set the course for changes in the human settlement pattern. This study describes the actors in a land market beyond the urban fringe of a small metropolitan region. The analysis sustains some popular notions about the movement of people to the countryside and corrects some misconceptions about persons who have been selling land beyond the urban fringe. The recent housing boom in rural areas calls for an analysis of landowners beyond the urban fringe. In the past, farmers bought and sold most of the property exchanged in the rural land market. Recently, nontraditional owners have been buying smaller parcels at higher prices than farmers have paid.2 Many new landowners consider their property to be a consumptive * The Center for Urban and Regional Affairs, University of Minnesota, provided the funding for this research. I thank John Fraser Hart and James M. Shumway for suggestions that improved this article. 1 Edward J. Kaiser, Robert W. Massie, Shirley F. Weiss, and John E. Smith, Predicting the Behavior of Predevelopment Landowners on the Urban Fringe, Journal of American Institute of Planners, Vol. 34, 1968, pp. 328-333; Ann Louise Strong, Factors Affecting Tenure on the Urban Fringe, Land-Use Controls Quarterly, Vol. 3, 1969, pp. 1-25; John Fraser Hart, Urban Encroachment on Rural Areas, Geographical Review, Vol. 66, 1976, pp. 1-17; Kathryn A. Zeimetz, Elizabeth Dillon, Ernest E. Hardy, and Robert C. Otte, Dynamics of Land Use in Fast Growth Areas, Economic Research Service Report No. 325 (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1976); National Agricultural Lands Study, Final Report (Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1981), p. 96; Frank J. Popper, Why We Should Care about Who Owns the Land, American Land Forum Magazine, Vol. 2, 1981, pp. 1519; and H. James Brown, Robyn Swaim Phillips, and Neal A. Roberts, Land Markets at the Urban Fringe, Journal of American Planning Association, Vol. 47, 1981, pp. 131-144. 2 Robert G. Healy and James L. Short, The Market for Rural Land: Trends, Issues, Policies (Washington, D.C.: Conservation Foundation, 1981). * DR. PYLE completed this article when she was an assistant professor of geography at the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky 40506. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.147 on Sun, 07 Aug 2016 05:32:07 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms LAND MARKET BEYOND URBAN FRINGE rather than a productive good. Private buyers and sellers are not the only actors in the rural land market. The role of government must also be considered because landuse regulations imposed by authorities affect the decisions of individuals who participate in the land market.