Wyoming State Representative Jacob Wasserburger: Sell State Land for Rural Homeowners

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No growth provides no future. Negative growth brings even more problems. But too much growth could bring issues, too. That is how Wyoming State Representative Jacob Wassenburger, R - Cheyenne, sees it.

Wasserburger thinks the legislation that he sponsored, the Wyoming Homestead Opportunity Program (WYHOP), can bring the steady, sustainable growth that could help rural parts of his state. It might also spark conversations – one way or the other – in other states looking to find ways to find affordable housing and spur development near farms and ranches.

“I campaigned on stopping private equity and hedge funds from buying up single-family homes,” Wasserburger told American Farmland Owner.

Wyoming Homestead Opportunity Program

His legislation, while it shares his original intent, is not the plan that he first presented to legislative staff. “I originally went to the Legislative Service Office… and told them that I wanted to do a bill that would put a limit and restrict, you know, selling our single-family homes to private equity firms,” Wasserburger said.

That approach quickly ran into constitutional roadblocks, staff advised him.

“One of the issues with that that I ran into,” Wasserburger said, “…was, if I own a house and I want to sell it to, let’s say, BlackRock or Vanguard or any of these other private equities, who’s got the right to tell me that I can’t do that? That’s the constitutional issue that you run into.”

Jacob Wasserburger bio:

• State Representative – Fremont County, Wyoming

• Serving first term in the legislature

• Introduced Bitcoin Strategic Reserve Bill

Rather than regulating private transactions, Wasserburger pivoted toward what he sees as a more durable solution: expanding supply through state-owned land. The result is what he refers to as a modern-day Homestead Act.

Buy State Land for $1 Per Acre

Wyoming residents would be eligible to purchase 10-acre parcels of state land for $1 per acre with the requirement that they build a residential home on the property. The goal, Wasserburger said, is to give residents a chance to compete in a housing market that increasingly feels stacked against them.

“This is an issue,” he said. “Young families and… people on Social Security, or… just any generation, for that matter, they just can’t compete with the rising costs of living.”

Wyoming’s geography makes the idea possible, he feels. The state owns vast tracts of land, much of it undeveloped. Wasserburger said that reality sparked the idea.

“It came to my thought that, you know, we had a lot of land here in Wyoming that’s open,” he said. “And I thought that that’d be a great possibility to use that availability.”

Homestead Program Only for Wyoming Residents

Under the proposal, parcels would be awarded through a drawing administered by the State Lands Investment Board. Eligibility would be limited to Wyoming residents who have lived in the state for at least a year, a provision Wasserburger says is essential to preserving the state’s character.

“The Homestead Act would be intentionally for Wyoming residents,” he said. “The parcels would only be exclusive to Wyoming residents.”

That residency requirement raises an obvious question: why not use the program to attract new residents from other states? Wasserburger acknowledges the appeal but says the balance between growth and preservation is delicate.

“It would be a great way to bring in new residents,” he said. “One of the concerns a lot of people have, though, is… what do we do for the folks that have devoted their entire lives to the state of Wyoming?”

Wasserburger pointed to boom-and-bust examples in neighboring states as cautionary tales.

Steady Growth Sought for Wyoming

“One of the things I saw… in both of those incidents is the mass migration,” he said, referencing Colorado and North Dakota. “From what I witnessed, there was a lot of crime that happened during those times when the mass migration first happened.”

Instead, he believes Wyoming can pursue growth at a measured pace.

“It’s also important that we can have it done in a measured fashion,” he said, “so we can keep Wyoming ‘Wyoming’ and not see it turn into a bigger type of boom.”

As for scale, early expectations have already been tempered by conversations with state officials. Wasserburger initially believed as much as 100,000 acres could be available. The State Lands Investment Board offered a more conservative estimate.

“They said that from what they can see right now… maybe there’d be about 16,000 acres,” he said.

Even at that level, the proposal could translate into hundreds of new homesteads and a meaningful expansion of housing supply without displacing farmland or existing communities.

The plan has its early critics, including a colleague who called his idea “terrible,” in this Laramie Boomerang story.