This United States may have been made for you and me , but America 's diamond deserts and redwood forests could net a sizable amount of cash if we ever decided to sell it , according to a new study . All the land in the lower 48 states was worth a combined $ 23trillion in 2009 , combination of tax and real estate data in a paper published by the Commerce Department as revealed . Researchers estimated that land in the country , minus all the buildings , roads and trees on top of it , achieved its peak value of $ 26.2 trillion in in 2006 before sliding down three trillion dollars in three years . A map of the US by county shows areas with land values from $ 73,000 to $ 3.35million per acre in dark blue and land less than $ 2,000 per acre in white . The entire country is worth $ 23trillion , according to new study . Prices may have rebounded since the end of the economic recession , but the study from William Larson paints the widest ever picture of how much the ground beneath our feet is actually worth . The research used land prices combined with Census data to tabulate values for all of the federal , agricultural and developed land in the country , excluding Alaska , Hawaii and bodies of water . Washington DC had the greatest land value , with a staggering $ 1,050,000 per acre . It was followed by New Jersey , where the average acre cost of $ 196,000 led a foursome of smaller Northeastern states with acre values above $ 100,000 with Rhode Island 's $ 133,730 , Connecticut 's $ 128,820 and Massachusetts $ 102,210 . Land in Washington DC had the highest price in the entire country , with land costing more than $ 1million per acre . Northeastern states including New Jersey , Connecticut and Massachusetts all have per acre values above $ 100,000 . Above , a home in Cape May , New Jersey . California was the most valuable state overall at $ 3.9trillion while Vermont was worth only $ 44billion . Wyoming , with $ 1,560 per acre , is the cheapest place in the country to buy land , followed by New Mexico at $ 1,930 and Nevada at $ 2,120 , according to the Wall Street Journal . Land in large urban areas was the most valuable , with cities of more than 1million people worth $ 64,844 per acre . Despite only being 5.8 per cent of the country 's 1.89billion acres , developed land had a slim majority of the country 's value . Besides Washington DC , New Jersey and Rhode Island had the highest percentages of developed land , both more than 30 per cent . Wyoming , which like many Western states is majority-owned by the federal government , had the lowest per acre price at $ 1,560 . Above , the High Plains Desert in Wyoming . The federal government , the largest landowner in the US and the fourth largest in the world , owns 24 per cent of the country and majorities of six states including California , Nevada and Oregon . However , the land is almost entirely undeveloped and is only worth $ 1.8trillion , which is about 10 percent of the federal debt . The government owns almost none of Connecticut , just 0.1 per cent . True to its reputation for having golden waves of grain , forty-seven per cent of the land in the US is farmland , with the highest state percentage for agriculture being Nebraska 's 92.7 per cent . Mr Larson estimated that his figures were within a 10 per cent margin of error . He said he did the study because 'Despite its fundamental role in nearly all economic activity , there is no current and complete estimate of the value of the land area of the United States ' . Alabama . Alaska . Arizona . Arkansas . California . Colorado . Connecticut . Delaware . Florida . Georgia . Hawaii . Idaho . Illinois . Indiana . Iowa . Kansas . Kentucky . Louisiana . Maine . Maryland . Massachusetts . Michigan . Minnesota . Mississippi . Missouri . Montana . Nebraska . Nevada . New Hampshire . New Jersey . New Mexico . New York . North Carolina . North Dakota . Ohio . Oklahoma . Oregon . Pennsylvania . Rhode Island . South Carolina . South Dakota . Tennessee . Texas . Utah . Vermont . Virginia . Washington . West Virginia . Wisconsin . Wyoming . $ 12,355 . N/A . $ 4,328 . $ 6,739 . $ 39,091 . $ 6,462 . $ 128,824 . $ 57,692 . $ 28,961 . $ 14,241 . N/A . $ 3,434 . $ 23,491 . $ 16,902 . $ 6,589 . $ 4,220 . $ 7,208 . $ 12,908 . $ 6,142 . $ 75,429 . $ 102,214 . $ 23,765 . $ 8,190 . $ 5,564 . $ 7,232 . $ 2,282 . $ 2,935 . $ 2,115 . $ 19,839 . $ 196,409 . $ 1,931 . $ 41,314 . $ 16,230 . $ 2,517 . $ 32,076 . $ 7,363 . $ 6,502 . $ 31,923 . $ 133,729 . $ 17,610 . $ 2,135 . $ 14,411 . $ 7,542 . $ 4,663 . $ 7,438 . $ 21,921 . $ 16,751 . $ 10,536 . $ 9,924 . $ 1,557 .
Study from Commerce Department says US was worth $ 26trillion in 2009 . DC and New Jersey worth the most per acre , with Wyoming the least . Forty-seven per cent of the US is farmland , only 5.8 per cent developed .