The Chronicles Of Grant County
Foreign Land Ownerships
Part One
This map shows the amounts of acreage owned by foreign entities and individuals in a portion of the United States of America. The four counties in southwest New Mexico are within the blue circle. (The map was provided courtesy of the United States Department of Agriculture, December 31, 2022.)
Foreign entities and individuals owned more than 100,000 acres of land in southwest New Mexico as of December 31, 2021, according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). These foreign land holdings were located in Catron, Grant, Hidalgo, and Luna Counties.
As will be noted in Parts Two and Three of this news series, that amount of foreign land holdings may not be correct.
"Foreign investors held an interest in over 43.4 million acres of United States agricultural land (forest land and farm land) as of December 31, 2022," according to a statement from the USDA. "This is an increase of over 3.4 million acres from the December 31, 2021 report and represents 3.4 percent of all privately held agricultural land in the United States."
"These and other findings are based on information submitted to the [USDA] in compliance with the Agricultural Foreign Investment Disclosure Act of 1978," the USDA statement continued. "Forest land accounted for over 48 percent of all reported foreign held acreage, cropland for over 28 percent, pasture and other agricultural land for over 21 percent, and nonagricultural land for slightly more than 2 percent."
"Foreign holdings of U.S. agricultural land increased modestly from 2012 through 2017, increasing an average of 0.6 million per year," the statement from the USDA added. "Since 2017, foreign holdings have increased an average of nearly 2.9 million acres annually, ranging from 2.4 million acres to over 3.4 million acres per year."
While summary data on foreign land holdings was released by the USDA for Year 2022, "the detailed data underlying the Year 2022 report have not yet been released," according to the USDA.
Thus, The Chronicles Of Grant County is not able to report specific details on the foreign land holdings in the four individual counties in southwest New Mexico for Year 2022.
For this series of three news columns in The Chronicles Of Grant County, all information listed for these four counties is from the Report of Foreign Land Holdings for Year 2021. The report was issued with detailed data as of December 31, 2021. This is the most recent report with detailed data on this subject from the USDA.
The USDA reported that three foreign entities owned land in Catron County as of December 31, 2021. A corporation from Liberia owned 17,833 acres that was listed as having been purchased for $1,073,000 in 1975. A business from Mexico owned 12,000 acres that was purchased for $2,400,000 in 1978; debt of $1,571,000 was listed for the property. The estimated value for this property as of December 31, 2021, was the same as the purchase price. A business from the Netherlands owned 35 acres that was listed as having been purchased for $160,000 in 1980.
Three separate listings in Hidalgo County were included in the Year 2021 report from the USDA. All of these parcels were listed as having ownerships of "Other"; the definition of "Other" in this USDA report included "long-term leaseholds."
Two of the three listings in Hidalgo County were for the same entity. A business from the United Kingdom was listed as the owner of a property with 3,196 acres as well as the owner of a property with 334.5 acres. The first property was listed as having an estimated value of $17,792,132 as of December 31, 2021; the second property was listed as having an estimated value of $31,108.50 as of that same date. Both properties were listed as being acquired in 2019.
In addition, a business from Mexico acquired 3,123 acres in Hidalgo County for $30,000,000 in 2020. The report indicated that the value for this property as of December 31, 2021, was the same as the purchase price.
Information on foreign land ownership in Grant County will be detailed next week in Part Two of this news series, while details on land holdings in Luna County by foreign entities will be included in Part Three of this news series.
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