Capitalization of hunting lease income into northern Mississippi forestland values.

摘要

Hunting leases are impacting rural land values. Using land sales transactions in northern Mississippi, this study quantified how hunting lease income affects forestland value, while controlling for sale attributes, county attributes, and ecosystem differences. Estimation procedures included traditional as well as spatial econometric modeling. A dollar increase in per acre hunting lease rate was associated with a 0.80% increase in per acre forestland value. Hunting lease income was capitalized into forestland value at a 7.55% rate. These findings should be helpful to forest landowners, appraisers, buyers, and government officials in land valuation and natural resource management issues.