Prices of farmland still on the rise
By Mark Steil, Minnesota Public Radio
Worthington, Minn. -- The price of Midwest farmland continues to surge higher at a near record pace, according to the Federal Reserve Bank.
Prices for Midwest farmland have increased thousands of dollars an acre over the last year, and are still going up.
David Oppedahl with the Federal Reserve Bank in Chicago says Nebraska had the sharpest rise in land prices, nearly 40 percent, followed by Iowa at about 30 percent.
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Oppedahl says the main reason for the increases are the profitable corn and soybean prices farmers receive.
"They have extra cash and high incomes in recent years, so they can easily get loans to cover paying higher prices for this land," said Oppedahl. "There's some pretty major momentum behind the rising farmland values at this point."
Minnesota was not included in the reports, but the Federal Reserve Bank in Minneapolis is expected to post its latest farmland price information in the next week or so. It's also expected to show a sharp rise.
Last year, a University of Minnesota database indicated farmland in Nobles county was worth about $4,000 an acre. The winning bid at a recent land auction in southwest Minnesota was more than $12,000 an acre.
