In Terms of Real Estate, What is the US Actually Worth?

Generally, when thinking about the value of a nation’s resources, economists look to more practical and empirical figures. How strong is the dollar versus another currency? What is the relative gross domestic product (GDP) of one nation versus another? While this is certainly more practical for most purposes, one researcher asked an entirely different question: at market value, what would all of the real estate in the United States actually be worth?

Generally, when thinking about the value of a nation’s resources, economists look to more practical and empirical figures. How strong is the dollar versus another currency? What is the relative gross domestic product (GDP) of one nation versus another? While this is certainly more practical for most purposes, one researcher asked an entirely different question: at market value, what would all of the real estate in the United States actually be worth?

According to William Larson, a government economist whose findings were published in the Wall Street Journal, all of the land in the continental United States, if sold as a whole at market value in 2009, would have cost the lucky purchaser a cool $22.98 trillion. That is good news to those out there that feel like the United States is in debt for more than it is worth.  The national debt, as of 2015, currently stands at around $18.15 trillion. That figure is also equal to about 1.4 times the GDP of the US in 2014, placing America well within the debt-to-income ratios acceptable for most individual borrowers at their neighborhood bank.

Larson’s $22.98 trillion figure represents only the value of the land, not the buildings, roads, or other improvements built on neither it, nor any of the bodies of water within the nation’s borders. It was also calculated in 2009, with post-real estate crash prices. As a result, his figures would logically be a bit higher using today’s numbers, given the resurgence in property values and other factors. Yet, to bring these figures home, Larson also broke down his analysis by the 48 continental states and the District of Columbia in order to explain what each brought to the table.

As a whole, California is worth the most at $44 billion – not surprising for waterfront property that encompasses such a large portion of the western seaboard. However, on a per acre basis, dark horse New Jersey takes the lead at $196,410 an acre, while Wyoming trails in last place at a scant $1,557 an acre. Following New Jersey, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts had the next highest per acre property values, averaging over $100,000 each. On the other hand, Wyoming had a lot more company at the bottom of the value heap, with 24 states averaging property values under $10,000 per acre.

Though not a state, per se, the real per acre winner measured in Larson’s analysis was Washington D.C., with a per acre value of $1.05 million. Surprisingly, the government owns only 18% of the land in Washington D.C., but across the rest of the country, the federal government owns 24% of all land, valued at a collective $1.8 trillion. That figure ($1.8 trillion) amounts to about 8% of the nation’s total value or 10% of the national debt.