OK, so my little experiment didn't work out exactly as planned. If you remember, two posts ago, I mentioned I was conducting a Wisdom of Crowds experiment at the water law conference I was sponsoring. Frankly, I didn't get enough participation for the experiment to present any meaningful data. Regardless, here is the average price of water in Montana between 2003 -2009 based on Lotic's transaction database. Drum roll please.
- $21.52 an acre-foot for leases; and
- $1,176.30 an acre-foot for sales.
- This represents an average over 6 years.
- The price variation of transaction prices exceeded $6,000 dollars.
- The Montana Water Market is young and a limited number of comparable sales exist.
- Water right parameters (flow rate, volume, priority date, etc) greatly influence price.
And lastly, my favorite
- No matter what comparable sales exist, your water is actually worth what someone is willing to pay for it.
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