They downsized to a half-acre, just enough for their two horses.
Like, in the five years we were there the growth was incredible,” she said.
More Americans, set free by remote work, left big cities in search of larger lots at smaller price points.
That means larger lots are becoming an increasingly scarce — and increasingly valuable — commodity.
1 housing market in the nation positioned for growth in 2022, forecasted to see a striking 15.2% year-over-year growth in sales and a 8.5% year-over-year increase in prices.
Open parcels are becoming increasingly rare, especially along the state’s urban corridor known as the Wasatch Front, where about 80% of Utah’s over 3.3 million people live.
She and her husband feel incredibly lucky, she said, to have found a home where she can keep their horses.
When they began house hunting in May, Marie Gessel said they saw only two Wasatch Front horse properties hit the market that fit their price range.
“For us, it was really important to find someone who would love the property the way we had and really plan on being there for the long run,” Marie Gessel said.
They sold to a family who paid $825,000, she said, who pledged it would be “their forever place” for their kids and horses.
To Marie Gessel, that choice to ignore the highest bid may have given her family the karma they needed to find a seller that would do the same for them.
“I was like, ‘Yeah, there’s no way I’m selling this house to you,’” the seller said.
It represents the Western way of life — a lifestyle that’s buckling to market forces as states like Utah and Idaho boom.
But they sold in 2007 because they saw the writing on the wall of a dwindling lifestyle and a dying business.
“One of the reasons I got into real estate was because I couldn’t see that it was going to be a viable industry to be in moving forward, even back then.
It’s been a natural evolution as Utah has continued to grow at a fast clip.
A developer would put in a neighborhood, and it just started going on and on, all over the valley and all over the Wasatch Front.
“Trying to hold on to an old ideology, hell, if we did that we wouldn’t have any of this around us.
As agricultural land becomes increasingly rare along the Wasatch Front, that pushes demand farther out to even the rural parts of Utah.
Katerina Bongard, a real estate agent based in the Ogden Valley, said she has clients who hope to preserve their land.
“We try to find somebody that won’t develop, but emphasis on ‘try,’” she said.
“A lot of times you can’t blame them, because to them the property is just a property that their parents had.
Peanut, a stout bay pony with a thick black mane.
When Getzie scratched her neck, Ginger relished it, stretching her head high and squinting her eyes when Getzie hit the sweet spot.
After a lot of hard work to align their finances, “methodical” business planning and five long years of searching for the perfect property, Getzie said they bought the 80-acre ranch in 2019 — before the housing market reached today’s boiling point.
“Now looking at the landscape, it’s a tough market,” Getize said, expressing how grateful she is to have bought when they did.
Getzie said when they first bought the land, their neighbors held their breath, waiting to see what would happen with the property.
Now, Getzie said her goal is to preserve the ranch and its “legacy” into perpetuity, hoping one day their children will take over down the line.
There’s something innate within the human soul — a desire to connect with nature and animals.
“Through our nonprofit, we’re giving people who have no experience with horses and this lifestyle an opportunity to see what it is,” she said.
But as agricultural land becomes increasingly expensive, that way of life is becoming more and more unreachable to the average person.