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100 Largest Landowners in America
- Solocomplex 5y agoIt's doesn't list how much each one has... Not very useful.
- dredmorbius 5y agoPower law distributions suggest that if you can get a few datapoints much of the rest is roughly estimable. Rankings are less utterly useless than first appears.
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- pc86 5y agoThe digital edition does, but as was correctly pointed out, it's not particularly useful information.
- blakesterz 5y agoThe actual details on those names can be found in the digital edition here: https://editions.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?m=61105&i=688913&p=126 https://editions.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?m=611... It's an interesting magazine. Ads for private jets, helicopters and huge ranches and horses. I'm certainly not in their target income bracket!
- bryanrasmussen 5y agoAbout 30+ years ago I was working as a busboy / dishwasher in a hospital cafeteria, some Doctor left a real estate magazine lying around, all sorts of 200+ secluded acres in rolling Virginia countryside with equestrian racing attached and Luxurious one of a kind ranches formerly owned by country music legends and so forth. I wonder if the Doctor was in the target bracket, or just dreaming big. I mean there were a few smaller colonial manors in vermont with your own stream and mill affairs as well, it was not all turned up to 11 but there was nothing turned lower than 8 that's for sure.
- obloid 5y agoDepends what kind of doctor. A neurosurgeon is probably in their target bracket. An internist or family physician probably not.
- akudha 5y agoThe leader of a volunteer project I was in, was a 75 year old British man who had settled in Brooklyn. My jaw dropped when he told me he had visited some 140 countries, mostly on someone else's dime. Apparently when he was a young man, his job was to scout interesting locations for ultra wealthy people to visit. So he'd go check out the places, draw up an itinerary and also arrange private planes/logistics etc for his clients. And most of the time also go with them (weeks or months later), so he got to visit the some places more than once. This was pre-internet (some 40 years ago, I guess), I don't know if such jobs exist today. I don't even know what they are called (concierge travel agent?). The ultra rich truly live on another level.
- phamilton 5y agoI met a guy recently who did this. Much of the time was spent on a yacht, but he did exactly this. Lots of Russian oligarchs, a few big names in tech. Take the vacation himself, and then report back. He'd do like a handful of these vacations and then one of them would be chosen and they'd take the owner on the vacation.
- akudha 5y agoThat must be a fun gig, especially if you’re young!
- pvm3 5y agothe internet equivalent is probably a travel content creator
- SuchAnonMuchWow 5y ago> 25. Jeff Bezos > 49. Bill & Melinda Gates [NEW TO LR100] I knew Bill Gates had a lot of land, but that information about Jeff Bezos is new to me. Too bad the report doesn't say how much land they own.
- ____a 5y agoFrom a link posted by someone else, he owns 420,000 acres in Texas used by Blue Origin. https://editions.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?m=61105&i=688913&p=140 https://editions.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?m=611...
- ____a 5y agoAnd Bill Gates bought a bunch of farmland. See here for the full details of his purchases: https://editions.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?m=61105&i=688913&p=56 https://editions.mydigitalpublication.com/publication/?m=611...
- rwmj 5y agoDon't know about the US, but in the UK ownership of farmland is used as an inheritance tax dodge. Because of land rich but money poor farmers as a voting constituency, farmland is not counted for inheritance tax. The predictable result of this is people like Dyson owning most of the farmland in Lincolnshire (https://whoownsengland.org/2017/09/19/why-is-james-dyson-hoovering-up-land/ https://whoownsengland.org/2017/09/19/why-is-james-dyson-hoo...)
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- roenxi 5y agoThis looks like individuals. Institutions would hold much more land.
- changoplatanero 5y agoYeah I wonder how the Pope and the leader of the Mormon church would rank on this list.
- ARandomerDude 5y agoI think the churches own the land, not the current leaders. I'm guessing the Catholics would be on the top 100 list, but I doubt the Mormons would.
- cpwright 5y agoThe Mormons own a lot of land in Florida, and I would guess also Utah. https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jan/30/from-book-to-boom-how-the-mormons-plan-a-city-for-500000-in-florida https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/jan/30/from-book-to-...
- bobthechef 5y agoThe pope doesn't own all this land. I believe in the US, ownership is diocesan.
- User23 5y agoThe Pope can remove Bishops and replace them with persons of his choosing so it’s probably fair to say he ultimately controls diocesan resources. However, there is a great deal of custom and tradition keeping that from being abused.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> I believe in the US, ownership is diocesan. It’s much more complicated than that. US Dioceses vary in the their legal corporate structure which, even with the canon law, greatly effects both legal and practical control. One common model has most parishes, schools, etc. within the diocese as separate charitable trusts, with separate immediate authorities. Some dioceses (especially older ones that have not had cause to reorganize) are still organized as corporations sole, which makes the effectively personally controlled by the bishop. And, of course, aside from the varieties of diocesan organization, much Church land is held by religious orders which are a separate heirarchy than the episcopal one and each of whichay (as a whole and in various subdivisions) have different secular legal structures.
- cblconfederate 5y agoThe latest generations dont seem overly interested in land, partly because they 've been deconditioned from real estate ownership by necessity, at least in europe. It's this thing that boomers+co value a lot that will die with them (and be passed down). Would be interesting to see who are the 100 largest virtual land (online property) owners in the world.
- pc86 5y agoWhat exactly is a "virtual land owner?"
- bryanrasmussen 5y agosomeone who owns land inside of a game environment most likely?
- KorematsuFred 5y agoIt is very natural. Land can be used for multiple purposes. 100 years ago agriculture was very important activity and it made sense to own more rural land. Today the amount of money I spent on buying a tiny house in Palo Alto would buy me 50acre ranch in Texas. But I am not interested that as that 50 acre ranch is unlikely to be a valuable asset 20 years down the line.
- chasd00 5y agomany people buy land in the exurbs, wait for the growth, and then sell to developers. I have a friend who's grandfather gave her 40 acres in Prosper TX. When we were in HS it was basically worthless/pointless, but now, she could retire on it if she wanted.
- mssundaram 5y agoIn my experience it not that the latest generations aren't interested, it is that there isn't much available, and what is available is not in an interesting location or is too expensive.
- 1cvmask 5y agoA real surprise was seeing the Ellison family at the bottom of the list at number 100. He clearly likes his movies, fighter jets and sailing more than the others. The Kennedys have managed to maintain their land holdings despite not being in the super zillionaire category.
- BitwiseFool 5y agoLarry Ellison does own almost 98% of the Island of Lanai in Hawaii. It may not be that big of an island, but that's impressive in it's own right.
- rkk3 5y agoEllison Ranching Company is at 100, no relation to Larry. Also the Kennedy Family is at 67 is not the political dynasty, they founded Dominick and Dominick in 1899.
- makosdv 5y agoIf they included governmental owners, it'd dwarf these private holdings. For example, the largest landowner is really the United States Federal government: 640 million acres.
- BitwiseFool 5y agoWhile true, I feel like government owned land doesn't really count.
- syshum 5y agoWhy?
- tyingq 5y agoNot who you're replying to, but the US Govt does own a lot of land that wouldn't be useful to anyone else. Some rural and desert plots sell for less than $1000/acre.
- syshum 5y agoWhile that may be true in some cases, the US Govt also owns a huge amount of productive land that are today used under lease for grazing and other purposes, or could be used by others for purposes that the US Government forbids. I am not sure what the exact break down of useful vs non-useful is, but I know most of the land in my state that is owned by the government could be used for other things. Keep in mind to we are not just talking Bureau of Land Management, but also Park Service, All Federal Agencies many of which have abandoned, or under used facilities in many towns and cities through out the US, Military who owns large sections of land that are non-active bases, etc etc etc Several states have even attempted various law suits because the federal government is preventing economic development of the land
- BitwiseFool 5y agoPrimarily because it seems logical that the government would own the largest amount of land in a country like the United States. No individual or institution would ever come close to the sheer amount of land the Federal Government obtained by treaty or by conquest.
- wonderwonder 5y agoPretty crazy to think about individuals owning this much land. For context, the entire city of Orlando, Fl is ~71k acres and a quarter of a million people live there.
- syshum 5y agoThere is no context provided as to what type of land it is, and what use it is for. Just because 250,000 people can live on 71,000 acres of land in Orlando, does not mean 71,000 acres of dessert land with no water, no food, no easy infrastructure could
- deleted 5y ago[deleted]
- tomcam 5y agoMe: Really, really stoked about my new 10 acre farm. Reed family: Up 291,000 acres
- fmakunbound 5y agoIt’s crazy that you can own land. I bought a several acres, and it has a creek that runs through it. How nuts is that to own your own creek!?
- User23 5y agoTrue ownership of land is allodial title[1] and that’s basically impossible to acquire in the modern world. I believe however a bunch of Brazil is actually privately owned[2] and home owners, in the commonly used sense, pay taxes to the private owner and not the government. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allodial_title https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allodial_title [2] https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/08/25/434360144/for-brazils-1-percenters-the-land-stays-in-the-family-forever https://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2015/08/25/434360144/...
- chasd00 5y agothere's lots of different kinds of "rights". You may not own any of the water running through the creek, for example you may not be able to divert it or damn it or mess with it in anyway. Same goes for minerals. If you discover oil on your several acres it may not belong to you. it gets really confusing
- jacquesm 5y agoYou most likely do not own that creek. Typically running surface water is not owned, you can't dam it, you can't disturb it and you can't add anything to it or subtract anything from it. You may not even be allowed to fish in it even on your own property.
- DuskStar 5y agoDepends on the state - water rights are more restricted the drier the area from what I understand
- chasd00 5y agolots of the acreage is divided up into multiple parcels. I wonder what the top 100 largest contiguous parcels are. i've been on a couple 10-15k acre ranches West of Austin TX, certainly large enough to get completely lost on which seems to be my speciality...
- tyingq 5y agoWaggoner Ranch, near Vernon, TX, is 535k contiguous acres. Makes it roughly half the size of Rhode Island: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waggoner_Ranch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waggoner_Ranch The owner is Stan Kroenke, number 5 on this list. He owns a bunch of major league sports teams. His wife is the daughter of one of the WalMart founders, which appears to be where all the money initially came from.
- WorldPeas 5y agosaved in bookmarks folder: cultural revolution
- elbasti 5y agoThese massive land holdings are the best possible use for a "Harberger Tax", also known as the Weyl-Posner " Common Ownership Self-Assessed Tax (COST)." The idea for these taxes is that one self-assesses the value of a good (in this case, land), and the tax is levied on that self assessed value...but one must sell if somebody offers to buy the good at that value. The problem with these taxes is that, in general, we want people to be able to enjoy a consumer surplus from owning or improving land. There's an alternative where the value at which sale is compulsory is a multiple of the self-assessed value, and the multiple decreases with time, so that after some number of years the multiple is 1, ie a pure Harberger tax. Looking at this list, it's incredible that most of this land is owned by a "____ Family" or "_____ Heirs" (the Kennedy's are on the list!) A Harberger tax would make these families pay much higher taxes for the privilege of owning it generationally.
- simonsarris 5y ago> but one must sell if somebody offers to buy the good at that value. Maybe for ultra rich people. For normal people that's all fun and games until a bunch of haters crowdfund taking your home from you.
- nabla9 5y agoThis list does not include private organizations. It seems that The Mormon Church is the biggest private landowner in Florida. 670,000 Acres (about 2 percent of the state's land mass). https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-florida-mormons-idUSL2N0IT2AZ20131108 https://www.reuters.com/article/usa-florida-mormons-idUSL2N0... and 228,000 acres of Nebraska https://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/business/ci_2424204 https://archive.sltrib.com/story.php?ref=/business/ci_242420... The Catholic Church seems to be the biggest private landowner in the world.
- gremlinsinc 5y agoDoes this include foreign investors? I think that should matter too. I'm not saying this for a racist reason, but it seems we allow rich people from other countries to buy up land/real estate, which drives up costs, and de-stabilizes our ability to support our poorest. Personally, I think land should be considered owned by all and have a land-value tax, which would pay for universal basic income and healthcare.
- singularity2001 5y agoWhere is Nestlé?