Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Pennsylvania
 [Register]
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 03-21-2011, 03:14 PM
 
325 posts, read 583,515 times
Reputation: 247

Advertisements

Is now a good time to start looking for a good deal on a building site or house in tioga or potter county?
I'm interested in a minimum 5 acres, bordering state land, somewhere to put a camper for a while.
I'd like to eventually make the move from NJ.
I don't understand whats going on with this oil-shale boom. What should I look out for.?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 03-21-2011, 03:22 PM
 
4,277 posts, read 11,806,752 times
Reputation: 3933
Compared to 10 years ago it's an awful time to be looking, even land without mineral rights has appreciated. Also DEP seems to be cracking down on campers without septic hook-ups, although a weekender with a demonstrated holding tank is probably not what they are clamping down on so much as a gas guy with a pipe to somewhere. The rule for buying hunting land in PA used to be the further from I-95 the cheaper but the shale business has changed that. It might be a good time to look in the central Susquehanna Valley area, say either side of Lewisburg backing up to some public land tracts, where the gas drilling hasn't hit. There might be more turkeys and deer in these areas, anyway.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-21-2011, 03:27 PM
 
Location: Pennsylvania
30,604 posts, read 16,285,119 times
Reputation: 44510
I think it's a lousy time. The price of land has gone ridiculously high. Used to be the more land you bought, the cheaper it'd be per acre. No more. But then it's still probably cheaper than NJ. Other than the obvious of perc testing, flood zones, etc, I'd make sure you own at least part of the gas rights. Otherwise, you could end up with a gas well in your front yard with somebody else getting the money.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-21-2011, 03:35 PM
 
325 posts, read 583,515 times
Reputation: 247
Is all of North central Pa. affected by this oil boom?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-21-2011, 06:48 PM
 
Location: Pennsylvania
30,604 posts, read 16,285,119 times
Reputation: 44510
i don't think it's hit Potter co yet-but they know it's coming, so as far as real estate goes, probably have to say yes.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-21-2011, 06:52 PM
 
Location: Pennsylvania
30,604 posts, read 16,285,119 times
Reputation: 44510
oh-it's not oil. It's natual gas.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-21-2011, 10:37 PM
 
9,846 posts, read 22,701,973 times
Reputation: 7738
Quote:
Originally Posted by chuck172 View Post
Is now a good time to start looking for a good deal on a building site or house in tioga or potter county?
I'm interested in a minimum 5 acres, bordering state land, somewhere to put a camper for a while.
I'd like to eventually make the move from NJ.
I don't understand whats going on with this oil-shale boom. What should I look out for.?
Unfortunately this is a good laugh now!

5-10 years ago it wasn't. You could get land for as little as $1500-$2000 an acre. If I knew what I knew now I would have sunk everything I had into about 40-60 acres. Now it's going for $10K up to $30K an acre and maybe more.

All land has been scarfed up now, good land is hard to find especially a "hunting camp" type lot you seek. Everyone with a brain is holding onto their property and the rest was taken up by smart people and rich people. There is some land for sale but it is either big chunks of land or subdivided regular house lots. Cheaper land is not going to have oil/gas rights. And yes there is oil, I can verify that for fact.

What's going on with the gas boom? Well basically what happened was there are numerous layers of shale that contain quite a bit of natural gas and it's conveniently located near NE markets. So every bit of land up here is being put under lease and wells are being sunk rapidly. It's one of the most significant discoveries in recent years. There will be booms and busts, but it will be a long term thing going probably the next 100 years plus.

The problem with not owning the gas rights if you buy a piece of property is your rights are limited when a gas well goes in nearby. There are restrictions in terms of how close a well can be to houses, but 5 acres might not be enough to keep your piece and quiet if a gas well gets put in 250 feet away. Once land is leased the gas company can do quite a lot to get at it. They try not to **** off the property owner but if they have to they will.

There are a few holdouts that didn't sign gas leases, but the money is too juicy for most to pass up.

This used to be a pretty peaceful place but no more, but now county roads are pounded day and night by water and sand trucks bringing in thousands of tons to frack wells. There is tons of this traffic everywhere and things have changed.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-21-2011, 10:40 PM
 
9,846 posts, read 22,701,973 times
Reputation: 7738
Quote:
Originally Posted by chuck172 View Post
Is all of North central Pa. affected by this oil boom?
All of it is now affected and the big companies like Shell are involved now so it's serious business and it's not grandpa with a little rig in his yard.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-21-2011, 11:30 PM
 
325 posts, read 583,515 times
Reputation: 247
It's a crying shame. My wife and I went out to the Wellsboro area a couple of years ago. Loved it there. Thought for sure we found our retirement area. Planned for it.
Now to learn this !
Where's next. I love Sussex County NJ. We have 33 acres here. Taxes are too high. Pa. taxes would be 25%. of what I'm paying now.
How about NYS? any good bargains out there? Hunting, fishing , rural properties like I'm looking for?
I guess I should just write off Pa. from what I'm hearing here.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 03-22-2011, 12:44 AM
 
9,846 posts, read 22,701,973 times
Reputation: 7738
Quote:
Originally Posted by chuck172 View Post
It's a crying shame. My wife and I went out to the Wellsboro area a couple of years ago. Loved it there. Thought for sure we found our retirement area. Planned for it.
Now to learn this !
Where's next. I love Sussex County NJ. We have 33 acres here. Taxes are too high. Pa. taxes would be 25%. of what I'm paying now.
How about NYS? any good bargains out there? Hunting, fishing , rural properties like I'm looking for?
I guess I should just write off Pa. from what I'm hearing here.
NY state has a moratorium as I understand it on gas well drilling for now, but I think it's inevitable, as the gas is there and people need money. But I don't follow things too closely over the border so don't quote me on it. The problem I find with NY state is their taxes on everything is outrageous and they are probably one of the most taxed states. It's a state in decline thanks to liberal politics, it used to be one of the most prosperous. California should have paid attention to what happened to NY.

Wellsboro is a great town, but it's not what it was even 2-3 years ago. It's the epicenter of much of this gas drilling and all day water and sand trucks and gas work trucks funnel into the old fashioned traffic setup downtown never designed to hold all this traffic. Hundreds of trucks all day. Noise and lots of dust. Sit on Main Street for 15 minutes Monday thru Saturday and tell me I'm wrong or drive HWY 6 between Mansfield and Wellsboro during the day. Crime has gone thru the roof, 2 murders in 3 months recently, lots due to drinking, drug use and transient gas well workers getting into trouble or their spouses with nothing to do stealing and robbing. I'm getting a concealed weapons permit soon as I can afford to buy a Glock. Costs have gone up too, you could rent a house for around $800 a month a few years ago, now it's $1800 plus.

Observe the local daily news everyday for a few weeks:

News

It used to be we'd have the odd crime incident, now it's stuff all the time. If it doesn't sound like a lot, consider the county is only 40000 people very spread out.

In my opinion we needed this boost of economic activity, which comes at a cost, but it did need an injection of money and new blood into the area. Quite frankly, this area was dying, population was dropping every 10 years just about and the main industry was multiple old folks homes for the last local prosperous generation and some tourism for old folks, hunters and campers. It wasn't something setting us up for a prosperous dynamic future.

I think there are still some isolated areas out there in Potter and Tioga county, but gas wells are going out there too and if you go too isolated you have to consider that many of these really isolated places in the county have accessibility issues on rough roads and get snowed in during winter. Especially as you get older, it becomes impractical or impossible. Most people that think they can live out in the boonies, cannot handle the reality of it for long.

The gas rights issue is one you can not afford to overlook if you buy property here and I would have anything said by a real estate agent be verified by lawyers/3rd party. With things as they are, any land that is "cheap" it is for a reason, a reason you will probably want to know. Also you'll find some will gladly sell land without OGM rights, which they will retain and reap all the benefits from for decades, meanwhile you have to deal with any hassles from gas companies getting a well into the ground.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2022 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Pennsylvania
Similar Threads

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top