Land Prices Lowest in Months

Is now is a good time for all those folks who were waiting for a bargain to get back into the land market? I say yes

Over the next two days, 28 more sims will hit an already saturated mainland market. The base per meter price is L$9.2 right now. It may go slightly lower, but now's as good a time as any to buy because prices will rise later in the week, in my opinion.*

Why?

-Word is the land bots are disabled right now since the update but will be coming back soon. When they come back, prices will rise since they tend to list higher than the humans who are getting the bargains and relisting now.

-People are able to get online and use SL again since the update. Buyers sidelined by the update are slowly returning.

-Land brokers who were staying on the sidelines are returning to active duty (me included).

-There are only a few listings below 9.8. These will go fast.

Buy buy for now.


*I am never wrong, except for the times when I am.

That stands in stark contrast to your earlier comments that land traders don't increase the end-consumer's price.

And of course you have a financial interest in the land market moving one way or the other.

If LL provides the 500 sims per month mentioned on the blog, is that enough supply to drive the price down to , oh, say, 5 lindens per sm?

(I propose that SLians make "sm", no periods, the new official abbreviation or code for square meters. I'm tired of typing those periods over and over.)

Indeed it seems so. Just yesterday we've been able to buy a parcel (in a neighbouring sim from where I run my rental business) at an incredibly low price. I couldn't believe that a landbot didn't grab the land instead of a mere mortal.
What's wrong with "m²", Sue? Why not use the official SI term?

Yes, I stand to make about $10 US with the amount of land I buy and sell. Woo hoo!

I contradict myself all the time, BTW.

No, I don't.

Land is likely to keep falling in price with the current rate of sims being added unless the the profile of the 'average' land buyer changes. People are likely to be tempted into owning bigger plots if land is cheaper, and that might lead to more tier for SL.

Just like you're never wrong except for the times that you are?

Woohoo, big spender - $10 whole USD! Don't blow it all in one place!

I wonder how much prices will go up again in the near future. It seems to me that consumer confidence has been badly shaken by some of the latest 'updates', and a number of people have had their billing information and trading limits screwed up to the point where they can't even buy money to spend.

Base price is up to 9.6 again - looks like Landbaron M*****, our favorite warm and cuddly bot, is back in. Whoops, I just mentioned a name, didn't I? Does it count if it's a bot?

I wish the land prices would fluctuate more, it makes it a lot more fun to compulsively click the land search button.
What's wrong with "m²", Sue?It has a superscript in it, that's what's wrong with it, who can remember to type ALT 0178 to make a ²? The idea is to make it easier, not harder?

Hi guys I dont run landbots but I use the same technology to run my mainland listing site. Took me 24 hours to get the scanner running again after the update - libsecondlife has been updated to run with the changes to the messaging systems, so the bot owners should be active by now.

In my opinion everyone is ignoring the elephant in the room - active SL users are currently static and have been for about 2 months. I think it takes a while for new users to get to the point where they want to buy land so the number of people in the land market has probably been increasing still for that period, however this must be slowing by now. I think the market is floating now owing to people's expectations and it will soon drop to the level at which private island buyers start buying mainland because it is so much cheaper to rent. If you look at sim auction rates some sims have been going around the US$2200 mark, which is historically low (check out Melina Loonie's site http://cosyhome.org/cgi-bin/auc_statistics/auction-stats.html). I think once they drop to about US$1900 there will be a sucking in of potential private island buyers that will cause the market to plateau at what is the equivalent of about 7.5 L$/m2. After that unless the Lindens get SL growing again the economy will start to go seriously downhill.

I would be buying like crazy, but tier fees keep me at bay. So, no more buying for me

Most/a lot of European keyboards have a key for easy access to ² (or ³).

I agree with everything you wrote. Feels like we've leveled off between 9-10 L$/m2 for now. But the stall in new residents and those upgrading to premiums may take us below 9. Still, last night when it was at $9.2, it was a good time to buy, like I stated. Now we're at $L9.6 today and climbing. But this afternoon there be more sims acoming to market. /pirate grammar

I would love to own a 1/4 sim. But it ain't gonna happen, no matter how low land prices fall.

The price of land has less of an effect on my decision than does the cost of tier. Even if land prices plummet well below what I paid for my current land, the difference in those two prices is going to be dwarfed by the jump in my tier if I buy more.

The only way I can afford more tier is if my business grows and brings in more income. But currently, sales across SL have been flat or moderate, not booming. So committing myself to more tier without a reasonable confidence in business growth would be financial suicide.

And sadly, I'm afraid to buy products right now. I lost a third of what I took to inventory when I left my estate. Thankfully, some of the creators are replacing my lost items. But it makes it hard to be in a shopping mood.

Why don't you buy through a group with an alt? Then you can avoid any larger tier jumps and can keep them in the single digit US$ range if you just buy a little more.
Exactly. I just couldn't keep myself from teasing someone OTOSOTP. Sorry, Sue!

I was toying around with that idea a few weeks ago since I already have a group for myself and my alt (technically my main, but she's been demoted).

Frankly, I heard too many horror stories about group land issues to go through with the plan. I'm not afraid of losing land due to group dissolution (that I can control), but there were other problems with returned items fairly complex issues involving tier rate donations and extra charges if you got it wrong.

It all just seemed too much trouble for a bascially hedonistic desire to own more of what I've already got. But if the bug bites hard enough, I may revist that approach.

Don't put too much score on the horror stories.

I have been into group land ownership since day one ... by now in multiple groups with some pretty elaborate user permission systems (one of the groups also holds tenants for land rented out). I never encountered any issues with that ... but then I double- and triple-checked each change before I hit "Apply". And I refrained from major changes when the servers were creaking at the seams.

So it's like in RL ... as long as you are careful, things are OK.