Everyone is talking about ranches right now. Here are 3 reasons why.

• America has a love affair with cowboy culture, from "Yellowstone" to Beyoncé's latest album.

• The pandemic supercharged interest in ranches, but buyers are still drawn to them, brokers told BI.

• Here are three reasons people are fascinated by rugged, romantic ranch life.

It feels like everyone wants to be a cowboy.

Western wear — scuffed boots, wide-brimmed cowboy hats, and rugged denim — influences fashion from New York to California, with Vogue and GQ dubbing it trendy. Beyoncé's chart-topping 2024 album "Cowboy Carter" debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 and surpassed 1 billion streams on Spotify. Paramount's "Yellowstone," a five-season modern Western starring Kevin Costner, ended in a dramatic finale in December that drew 11.4 million viewers.

As "cowboy-core" becomes more mainstream, it's also putting a spotlight on the ranch real-estate market, said William Elfland, the managing director of Montana-based Hall and Hall, a brokerage specializing in farms and ranches.

"De-urbanization, mostly due to COVID, and popular TV shows like 'Yellowstone' raised awareness of the culture," Elfland told Business Insider. "These factors led more people to want to relocate to these areas, which has had a big impact on the marketplace."

"We saw huge growth in 2021, followed by a feeding frenzy into 2022. By 2023 and 2024, the market has normalized," said Elfland, who has brokered sales of ranches for 25 years.

Wyoming-based ranch brokerage Live Water Properties said it transacted deals with 31 buyers and 28 sellers in 2024. That's down from 2021, when it worked with 65 buyers and 62 sellers, but still a robust sales volume.

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) found that there were about 1.9 million ranches and farms in the US with an average size of 463 acres as of 2022, the most recent data available. Primarily used for raising livestock and outdoor recreation, ranches are typically located in the western United States and are prevalent in states like Montana, Wyoming, and Texas.

Owning ranches presents some challenges, including contending with extreme weather events, such as fires and droughts, that are intensified by the climate crisis. These events make it difficult to grow crops and keep livestock healthy.

Still, ranches are a buzzy topic in the real-estate industry. Here are three reasons everyone's talking about them.

1. Hollywood and popular culture put ranches center stage.

Ranch broker John Merritt of Live Water Properties said he is "consistently" contacted by production companies looking for ranches to feature on television shows.

"Everyone knows about the 'Yellowstone' phenomenon," said Merritt, who has 15 years of experience in the ranch market. "People are drawn to the idea of Western and rural culture. It's taking over the public airwaves, from reality shows to beyond."

Beyond "Yellowstone" and Beyoncé's "Cowboy Carter" album, artists like Shaboozey and Lil Nas X have dominated Billboard's Hot 100 chart, and reality shows like Peacock's 'The McBee Dynasty' offer a window into ranch life.

Some people are so captivated by the lifestyle they want to live it themselves.

In 2024, a mansion on 8.5 acres in Cashiers, North Carolina, inspired by the Dutton family's ranch in "Yellowstone," sold for $7.5 million.

2. Ranches appeal to a wide range of buyers.

Ranches offer something for everyone.

Some buyers seek to live off the land, enjoy more living space, or just relax — desires that became more widespread during the COVID-19 pandemic as lockdowns led some people to seek larger homes with ample outdoor space and lower-stress, self-sufficient lifestyles.

Smaller ranches can be priced like houses. Atwell Ranch — a 210-acre property in Cisco, Texas, about two hours southwest of Fort Worth — is listed for $803,000. In contrast, larger properties can command sales prices in the millions and up. This 10,648-acre ranch in Sudan, Texas — about an hour northwest of Lubbock — is on the market for $30 million.

Ranch ownership can also be financially rewarding. USDA data shows that in 2023, households running commercial farms had a median income of $167,550 from farming, with a total median household income of $253,496.

Mike Ledger, who cofounded Confluence Land Company, a Denver-based real-estate brokerage specializing in ranch and farm sales in Colorado, told the Denver Post that demand for ranches from those who might not even need them as a main source of income was high in 2024.

"Some call them 'recreational,' some call them 'legacy ranches,'" he said. "Many of these buyers may not even choose to recreate at all. They may just want to hold the land as an investment."

Last year, billionaire Joe Ricketts bought Granite Ranch in Jackson, Wyoming — last asking around $9 million — with plans to convert it into a luxury resort.

Cattle rancher Taylor Sheridan, the cocreator of "Yellowstone," has turned his properties into versatile investments. He hosts reining events, music festivals, and charity functions at his Bosque Ranch near Fort Worth. He also makes money when networks film on his properties, with The Wall Street Journal reporting he sought to charge Paramount $50,000 a week to film there.

3. Boomer owners are putting legacy ranches up for sale.

Some ranches are legacy properties passed down through generations. However, as younger family members move away to other places or pursue different careers, they are often sold to non-family buyers.

Between 2017 and 2022, the USDA found that the number of farmers age 35 to 64 dropped by 9% and the number of farmers 65 and older grew by 12%. The contrast highlights the aging population of farmers and ranchers and how younger generations may be moving away from agricultural professions.

"The generational shift is happening," Merritt said. "Plenty of properties are in long-steeped family traditions and have been in the family for five or more generations. Often, what happens is that the great-grandkids aren't as interested in ranching, so it just runs its course."

Take Lost Creek Ranch in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which became the sole property of the Halpin family in 1989 (though they'd been involved in managing it since the 1960s). However, after the deaths of the family patriarch and matriarch, the 50-acre dude ranch was listed for $39.5 million and sold to the Gottwald family in 2024.

Also in 2024, another historic property, the 16,532-acre Antlers Ranch in Meeteetse, Wyoming, which had been owned by the May family since 1895, was listed for sale at $85 million.

Elfland said situations like this are common as baby boomers age and either have no family to inherit their land or to maintain it.

"That's a real dilemma for rural America," Elfland said. "Some farmers or ranchers with large holdings want to keep the land in the family, but it's often not economically viable for the next generation to maintain it. These properties are increasingly being sold to buyers who aren't multi-generational, hands-on farmers."

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