Everything from small lots in a planned community, to large tracts that are now being developed by companies like Hilton.

Why would it take three guys a week and a half to paint the interior of what is probably a 3/2 tract home?

One point to keep in mind is that Vacant land is often extremely large tracts of land so that would account for Vacant Land having such a high lien amount.

Omar - don't forget the political aspects of real estate.In respect to development (or re-development), we can only imagine how the economics of a new tract built in a tough area may have played out.Politician needs to repay a favor to a supporter, who just happens to be a developer.Developer sees an opportunity to (maybe) change a negative economic trend in that community.Developer builds one less profitable project so that a much more profitable one can be approved in another community.Bank offers low, subsidized financing due to local or national programs that exist at the time.Just because it doesn't (or didn't) make sense, doesn't mean it was unprofitable.

Owning land has always been some what of a fixation in my life, and it lines up with all of my biggest passions and excitements in life which I think is an important criteria for a good investment.With the recession on the way out and rural land at a 10 year low right now, my thoughts have been consumed lately on how I could possibly buy or put a deal in place to buy a large tract in the near future.

As always the speculative tract builders in the outlying areas will likely feel the hit first. 

I'm in the acquisition process of a few tracts of land varying from 300 to 500 acres each to complete entitlement and sell to local builders.

The catch is that the home must be within a certain census tract.

I don't really know and haven't paid close attention to how our NFMLS data breaks down, but it allows you to search by neighborhood so you can try to make those neighborhoods align with the Census Bureau's census tracts and then use your formula to decide which submarkets are best.

Zip code level data is alright if that's the best you can get but many zip codes can have a wide range of areas within them so you'll get a better picture if you can drill down into smaller areas like census tracts.