As previously discussed, farmland prices continued to rise in 2022 after significant increases in 2021. During the past few months, top prices that were paid for good cropland have reached:
*$20,000 to $25,000 range per acre in Illinois and Iowa,
*$16,000 to $17,000 per acre in Indiana and Ohio,
*$12,000 to $15,000 per acre in North and South Dakota, and
*$13,000 to $14,000 per acre in Nebraska and Missouri.
A lot of land sells for less than these prices, but the high ones catch everyone’s attention.
Auctions led the market activity in late 2021 and early 2022 with more sales and higher prices. The amount of land sold by Farmers National and others by auction during the fall and spring sales season was up dramatically over the same time frame the previous year. The number of sales slowed during the first four months of 2022 to average or slightly below the pace of recent years.
The best way to sell good cropland in the current land market is to employ some type of competitive bidding process in order to see what the market is willing to pay at any given time. Farmers National has had great success using simulcast and online bidding to get the best price for its clients.
Over the summer months everyone will be closely watching the factors that affect land prices and the demand from farmers and investors to buy the land that comes up for sale. These factors include world events, grain production, commodity prices, farm incomes, input prices, rising interest rates, ROI expectations, and possible black swan events. It promises to be a hot summer.
