It's been three decades since rural land prices in the Panhandle have moved up like they have over the past few years.

"The market is very strong across all types of property in all areas of the Panhandle," said Tom Gergens, a real estate appraiser for 27 years.

Increased grain prices, the influx of dairies, the desire for a place in the country and people looking for a safe place to put their money are among the forces driving higher prices.

"We have several irrigated farm buyers that are very motivated," said George Clift, owner of the real estate firm Clift, Scott & Associates. "These are people who are not neighbors, not Panhandle guys."

They are betting Panhandle land is a competitive investment and are relying on farmers to lease and work the land providing a stream of revenue.

"There are buyers who owned apartment complexes or other buildings in places like Dallas that have decided it's good to own in the Panhandle," Clift said. "With these farms, you won't make a 20 percent return, but certainly a conservative 5 percent."

Median prices vary within the Panhandle. They don't reflect individual sales because rangeland, marginal cropland and more expensive irrigated farmland are averaged together.

From 2004 through 2006, prices went from $500 to $651 per acre in the northern Panhandle, according to information from the Texas A & M University Real Estate Center.

From the northeast corner of the region through its center, prices went from $373 to $471. Across southwestern counties, they went from $445 to $550.

Dairy farmers are also among those paying the premium that land with plentiful supplies of water is bringing.

"There's no doubt prices have increased significantly, more so in the northwest Panhandle - Dallam and Hartley counties," said Tim Weldon, vice president and manager of First State Bank in Stratford. "As dairy growth spreads further east, as they say it will, so maybe goes land values."

The dairies need the water to run the milking facilities, especially to clean them, and to grow crops for their cows rather than buying all the feed.

While some irrigated land is going for up to $2,000 per acre where dairies are locating, $1,600 is a common figure, Weldon said. That contrasts with $1,250 for land with decent but not abundant water in Sherman County to the east of the hottest development areas.

One reason the milk producers can afford the prices is many are coming from California.

"They're buying land here by the acre," Weldon said. "But they're selling their land in California by the square foot."

The dairy impact is fairly localized.

"You can move 50 miles from where it's active and things change rapidly," Gergens said. "You can pay $1,500 to $1,800 east and southeast of Dalhart for irrigated farmland, but 30 miles northwest of Dalhart it's going for $700 to $1,000."

Clift said he's seen rural land prices go up 25 percent to 40 percent in general in the past five years, but recreational land has gone up more sharply, from 25 to 100 percent.

Escaping to the country can take several forms - buying a place with a relatively easy drive to town or buying land far enough out to be a weekend destination, maybe even with hunting opportunities.

"No. 1 is a location with proximity to Amarillo and Canyon and to a lesser extent other population centers," said Cory Bruce, vice president of Panhandle-Plains Land Bank. "With increasing incomes of people who work at Bell, doctors, lawyers, CPAs, they're buying smaller tracts between Amarillo and Canyon that were in full-time agriculture. And there's the subdivisions going in."

The places farther from town are attracting buyers from outside the area.

"The big factor is if they have water and trees or canyon rim or draws - those are the ones bringing premiums," Bruce said. "People from Fort Worth or Austin have to pay $2,500 to $5,000 an acre. They can come up to the Panhandle and buy for $1,000 or $1,500 or slightly more."

Except for localized dairy-induced changes, the price movement in the Panhandle generally mirrors statewide activity. Since 2002, there has been an acceleration of price increases that one expert describes as faster than would be normal.

"Land prices can't keep going up as fast as they have been," said Charles Gilliland, research economist with the Texas A & M Real Estate Center. "But if people are looking for prices to go back down to levels before they accelerated, I would say 'don't hold your breath.'"