Angry in the Great White North

From the Waco Tribune:

Peace mom Cindy Sheehan plunked down $52,500 for five acres in Crawford, causing some real estate agents and appraisers to gasp at her spendthrift ways.

Some people think the price she paid, $10,500 per acre, was a fair price, if on the high side of fair:

She did pay more for her land than the appraised value, but she didn’t make a mockery of it.

Tom Walker at the appraisal district said her tract of slightly more than five acres is appraised at $42,107, or about $8,106 an acre.

Walker admits he did a double-take when he read what Sheehan paid, but when he researched the land’s value at the McLennan County Appraisal District he realized the price was not far off the mark.

“It’s kind of pretty out there,” he said of the site, which is partially covered with trees. It’s near State Highway 317, about a half-mile north of the lone traffic light in Crawford, and it is just the right size to serve as a home site.

On the other hand, some people think Cindy Sheehan threw her money away (or, more accurately, she threw a chunk of Casey Sheehan's insurance money away):

When he heard that price, Bert Smith with Re-Max Greater Waco Realty said he wondered “why someone would pay so much.” He’s familiar with the Crawford area, even owns land there, and says five-acre tracts typically sell for $5,000 to $6,000 an acre.

To bring more, he said, it would need “something real special, like huge live oak trees or a creek running through it.”

About a third of the Sheehan property is dotted with trees, and the summer heat has reduced a nearby creek to a rumor. But it well serves the needs of Camp Casey, a peace camp Sheehan named for her son, Casey Sheehan, a 24-year-old Fort Hood soldier killed in Iraq in 2004.

Trammell Kelly, with Kelly Realtors, said he’s been researching the Crawford area for a California client who wants to buy about 20 acres there.

“I haven’t seen the land (Sheehan) bought, but the vacant land I’ve seen is not bringing $10,500 an acre,” Kelly said. “It’s more like $3,000 to $4,000 an acre.”

Kelly described the land he’s looked at as “treeless.”

Hey, all I know is that $50,000 is plenty of money to spend on your other kids.

Still, the real value of a purchase is driven by whether it fulfills the goals of the purchaser:

Texas Even though President Bush has returned to Washington, anti-war demonstrators near his Texas ranch are looking to continue their protest against the Iraq war.

They're urging war opponents to come to the five-acre campsite purchased last month by activist Cindy Sheehan.

Today, only about 100 protesters were camped on their land near downtown Crawford, about seven miles from the Bush ranch.

It's hard to imagine that anyone associated with Cindy Sheehan thinks this is money well spent.

It's even harder to imagine any of those associates being openly critical.