In May of 2006, my wife and I started the search for a home. As much as we both wanted to move into the city (Chicago), we realized from a financial standpoint, we could get a huge house built for the some price as a two-bedroom condo on the lakefront. It's always been my dream to have a lake-front condo, but I just could not justify it. So, we started looking out in the country.

We took a month or so and every weekend in between to search for a home. We visited about ten new developments looking. We finally choose Plainfield, IL. At the time, I had no idea it was as promising as it is from a propertyappreciation standpoint. In fact, I didn't know anything about the business, nor mortgages.

Anyway, one of the things we noticed in our travels was that it seemed every other farm in that area had For-Sale signs on it. "200 Acres for sale," "400 Acres ready for homes," etc. The first thing that I thought about was, it's a shame that this land is going to all go away and turned into what we were trying to get away from, which was the upcoming overcrowded suburbs of Chicago, which is where we both grew up ( I lived right down the street from Al Capone's former headquarters, which is now a Mexican Clothing Store, which still has the old bank name tiled into the entrance [&:])

Despite the obvious of there being a chance of the area we were moving into becoming overcrowded, we decided this is where we should build, so we did, in the largest development in the area, 989 homes divided up into roughly ten subdivisions, with it's own high school and grade school.

Well, as the contruction progressed, it quickly became November, and those signs were still up on all the farms, looking for buyers. We moved in and then winter hit. Over the next few months, we noticed more and more gas stations having E85 available. There was a time for a few weeks where E85 was the same price as regular unleaded, which was a little odd to us. Over the next few months, we noticed on the news that E85 cars were becoming more available and common in our area. We also noticed something very interesting; the farmers were taking down there "For Sale" signs. Mind you, there were ALOT of them around.

Well, as May and June came, the news was out that corn was in more demand, and it was attributed to E85 demand. Then we watched more news in June, which said alot of the farmers in the country have converted from growing hops for alcohol to corn because it was going to become so profitable in the next few years. You guys/girls may or may not have heard this, but the price of Alcohol is expected to rise within the next year because of this. Our largest gas station in our area (which is fairly new and a car fanatics dream come true) went as far as to take the one E85 pump out, and convert every single pump (about 10 to 15 of them) to pump E85 in place of Mid-Grade octane. The mid-grade was moved to where the single E85 pump was.

We thought, now THIS it interesting. Well, guess what? All of those farmers that were trying to sell their land were now growing corn again. Where there were once people desperate to sell and make their millions, they are now growing again. This was a relief to me, because our area is officially the fastest growing community in the state, and now rated one of the top 3 places to live in IL.

Besides the farmers growing again, our development, which was in theory 2 to 3 years away from being completely sold/completed, is now already sold out. Even the models are up for sale now. So, there are only 2 new developments left in our area. That has been no more new ones started since we moved in. Our property value has gone up big time, because there is now a demand for homes in that area and hardly an

 

Mike!! I wanted to read your post, but it's too damn long. lol!!

 

OK I'll shorten it for you (slacker):



E85 gas make equity good 4 house cuz:

Farmers grow corn again, not sell land, take off market

want to live here? buy house already built, no more new house left



hows that for you

 

Now that's a post!!!!!!!!!!

 

Makes Sense!!

 

Oh Bob, I know you read the SHORT version

 

from now dude...cliff notes version first please

 

For the next 2 weeks, starting now, JUST FOR YOU, none of my posts will be more then two words, if that. Two weeks.

 

very interesting , oh by the way i read the whole version

 

[quote]"which is now a Mexican Clothing Store"

That's the problem right there. Consider this:

www.smalltowndefenders.com

They take the American Dream and they sh*t on it! When I moved out to CA twenty some years ago, this place was indeed a paradise. Well, they took this paradise and sh*t on it too. Every day is a battle simply because the feds won't enforce the law. I feel so bad for the small towns across America and I hope I and all of you can help them in some way to save our nation.