How do I find out what my land is worth?

Start with a per-acre baseline for your area, then adjust for access, utilities, topography, zoning and water. The calculator above does this. For an exact figure you need a licensed appraiser, or a land agent who sells in your county and knows what has actually closed there.

Is there a Zillow for land?

Not really. Zillow's estimates rely on comparable home sales, and vacant land has far fewer comparable sales and far more variation between parcels. Most land valuation tools, including this one, start from agricultural land averages rather than true comparables.

Why is land worth more per acre when there is less of it?

Because there are many more buyers for a 5-acre parcel than for a 200-acre tract. Small parcels are affordable to ordinary buyers who want somewhere to build, while large tracts need a buyer with far more capital.

Does a creek or pond increase the value of land?

Usually yes. A creek or pond adds a modest amount, while river or lake frontage can add considerably more. Frontage matters more than simply having water somewhere on the parcel.

What does landlocked land sell for?

Substantially less — often around half of what the same parcel would bring with road frontage. Without legal access, a buyer cannot reliably build, finance or insure. A deeded easement recovers much of that value, but not all of it.

Will a cash offer match this estimate?

No, and it should not. A cash offer is below market value because the buyer is taking on the risk, the carrying cost and the wait. What you get in exchange is speed and certainty.

Do I need an appraisal to sell my land?

Not to sell it to a cash buyer. You may need one if the buyer is getting a loan, if the sale is part of an estate, or if you are establishing cost basis for taxes.

What Is My Land Worth?

There is no Zillow for land. Vacant acreage has no comparable sales the way houses do, no square footage to price against, and two parcels on the same road can be worth very different amounts depending on whether a truck can reach them and whether the soil will take a septic system.

The calculator below gives you a starting bracket based on USDA agricultural land values, adjusted for the things that actually move the price. It is not an appraisal. It is the number a buyer would start from before walking the property.

State

County (optional — narrows the estimate)

Acreage

Road access

Utilities

Topography

Zoning

Condition

Flood risk

Water features

Choose a state and enter your acreage. Your estimate appears here and updates as you change any answer.

What actually sets the price of land

Access.: A parcel with frontage on a maintained public road is worth far more than the same parcel reached by an easement across a neighbor's property — and a landlocked parcel with no legal access can be worth half. This is usually the single biggest factor.
Utilities.: Whether power and water are at the road, and what it costs to bring them in. Running electric a quarter mile is a real number, and buyers subtract it.
Soil and septic.: On unsewered land, whether the soil will pass a perc test decides whether anything can be built. A failed perc test changes the value of a parcel more than almost anything else.
Topography.: Flat, usable land is worth more than steep ground. Slope limits where a house can sit and what it costs to build.
Zoning.: What the county will let someone do with it. Residential and commercial zoning carry a premium over agricultural.
Size.: Small parcels sell for more per acre than large ones. A 2-acre lot might fetch several times the per-acre price of a 200-acre tract in the same county. Buyers for small parcels are far more numerous.
Water.: A creek, pond, or especially lake or river frontage adds value — frontage most of all.
Wetlands and flood zones.: Land in a floodplain, or with jurisdictional wetlands, has less developable acreage than its deed suggests.

Why an estimate is not an offer

A value estimate is what the land might sell for on the open market, given time, a listing, a buyer who wants exactly what you have, and the months it takes to find them.

A cash offer is less than that. It has to be. A cash buyer takes on the carrying cost, the risk that the land has a problem nobody has found yet, and the wait for a retail buyer. That discount is how the business works, and any company telling you otherwise is not being straight with you.

What you are trading for that discount is certainty and speed — a signed contract, two to three weeks, closing costs paid, and no listing, no showings, no financing falling through.

If your land is clean, marketable, and you have time to wait, listing it with a good land agent will usually net you more than selling to us. We will tell you that on the phone.

Where this number comes from

Our baseline uses USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service data on agricultural land values, from the 2022 Census of Agriculture, scaled forward using USDA's national farm real estate growth figures through 2025. We adjust from that baseline for access, utilities, slope, zoning, condition, flood risk and water features. County-level figures are available for more than 3,000 counties across 48 states; where we don't have reliable county data, we fall back to the state average and widen the range to say so.

Be honest about what this means: the USDA figure measures agricultural land including buildings. It is a sound starting point for rural acreage, and a poor one for a residential lot on the edge of a city, where the value comes from what can be built rather than from what can be grown. The wider the range we show you, the less confident we are.

Nothing here is an appraisal. A licensed appraiser walking your property will produce a better number than any calculator, and if you are making a decision that depends on an exact figure, that is what you should get.

Common questions

Want a real number instead of a range?

Call Paul at 860-269-6410 or email Paul@AcreageTrust.com. Tell us the county and roughly how many acres, and we'll give you an honest read on what it's worth and what we'd pay — including telling you if you'd do better listing it.

860-269-6410 Paul@AcreageTrust.com