News

Chicago Fed reports strong farmland values

The Chicago Fed says farmland values increased 10 percent in the first quarter, but the rate of increase is softening.

Policy advisor David Oppedahl tells Brownfield higher incomes, outside investors, and a desire to expand has kept the market strong for several years.

“This is the smallest increase in eight quarters now, so even at 10 percent, a double-digit increase, it’s kind of funny to think of that as smaller than the more recent ones, but it just gives you a sense of how strong the farmland market has been,” he shares.

Indiana and Illinois had the largest increases in value.

“It seems like partly Iowa was off to the races a little earlier, so maybe now they’re starting to see the slowdown come a little more quickly and sooner than the other “I” states,” he says.

Oppedahl says cash rental rates have also increased for the third year in a row, following seven years of declines.

Oppedahl says the Kansas City Fed’s farmland value report also shows strong farmland values, reflecting similar agricultural conditions across the Midwest.