It turns out that land prices here are about where they were in California some 10 years ago. Just after I bought the house there, there was a sharp upward bend in house prices. Thanks to greed and land developers, I was able to sell for enough to pay off the old house and everything else, and buy this one. Now that nearly all usable land in CA and half of AZ is paved over, they've moved into NM and are throwing up several housing developments some 6 miles down the road on the edge of town. The local folks are getting upset about that because we don't have any Owens Valley or Colorado river to steal water from.
