Missouri Land for Sale

“I’m from Missouri, and you’ve got to show me,” Congressman Willard Vandiver famously announced in an 1899 speech. Those words have come to epitomize the state’s no-nonsense, commonsense philosophy ever since. Part Southern, part Midwestern, Missouri is an exciting blend of sophisticated urban culture and down-home rural traditions. Missouri Land for Sale is an investment in an economy that’s versatile and pragmatic enough to optimize every opportunity.

From the tall grass prairies and scattered plains of the Osage Plains to the forests and lakes of the Ozark Mountains (not really mountains at all but a dissected plateau); from the dramatic limestone bluffs along the Mississippi, Missouri, and Meramec Rivers to the flat, wet “Bootheel,” epicenter in 1811-1812 of the New Madrid earthquakes (the largest ever to hit North America), The Show Me State’s landscape is astonishingly diverse. Fifty thousand miles of waterways crisscross the state including the mighty Missouri and Mississippi Rivers and the Lake of the Ozarks, one of the world’s largest manmade lakes. Missouri’s state parks and historic sites contain over 800 miles of trails for hikers, backpackers, bicycle riders, off-road vehicle users and horseback riders and other recreation seekers. Prairies, forests, rolling hills, bottomlands, big cities, small towns, outlet shopping malls, boutique retail destinations, historical attractions, ethnic heritage, wine country, caves, and Civil War sites — Missouri’s got it all. 

Missouri’s largest metropolis is Kansas City, nicknamed the “Paris of the Plains,” famous for its jazz clubs, fountains and barbeque – the American Royal BBQ event that takes place there every fall is widely hailed as the “World Series” of barbecue. “KC”, as it is affectionately known, is the corporate headquarters for Sprint Nextel Corporation, H&R Block, and Hallmark Cards. St Louis, Missouri’s second largest city, gave the world ice cream cones and ice tea: both were invented for the 1904 World Fair. The city is the home of Anheuser Busch – the most famous brewery in America – as well as the tallest monument in America, the 630 foot tall Gateway Arch. Jefferson City, nestled in the center of Missouri, is an old-fashioned, idyllic farming town as well as the capital of the state. Branson, in the heart of the Ozarks, is one of the nation’s top vacation destinations, the live music show capital of the world while Hannibal, another tourist Mecca, is famous as the boyhood home of one of America’s most celebrated writers, Mark Twain (Samuel Clemens.)

“Unpredictable,” is the best word for Missouri weather. The state shares the pattern of severe winters and hot, humid summers with its Great Plains neighbors, though temperatures are less extreme the farther south you travel in the state. Spring and summer afternoons are regularly punctuated by thunderstorms, and as the northernmost portion of the infamous “Tornado Alley,” Missouri has seen its share of twisters.

Missouri was not a focal point of the speculative housing bubble that dominated so much of the national real estate market. As the economic downturn rippled out from those western and southeastern states hit hardest, the Show-Me State’s cities experienced some decline in property values, but the downturn started later and was much shallower than the nation’s as a whole. At 9.5%, the Show Me State’s unemployment rate is only slightly lower than the national average. But Missouri with its relatively low housing prices and diversified economy is one of only 11 states that are showing definite signs of pulling out of the recession according to the well-respected economic forecasting firm Moody’s. Missouri Land for a Sale is one of the best ways to position yourself to take full advantage of the coming recovery.