Orange City, Iowa — A tract of farmland in northwest Iowa has set a new benchmark for land values in the state.
A 35.5-acre parcel northwest of Orange City sold at auction on December 1st for $32,000 per acre, totaling approximately $1.13 million. The sale marks the highest per-acre farmland price ever recorded in Iowa.
The transaction surpassed the previous state record of $30,000 per acre, which was also set in Sioux County in 2022.
According to auction information, the winning bid came from a neighboring landowner, who plans to continue farming the ground in corn and soybeans.
The property, located just northwest of Orange City, is considered prime farmland, with a high soil quality rating and nearly all acres classified as tillable. The land had been offered for sale through an on-site auction and was marketed as a smaller, high-quality tract in one of Iowa’s most productive agricultural regions.
The sale underscores the continued strong demand for top-tier farmland in northwest Iowa, particularly in Sioux County, which has now been home to the state’s two most expensive farmland sales on a per-acre basis.
Meanwhile, the 2025 Iowa Land Values collected by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University, released last month, shows that northwest Iowa farmland brings the highest prices. O’Brien County had the highest-valued farmland at an average price of $16,269 per acre. Sioux County had the second-highest average price for an acre of land at $15,983 per acre. Lyon County ag land was a close third, with the average price there being $15,764. Fourth place is out of our area, in Scott County, along the Mississippi River. Their average price was $15,192. Then it’s back to our area for fifth place, with Plymouth County at $14,582, and sixth place was Osceola County, with an average price of $14,483 per acre.
Those values are high, but they highlight the price paid for the Orange City area land, because the price paid was almost exactly DOUBLE the average price in Sioux County, which is already one of the highest averages in the state.
Click here to see the land values map released by ISU.
(Portions of this story courtesy KIWA news partner KTIV-TV in Sioux City)
KIWA Staff Photo
