Iowa farmland values decline in 2009

Originally appeared on "heartlandconnection.com"

BY Matt Buhrman
January 03, 2010

The price tags on Iowa farm property dropped slightly for the first time in 10 years.According to the survey from the Iowa State University Extension, farmland values decreased in 2009 by an average of 2.2 percent overall, dropping from over $4,400 an acre to $4,371 an acre.

Across the state, Northwest Iowa reported the highest average value at over $5,300 an acre. And South Central Iowa, which covers Monroe and Appanoose counties held the lowest average value in the state at just over $2,500 an acre.

Bob Wells is a Field Specialist in Farm Management at Iowa State University Extension. He said the slight decline "wasn't totally unexpected."

"If you look at the general, overall economy a lot of people pulled back on investments at that particular time. And one class of farmland buyers, the investors, haven't been as prevalent in the market over the last year as they were previous years," Wells said.

Wells told Fact Finder that an indicator in farmland values is good commodity prices in grains, corn and soybeans without high input price increases. He said this is one of the factors that should stabilize land prices through 2010.