(IARN) — COVID-19, otherwise known as the novel coronavirus, kindled erratic movement in grains, livestock, and stock markets. One area, which remains stable during uncertain times, is land.
“Land values continue to hold firm,” shares Troy Louwagie, accredited land consultant with Hertz Real Estate Services.
“The land market has been strong over the last year, year and a half. (In) a time where commodity prices have dropped fast, land prices have held relatively firm. We released a Land Value Survey last week, showing land values in Iowa (have been) pretty stable (in) the last six months,” Louwagie said.
“We’ve seen very few farms for sale. It’s a supply and demand thing. As far as land coming to the market, we have not seen those numbers increase. We are in a time period now, (which) traditionally is a little slower for land ocming out of market,” Louwagie said.
Hertz Real Estate Services will monitor coronavirus’ impact on land values in the coming days, weeks and months. Louwagie says it’s hard to determine potential impact at this time.
“We’ve seen the stock market drop considerably, (and) interest rates are at historic lows. If we come out of this in the next two weeks, month, or two months, I think we’ll be fine. If this is something that drags on through the summer, it’s hard to tell what impact it could have on land values,” Louwagie said.
Story courtesy of the Iowa Agribusiness Radio Network.
