Realtor.com has added land price estimates to its platform, giving agents and builders a new data tool for tracking one of the core inputs to new construction. The portal’s market analysis shows the land market has yet to fully recover from the pandemic-era buying frenzy.
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In the first quarter of 2026, there were 426,986 land listings for sale on the platform with a median price per acre of $62,365, according to Realtor.com. National land inventory has contracted 23.6 percent since the first quarter of 2019, while prices per acre have risen 76.6 percent over the same period.
Unlike home listings, which have staged a meaningful recovery in inventory, land listings have remained largely stagnant. Realtor.com attributed the gap to the construction frenzy of 2020–22, which permanently converted large swaths of listed land into housing.
Raw land appreciated the most over that period, rising 86.5 percent in price per acre since the first quarter of 2019, compared to 53.3 percent for build-ready listings. Realtor.com tied the steeper gains to raw land’s lower starting price point and its appeal as a speculative investment.
Prices have since softened, falling 0.5 percent year over year as of the first quarter of 2026, with the West posting the steepest decline at 5.9 percent. The Northeast, constrained by dense development, restrictive zoning and environmental regulations, posted the strongest price growth since the pandemic, rising from $23,584 per acre in the first quarter of 2019 to $47,511 per acre in the first quarter of 2026.
Among metro areas, Hilton Head Island-Bluffton-Port Royal, South Carolina, saw the steepest inventory decline since 2019, down 72.1 percent. Port St. Lucie, Florida, led on price-per-acre appreciation, up 314 percent over the same period.
The estimates cover raw land, partially developed lots and build-ready parcels listed on Realtor.com.
