Rural Issue

Farmland values down but demand for high quality remains

An average six-percent decline in farmland values in the fourth quarter of 2016, compared to the 2015 fourth quarter, is reported in the Federal Reserve Kansas City District.  But Federal Reserve economist Cortney Cowley tells Brownfield the demand for high quality farmland, when it becomes available, remains strong, “There’s even some places where they’re seeing really high quality land still go for higher prices than they even did last year,” Cowley says. “Mid-range land is down moderately and then some low quality land is down fairly significantly. So that all averages out to kind of a moderate decline in farmland values, on average.”

The district includes Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, Colorado, Wyoming, the western part of Missouri and the northern part of New Mexico.