Farmland value in U.S. hits another record high

U.S. farmland values are higher than ever, thanks to "record or near record commodity prices, increased government and private investment, low interest rates and tax incentives offsetting declining commercial and residential development," reports John Perkins of Brownfield Network, citing a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The average acre of farmland was worth $2,350 on Jan. 1, up $190 or 8.8 percent from a year earlier, USDA said. The biggest increase, 15.5 percent, came in the northern Great Plains (Kansas, Nebraska and the Dakotas). "Cropland averaged a record $2,970 per acre, 10 percent above last year's then record," Brownfield reports. "The region with the biggest increase was the Northern Plains at 18.8 percent." The region also posted the biggest increase in the value of pasture land, 19.7 percent, to $1,230 from $1,160.

In the Southeast (Alabama, Florida, Georgia and South Carolina), hit hard by drought, pasture values were down. In the Appalachian states (Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia), average farmland value rose 5.2 percent, to $4,020 an acre.

The most expensive agricultural land was in the Corn Belt (Iowa, Missouri, Illinois, Indiana and Ohio), where cropland averaged $4,260 an acre, up 14.8 percent; and pasture land averaged $2,220, up 10.4 percent. In the region, real estate in general averaged $3,910 per acre, an increase of 13.3 percent. Brownfield has data for Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska, South Dakota and Wisconsin. For its report, click here. For the full USDA report, which covers all states and also includes cash rents, which rose 13 percent for cropland and 8.3 percent for pasture, click here.