Camden County Market Report

Camden County's rural land market is holding steady but slow, and the numbers back that up. Active inventory sits at 23 parcels, down just one from last month, with only 4 new listings hitting the market and 3 closing. That gives us 7.67 months of supply — solidly a buyers' market, and one where sellers need to be realistic about pricing if they want to move dirt this year. The gap between median asking price ($319,680) and median sold price ($82,500) tells the real story: what's listed and what's actually trading are two different animals right now. A lot of the higher-dollar acreage, especially out of Richland where the median ask is pushing $1.65 million on 120-acre tracts, is skewing the asking-price numbers upward while the bread-and-butter sales are happening at smaller, more affordable acreages. Average days on market at 229 confirms that well-priced land still moves, but overpriced ground sits — and sits.

What's for sale right now is exactly what you'd expect for this part of the Ozarks: 87% of listings mention hunting habitat or wildlife, 91% tout creek, river, or pond frontage, and 78% carry decent timber cover. If you're hunting deer or turkey, or just want water on the property for livestock or recreation, you've got real options — Macks Creek alone has 8 active parcels with a median 40 acres and median ask of $208,000, making it the most active and arguably most accessible area in the county right now. Cabins and outbuildings are common too — 57% of listings have a cabin or lodge, 61% have a barn or shop — so a lot of this ground is already set up for weekend retreats or working use, not bare dirt you have to build from scratch. What's scarce is tillable or hay ground — only 17% of listings mention pasture or row-crop potential — so if you're looking to run cattle or put up hay, expect to compete for a small slice of inventory, particularly around Richland where the Farm-type listings and bigger acreages are concentrated.

For buyers, this is a good time to be patient and negotiate — with $/acre on sold parcels running $4,027 versus $5,526 on active asking, there's clearly room to work a deal, especially on ground that's been sitting since before archery season opened. For sellers, especially those holding recreational or timber ground without water features or usable structures, price it to the sold comps, not the optimistic end of the active list — buyers are clearly doing their homework before firearms season rolls around and they want boots on new ground.