Sales of rural properties in North Texas are surging, much like the phenomenon of residential home sales in cities and towns. “Booming countryside sales that marked the third and fourth quarters of last year were just a prelude to what’s happened so far in 2021,” according to the Texas Real Estate Research Center. “In the aftermath of the COVID-induced economic lockdown, 2021 Texas rural land markets have exploded in a burst of activity,” said Dr. Charles Gilliland, research economist and rural land expert for Texas A&M University. Ann Bishop, broker and partner in the Bishop Realtor Group in Wichita Falls, is seeing the same thing.