After years of surging prices driven by a pandemic-era scramble for cheap land, the U.S. market for vacant lots is finally starting to cool off as home builders pull back on new construction.

A report released Tuesday by Realtor.com indicates that land prices per acre dipped 0.5% year over year in the first quarter of 2026. This marks a notable shift after a 76.6% price explosion between 2019 and 2026.

As prices decline for vacant lots, so have the total number of listings on the market, with total inventory of for-sale land sitting 23.6% below pre-pandemic levels.

The trajectory of the land market has closely mirrored the broader housing sector over the past several years, but the former still suffers from a lingering hangover of sorts. While existing home inventory began recovering in 2024, vacant land inventory has failed to bounce back.

According to Joel Berner, the Realtor.com senior economist who authored the report, much of the land purchased during the 2020 to 2022 boom was permanently converted into housing and will never return to the market as vacant lots.

Currently, there are 426,986 land listings for sale in the U.S., according to the report, carrying a median price per acre of $62,365. Yet regional divergences are pronounced, creating a polarized picture of the nation’s building landscape.

• The West: This region has experienced the sharpest downturn, with land prices dropping 5.9% annually. The report attributes this trend to a steep pullback in new residential construction activity — particularly single-family building permits — and a broader housing market where inventory has returned to pre-pandemic norms, reducing the urgency for builders to acquire new land.
• The Northeast: Conversely, this part of America has seen price appreciation since 2019. The region suffers from severe land scarcity, a problem produced by dense development, restrictive zoning and strict environmental regulations. This structural bottleneck has kept upward pressure on prices, which have risen by 0.9% per acre over the past year even as the national market cools.
• The South: Favorable regulatory environments and relatively abundant land have allowed vacant lot inventory to bounce back more readily here than in other parts of the country. However, sustained demand from population growth and in-migration from higher-cost states have kept prices edging 1.3% higher year over year.
• The Midwest: Unlike the South, the Midwest shares some of the Northeast’s supply constraints, with housing inventory remaining well below pre-pandemic levels. Yet its lower price points have drawn a wave of affordability-seeking buyers and builders hunting for cheaper land acquisition costs. This dynamic has fueled steady, modest price appreciation of 0.2% over the past year, particularly in emerging destination markets like Kansas City, Indianapolis and Columbus, Ohio.

The development status of land has also influenced its price volatility. Raw, undeveloped land saw the most dramatic price swings during the boom, exploding 86.5% since 2019. With its lower initial price point, empty land was highly favored for speculative investment. 

However, as the market cools, the price of raw land has declined 2.4% year over year versus a 1.1% dip for built lots.

Meanwhile, prices on partly developed parcels grew by 0.8%, reflecting a pullback on more speculative demand as the price trajectory of at least partially developed properties remains positive.