On one of those "House Hunters" shows a few weeks ago, one of the house options presented was one that came with a one-acre lawn. So they added into their upfront costs the need for a lawn tractor at $5,000. Makes perfect sense to buy a house with a huge lawn you don't want, so you'll also need a $5,000 tractor to maintain it. Didn't finish watching, don't know what they settled on...
Full Disclosure: I got an electric leaf blower as a present a few years ago and I actually love it. Sure, it doesn't use your own muscle power, but it is 10x faster than a rake and makes a big difference when you have a gigantic number of leaves to move (as in, we usually have enough to fill about 60 large lawn bags each Fall). But yeah, I would not use one for a modest amount of leaves.