If you want to be really smart about appraisal, you have to understand how real estate has functioned within the context of the global economy and particularly since the Nixon Shock when the Bretton Woods System was abandoned. We are returning to a new kind of Bretton Woods.
The policy since the Nixon Shock has been to flood the world with USD in order to homogenize the global financial system, which previously did not work in the early post-war era. In part, it was technical - we did not have the technological means to implement what Keynes proposed at the first United Nations conference. It was also political - the Communist Bloc was an obvious problem. The Islamic world also was a problem as, contrary to much misinformation about the religion, God makes few direct commandments. But one is that usury is forbidden. Previously, the world took a philosophical opposition to usury in that in exponential growth is inherently unnatural. So, we had the Cold War and the various squabbles in the Middle East. You will note that Richard Nixon opened up China just months after abandoning the Bretton Woods exchange rates, so the economic relationship between "The West" and China has always been quite tight for the past half century.
Regardless, with respect to real estate this means quite a bit:
1) The USD is going to decline in value, rather quickly. Probably by about 25% over thenext 5 years. At most 10 years.
2) There will be no need for foreign holders of dollars to use commercial real estate as a kind of swiss bank account.
3) Industrial production will necessarily increase as importing most goods will become cost prohibitive.
4) We have not expanded domestic infrastructure to accommodate large scale increases in industrial production.
5) Urban areas with existing infrastructure will likely thrive in the short term. For much of the west, it will be many years before infrastructure is in place to handle a new industrial base.
6) Suburbia, as we know it, will be coming to an end. Fuel and automobiles and infrastructure will no longer be economically viable.
7) Cities in general will thrive as a result, with much variation of course.
8) Major cities that have been havens for international finance capital, like New York and San Francisco will likely continue to thrive, but not to the same extent of the past 20 years.
9) Secondary cities will see improvement.
10) Farmland will continue to be the best commercial real estate asset as imports will once again become unaffordable for the masses.
So, 50 acres. Where is it? If it falls within these constraints, you can make very informed opinions.
