This United States may have been made for you and me, but America's diamond deserts and redwood forests could net a sizable amount of cash if we ever decided to sell it, according to a new study.
All the land in the lower 48 states was worth a combined $23trillion in 2009, combination of tax and real estate data in a paper published by the Commerce Department as revealed.
Researchers estimated that land in the country, minus all the buildings, roads and trees on top of it, achieved its peak value of $26.2 trillion in in 2006 before sliding down three trillion dollars in three years.
A map of the US by county shows areas with land values from $73,000 to $3.35million per acre in dark blue and land less than $2,000 per acre in white. The entire country is worth $23trillion, according to new study
Prices may have rebounded since the end of the economic recession, but the study from William Larson paints the widest ever picture of how much the ground beneath our feet is actually worth.
The research used land prices combined with Census data to tabulate values for all of the federal, agricultural and developed land in the country, excluding Alaska, Hawaii and bodies of water.
Washington DC had the greatest land value, with a staggering $1,050,000 per acre.
It was followed by New Jersey, where the average acre cost of $196,000 led a foursome of smaller Northeastern states with acre values above $100,000 with Rhode Island's $133,730, Connecticut's $128,820 and Massachusetts $102,210.
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Land in Washington DC had the highest price in the entire country, with land costing more than $1million per acre
Northeastern states including New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts all have per acre values above $100,000. Above, a home in Cape May, New Jersey
California was the most valuable state overall at $3.9trillion while Vermont was worth only $44billion.
Wyoming, with $1,560 per acre, is the cheapest place in the country to buy land, followed by New Mexico at $1,930 and Nevada at $2,120, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Land in large urban areas was the most valuable, with cities of more than 1million people worth $64,844 per acre.
Despite only being 5.8 per cent of the country's 1.89billion acres, developed land had a slim majority of the country's value.
Besides Washington DC, New Jersey and Rhode Island had the highest percentages of developed land, both more than 30 per cent.
Wyoming, which like many Western states is majority-owned by the federal government, had the lowest per acre price at $1,560. Above, the High Plains Desert in Wyoming
The federal government, the largest landowner in the US and the fourth largest in the world, owns 24 per cent of the country and majorities of six states including California, Nevada and Oregon.
However, the land is almost entirely undeveloped and is only worth $1.8trillion, which is about 10 percent of the federal debt.
The government owns almost none of Connecticut, just 0.1 per cent.
True to its reputation for having golden waves of grain, forty-seven per cent of the land in the US is farmland, with the highest state percentage for agriculture being Nebraska's 92.7 per cent.
Mr Larson estimated that his figures were within a 10 per cent margin of error.
He said he did the study because 'Despite its fundamental role in nearly all economic activity, there is no current and complete estimate of the value of the land area of the United States'.
HOW MUCH IS YOUR STATE WORTH? THE AVERAGE PRICE PER ACRE
Alabama
Alaska
Arizona
Arkansas
California
Colorado
Connecticut
Delaware
Florida
Georgia
Hawaii
Idaho
Illinois
Indiana
Iowa
Kansas
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Massachusetts
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
Missouri
Montana
Nebraska
Nevada
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
North Dakota
Ohio
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
South Dakota
Tennessee
Texas
Utah
Vermont
Virginia
Washington
West Virginia
Wisconsin
Wyoming
$12,355
N/A
$4,328
$6,739
$39,091
$6,462
$128,824
$57,692
$28,961
$14,241
N/A
$3,434
$23,491
$16,902
$6,589
$4,220
$7,208
$12,908
$6,142
$75,429
$102,214
$23,765
$8,190
$5,564
$7,232
$2,282
$2,935
$2,115
$19,839
$196,409
$1,931
$41,314
$16,230
$2,517
$32,076
$7,363
$6,502
$31,923
$133,729
$17,610
$2,135
$14,411
$7,542
$4,663
$7,438
$21,921
$16,751
$10,536
$9,924
$1,557
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