Buying land in Colorado

[Sumesh B.]

I am looking to buy 10 to 15 acres of land (with a budget of $100k total) in and around Colorado Springs, Canon City, Pueblo West. I am a first-time buyer and want to find land in a potential growth area. I plan to hold on to this for the next 5-10 years. Any pointers or help is greatly appreciated?  Thank You

[Adam Christopher Zaleski]

Originally posted by @Sumesh B.:

I am looking to buy 10 to 15 acres of land (with a budget of $100k total) in and around Colorado Springs, Canon City, Pueblo West. I am a first-time buyer and want to find land in a potential growth area. I plan to hold on to this for the next 5-10 years. Any pointers or help is greatly appreciated?  Thank You

I live in Pueblo West. I have spent the last 18 months searching for a plot of land around 10 acres in the Alma/Fairplay area within 45 minutes of Breckenridge. In October 2020, I had 10 acres under contract for 125K. However, before closing I found out that the HOA was not snow plowing the access road, which made it a "seasonal lot". I backed out of the deal. It's possible that the snow plowing could have been fixable, but the risk wasn't worth it to me.

Now in August 2021, a 10 acre lot in that same area (with year round access) is 225K. The price has increased around 100K in the past 10 months. 

You can get 10-15 acres for 100K in areas of Pueblo West and Canon City. However, they are going to be in the middle of nowhere with very little growth potential. 

My neighborhood in Pueblo West is probably 95% full. There are still a small number of lots with no houses. You can buy a .28 acre lot for 20K. A more realistic strategy would be to buy 4 or 5 of those lots and wait for the neighborhood to be 100% full. I wouldn't recommend this strategy by itself. However, I think it's better than 10-15 acers in the middle of nowhere for 100K. I could be wrong.