Veterans Land Board selling land at 25 percent discount - MySanAntonio

Veteran or not, you may now buy a piece of Texas at a reduced price through the Veterans Land Board (VLB).

Texas Land Commissioner Jerry Patterson cut land prices by 25 percent on parcels that have been forfeited by their current owners. The online sale is on a first come, first served basis. Though you need not be a veteran to purchase these properties, VLB financing is available only to qualified Texas veterans.

Parcels are listed by geographic areas on the VLB Web site. You may search the entire state, or you may refine your search by North, East, South, or West Texas, the Panhandle, Coastal area and Central Texas, which lists 24 properties for sale.

To search the VLB's land tracts by region, visit www.texasveterans.com. The sales price for each tract is displayed, along with a sketch of the tract boundaries and a locator map. You may also call 1-800-252-8387 for additional information.

In Central Texas, for instance, 1.13 acres in Comal County are available at The Enclave at Canyon Lake, Unit 1. The price has been reduced from $50,000 to $37,500. In Hays County, a 5.3 acre lot was reduced from $79,500 to $59,625, while in Travis County, in the Linden Road Subdivision, 5.23 acres are available for $46,275, reduced from $61,700.

Revenue from the land sale will support VLB programs, which provide veterans' benefits in Texas. Among the benefits are home and land loans, low-cost nursing home care and state veterans' cemeteries.

Texans have a tradition of helping veterans dating back to the war for independence from Mexico. Soldiers were rewarded with generous tracts of land.

The VLB was created in 1946 after voters approved a constitutional amendment that authorized $25 million in bonds to help World War II veterans buy land.

The land and home loan programs have funded more than $9 billion in loans since then. Thousands of veterans have benefitted and built houses on their piece of Texas.

In addition to the VLB, the General Land Office (GLO) is responsible for leasing the land and mineral holdings on Permanent School Fund lands to help pay for public education. Since 1922, the GLO has deposited more than $12.3 billion into the state's Permanent School Fund from oil and gas production.

The GLO is the repository for the history of Texas land. Its collection holds about 35 million records dating back to 1720, including approximately 80,000 maps, sketches and plat maps.

These maps and documents of the archives are used today by researchers, surveyors, genealogists and students of Texas history.

The agency is also responsible for coastal environmental protection. The Beach Watch program keeps track of bacterial levels on popular Texas beaches. The Adopt-A-Beach program is a volunteer effort to preserve and protect our beaches. Since the first cleanup, approximately 400,000 volunteers have removed 7,700 tons of trash.

For more information about the General Land Office, visit www.glo.texas.gov.

Jeff Wentworth is a Texas state senator for District 25, which encompasses part of northern Bexar County and all of Kendall, Comal, Hays and Guadalupe counties.