Despite a huge twenty-first century boom in cropland prices in the US that parallels the housing boom of the 2000’s, the average price of a hectare of cropland was still only $6,800 in 2008, according to the US Department of Agriculture, and one could build 10-20 single-family houses surrounded by comfortable-sized lots on this land, or one could build an apartment building housing 300 people. Land costs could easily be as low as $20 per person, or less than $0.50 per year over a lifetime.