North Dakota Land for Sale

Wait, you mean there’s a recession going on? If you live in North Dakota, maybe you haven’t noticed: North Dakota’s unemployment rate is just 4% – compared to 9.9% nationally. Every sector in North Dakota’s diversified economy grew in 2009. Some industries, like mining, construction and agriculture, have been experiencing double-digit employment growth since the beginning of the new century North Dakota Land for Sale is your passport to a haven where conservative strategies and sound economic planning have really paid off.

North Dakota’s hardscrabble landscape, treeless and flat, has its own severe beauty. Much of the northwestern part of the state is high prairie, natural grasslands where the bison once roamed. South of that are the curious sandstone buttes and gullies known as the Badlands, a stark and dramatic topography carved by thousands of years of wind and rain. Theodore Roosevelt loved this landscape, and retreated here in 1884 following the deaths of his beloved first wife and mother. His experiences here shaped his pursuit of conservation policies when he became President of the United States 20 years later, and the protected areas of the North Dakota bBadlands are named in his honor Theodore Roosevelt National Park.

The north-flowing Red River and its fertile valley stretch along North Dakota’s eastern boundary, across from Missouri; it’s here that you will find North Dakota’s most productive farm land. But the longest and most important river in North Dakota is the Missouri, which from the time of Lewis and Clark’s expedition to the present day has shaped North Dakota’s development and growth. You can retrace the famous explorers’ trip on the Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail.

Fargo on the Red River is North Dakota’s largest city. The city motto? “Gateway to the West.” Once a railroad crossroads and steamboat stopover, even today transportation remains vital to the municipal economy. Bismarck is the state capital, and an arts and cultural center, boasting the state’s biggest museum, largest opera/ballet house and the “Dakota Zoo” as well as several institutions of higher learning, among them the University of Mary and Bismarck State College. Grand Forks is home to the University of North Dakota, while Minot to the far north used to be called “Little Chicago” back in Prohibition days when it served as the center of Al Capone’s Canadian liquor smuggling operations. 

North Dakota is one of the least populous states in the nation; its headcount is under one million. Put the blame for that squarely on the state’s bitterly cold winters where the temperature can stay below zero degrees Fahrenheit for weeks at a time. In the spring, the Red River is prone to flooding as ice jams melt. Summers are pleasant with plenty of sunshine and very little humidity or rain.

North Dakota has the lowest foreclosure rate in the nation. As the housing market collapsed in the rest of the United States, the price of North Dakota real estate actually rose modestly. Western North Dakota has benefited from the vast oil deposits stretching from the Dakotas into Montana and Canada, more easily accessible thanks to new technology that allows for easier extraction. With the lowest unemployment rate in the nation, a state budget surplus, and continuing growth in most sectors of the economy, particularly the energy and natural resource sectors, North Dakota is weathering the downturn remarkably well though it is entirely immune to recession fallout: Bobcat, one of the few major manufacturing companies operating out of North Dakota, laid off large numbers of workers throughout the state in 2008. Still, if you’re looking for a prosperous place to make your home or a real estate investment that will allow you to ride out the economic downturn safely, you should be looking at North Dakota Land for Sale.