Farmland Values in the News

Top stories this week from publications regarding land values, factors affecting farmland prices, pasture rents and the land market ingeneral.

Healthy farm prices produce rising farmland prices from Omaha.com - Basically says the same thing that has been hitting the news wires over last few weeks, high demand for farmland, low supply of listings. The claim is that farmers have tons of cash sitting around and they are the buyers but they don't want to sell.

Farmland Prices Have Risen; Total Returns close to 9% from AgWeb.com - We don't know about you but we are really getting tired of the investment sector touting farmland as the hot new investing item. Investing in farmland has gone on for a long time and investors were keenly aware of it especially after the crisis in the 80s. The bubble argument is going round and round again and basically this is just yet another "same story, different day" article in the news cycle. Prices are rising and they will continue to rise with this type of hype, grain and commodity markets will eventually come back down and farmland will not be the hot news cycle. Bottom line - last sentence says it all....farmers are still the number one buyers and owners of farmland.

Farmland prices in Kansas follow increase in crop prices from Kansas.com - The headline is true enough but numbers can be adjusted to show what anyone wants them to and one unusual example can be used to prove a point. Verify, Verify, Verify is the new mantra instead of location, location, location. Do not believe every price average you hear, there are many more sales going on than just auctions. Most land sales in Kansas are up in prices compared to last year but skyrocketing up like Iowa? You decide. USDA and K-State reports show averages for farmland way below the numbers stated in this article. MLS stats and national land websites with a broad range area of properties across Kansas do not support this high of price per acre for land except maybe near very suburban areas and note that this article comes out of Wichita.