Northwest, Iowa — Northwest Iowa saw the largest increase of any region in the state in the most recent Iowa REALTORS® Land Institute farm value survey, which was conducted earlier this month.
Participants in the survery are specialists in farmland, and are asked for their opinions about the current status of the Iowa farmland market. Participants were asked to estimate the average value of farmland as of March 1, 2017. These estimates are for bare, unimproved land with a sale price on a cash basis. Pasture and timberland values were also requested as supplemental information.
The survey shows a statewide increase of 0.9% for tillable cropland values between September, 2016 to March, 2017. The September survey showed a 3.7% decrease from March of last year. When figuring the increase this March along with the September decrease, the statewide average saw a decrease of 2.8% for the March, 2016 to March , 2017 period.
There are nine crop reporting districts in Iowa, and there was a mixed bag of increases and decreases across those regions. Here in northwest Iowa we saw the largest increase in value, with the survey showing values up 3.2% over the September valuation. At the other end of the spectrum, southwest Iowa saw a 3.0% decrease in value since the September survey.
The survey lists factors contributing to current farmland values to include: Good yields in 2016, lower commodity prices, limited amount of land on the market, and high world supplies of grain. Other factors include: lack of stable alternative investments, cash on hand, stronger dollar, threats to trade policy (political uncertainty) and increasing interest rates.
The Iowa REALTORS® Land Institute farmland value survey has been conducted in March and September since 1978. This survey plus the RLI Farm and Ranch Multiple Listing Service are activities of REALTORS® specializing in agricultural land brokerage on a daily basis.
