assuming raw land is a good hedge against inflation and all real estate is local where are the best places in the work to make this kind of investment.
I don't believe that is a valid assumption. Inflation anyone? In the near past the best place to buy has been in the path of city and town growth.
real estate is not liquid and requires a lot of cash whic h majority of people don't have to invest in.
The reason I personally choose raw land over anything else is that it is a hard, tangible asset, not a piece of paper. If you own a hundred acres, you can hunt it, use it for agriculture (crops/cattle/orchard), lease it for agriculture, lease minerals, live on it, have a nice weekend place etc etc. If the shit hit's the fan, you can just flat out move there and support life for you/family with the land. Owning gold does not give you any of the benefits that land does, other than a store of wealth in a hard asset. Gold is nothing more than a hard currency, and if the shit hit the fan, I would not take gold from someone to give them food in return. The food would be more valuable to me. But land is a store of wealth like no other, no matter what happens in the paper wealth world we live in, the dirt will always be there. Just one piece I randomly found, very affordable and with minerals! http://www.trrn.com/detail.asp?PropID=49387
Raw land that is very inaccessible or distant from population centers also may have a difficult resale value or always low value. "Location, location, location." If you need money during a Depression, and are trying to sell a distant piece of land in Maine for its bear hunting value, you may be disappointed with its hard value.
If things get so bad that land ownership is stripped from you, then you wouldn't need to worry about inflation anyway.
Eminent domain... And never mind that... if shit gets REALLY bad... executive order 10998 -- Allows the government to take over all food resources and farms. executive order 11004 -- Allows the Housing and Finance Authority to relocate communities, build new housing with public funds, designate areas to be abandoned, and establish new locations for populations.