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Longtime area Realtor calls recent development ‘absolutely amazing’

By Lisa Scheller - | May 19, 2004

The Tonganoxie-Basehor area’s land rush has just begun, said Leavenworth Realtor Francis Thorne.

“You’ve got investors now buying up land for the future because they know if they wait it will just go up,” Thorne said. “Land’s going up, houses are going up at seven percent a year and that’s phenomenal. That beats the bank deposits — that beats the stocks and bonds.”

The land Thorne is referring to is right here — in the heart of southern Leavenworth County.

“It’s still booming and the farther south you go the more it booms,” Thorne said.

More and more, prospective buyers from the Kansas City area are looking this direction, Thorne said.

“Especially in Tonganoxie and Basehor,” Thorne said. “It’s absolutely amazing and you’ve got a lot of people coming from Johnson County and Wyandotte County because it’s still cheaper to buy in Basehor and Tonganoxie.”

While land prices can range from $8,000 to $20,000 an acre, there are areas where the price is much higher, Thorne said.

“It sells by the square foot on just about anything on the highway from the county line clear to Tonganoxie,” he said.

The best way to get a good buy is to buy a large tract.

“If you want to get cheap acreage, you have to buy 300 to 400 acres, but there’s not many pieces that large anymore,” Thorne said. “Cheap would be about $6,000 an acre.”

Thorne adheres to advice given by the late humorist, Will Rogers.

“He said, ‘Buy land, they ain’t making any more of the stuff,'” Thorne said. “He said that back in 1932 and it’s just as true as it’s ever been.”