As the title says, i started looking at vacant waterfront land in northern wisconsin. My wife and I have decided that our retirement spot WILL be either northern wisconsin, minnessota, or the UP. I expected prices to be much more than they are, however i'm not expert in the field of buying land. I just love how beautiful the northwoods is, and to have a cabin on some wooded property on a river or lake would just be heaven to us. We found several 5+ acre waterfront plots for under 50-60k, some down as low as 25-40k. I used to hunt up there every year before I joined the military, havent been back since. This year i'll be back though, the bug gets me worse and worse every year. I hunt in Iron county up around Mercer, i have a buddy who's got some cabins on the flowage up there.

anyway, i'm 25 years old. I have about 13 years left before I retire from the military. If i can get ahold of some cheap land in the next few years, i'll have a nice place thats nearly paid off to put a retirement home. The plan is to get out at 20 years in the military. then do 20 years for the state (DNR warden or something like that) and retire (again) comfortably.

any northern wisconsin residents here?

Vacation prices have gone retarded to say the least. If you want anything even remotely close to water it's going to cost ya. I am in the same boat, looking for property and it's a tough find. Right now I am on 3 acres 17 miles north of Green Bay.

See i must not know what i'm looking at when it comes to pricing, because the prices didnt seem all that bad to me. I guess thats because i'm used to seeing 200-300k for a 2k sq foot house on 1/10th of an acre in vegas

Prices have come down since I was looking a few years back at buying some hunting property.Now might be a great time to snatch some property up with the economy in the dumps.

I've seen some good deals but anything on decent water is still  higher then I think it should be. Be careful about some of those cheap places, the "lake" is just a two foot deep muck pond that breeds misquotes.

There may be some real good deals on farm land, it's been dry there the last three years.

-JTP

I saw 100 acre wooded lot with 1200ft of lakefront for $179K. Now thats WAY more than i need, but i thought it was interesting. would probably be GREAT for hunting, but obviously i'd have to actually look at it to make that determination.

Huh? That's more like 1980's prices. Where's this at..... I'll buy it on Monday morning!!!!

I live in Vilas County, and I've been looking for hunting land for the past few years. 100 acres of woods, without water frontage sells for about $200K anywhere in Vilas, Oneida, Iron, Forest, Price counties (those are the 5 counties we've been looking in).  Swamp land is listed at $1k per acre, wooded high ground can be as much as $4K per acre if it has mature hardwoods on it. Add water frontage of any kind, and the price skyrockets.


P.S. My aunt & uncle used to own a resort on the Turtle Flambeau, back in the 70s & 80s, and I hunted in that area too, mostly on paper company land off of hwy FF.

That price would be closer to $1.79M than $179K.  Of course all of this is contingent on what the parcel actually looks like.

I have to agree $2K per acre for normal land on average.  Add a lake to the mix and I was told that the equation was $1K for every foot of lakefront.

So if that assessment is true.

1200 X $1K = $1.2M
100 X$2K = $200K

So I would think that land on a decent floatable lake or preferably a chain of lakes would be priced at $1.3-1.5M.

Of course this is all I have heard from my buddies, etc.

Some friends of ours went farther north into the UP and found more "affordable" parcels.

Good luck!!!!!

yea the cabins i stay at are on Popkos Cir off FF.

i'll see if i can find that land i was looking at

here's the link to the land link

That is a great deal for that land it looks like it is mostly wooded, and it looks like a very sized nice lake as well.


If I could afford it I would jump all over that if it still available.

You can always, look in vilas county as well  my parents have a place on north turtle lake and it is a nice area. around the town of winchester. acutally my and my family are going to my parents place there in a few weeks. and no I do not have a boat and will NOT be towing anything.

I do not own land but lease in vilas. Its very beutifull up there, but your going to pay alot up there exspecially land on waterfront. http://www.norwisrealty.com/index.html  is a good place to check for land and there are other websites. I heard from a buddy that some land in Crivitz is cheap. Just remember to check what kind of codes( which can change every year) the land has. Also if you have to drill a well and run septic, that can bring up the cost too.

Dave

my family has 68 acres in Pembine, about 29 miles north of Crivitz.

we border the Pembinine river, which isnt much of a river most of the year but the best part is the couple of thousand acres of Marinette County Forestry land that borders the opposite side

remember, if your land borders county land you can use it too

So for hell of it I sent that link to my dad (he's from that area) because the price seemed really good. He said the in the description it says "Metzinger for access to the land". Metzinger is the county and towns accessor for Ashland County.

Boy, that fifth amendment is pretty cool.

-JTP

Our cabin is just south from you in Amberg.  I always stop by the Pembine pawn to see what's in there.

I'm not exactly sure what you were trying to imply here, but Metzinger is also a road on the western border of the property, from which you can gain access to it. You can easily see this on Google Maps and in the description in the link that was provided. It in no way refers to the county assessor.

If you don't absolutely need a lake, you should be looking in the southwestern "driftless" part of the state.  Much prettier, imho.

heh, small world, we fill propane at the station in amberg

Did some checking. The 1,200' of "lake frontage" is all swamp/wetland frontage... useless, except maybe for a duckblind or two. No beach, no swimming, building a walkway over a swamp leading to a pier, so as to actually have some access to the lake, is expensive.... and a legal hassle. The only thing this "frontage" does is drive up the tax bill. Taxes are $2,119, with no improvements?

The legal description says the property is divided by hwy B, with 65 acres to the west, and 34.6 acres to the east (described as "black ash lowland forest"... realtor speak for swamp). The 65 acres of high ground has more value than the 34.6 of "lowland forest" on the lake, IMO. Swampland taxed as "lake frontage" is a huge detriment, thus the seemingly low price. I'd offer to buy the 65, but not the whole parcel. Property taxes would be cut by about 75% without the "lake frontage" inflation.

A buddy of mine has a 40 out off of Kremlin Road, about 6 miles east of Pembine. I deer hunted on it back in the 80s, before moving up north in '91. We camped on his 40. He had county land on 3 sides. Some of the tree stands I built might still be there.

Is the "Red Feather" sporting goods store still there in Pembine? That's were we'd get our licenses, and some other supplies like ammo. There was also a bar right next door, where we used to have a few cold ones after hunting hours (the barmaid was a very goodlooking woman!!!). Haven't been there in 20 years. I'm only about 80 miles NW of Pembine, but I hunt within a mile of home now.

well to continue the thread hijack

heh, we just went and visited the Kremlin minefields about two weeks ago, its amazing how they can literally fill an enitre vally with that granite sand...

The red feather store closed up about ten years ago and the owner moved down to florida, that place was awesome also that old hardware store to the south of the red feather burned down sometime areound then too, that was a neat place as well...

Anyone familiar with the town matowish waters?? If you are  you remember the Rod N Reel?? I kinda miss that place, Ann was a nice lady. not to mention some of the other places there, like when the bavarian inn was up and running.  my parents go to the sky view and the bear bar i think  quite often.

The Bear bar has some good steaks,friend of mine bartends there so I have to stop in  when I'm up that way.

I used to live in Richland Center, Its absolutely gorgeous out there, however the northwoods cant be beat IMO.