As home values crawl, farmland prices soar
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It's finally starting to look like the housing rebound is for real. After roller coaster drops just before and during the Great Recession, the median Twin Cities home price is back to $175,000, up nearly 15 percent from the same period last year.
We're happy for that. But, oh, if someone had whispered just one word in our ear five years ago: "Farmland."
"It's almost like agriculture didn't get the memo on the recession and slow recovery," writes Ron Wirtz with the Minneapolis Fed.
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Thanks mostly to steadily strong crop prices, farm property saw exceptional growth during the recession through 2010. The last two years have been flatter--but still growing--in stark contrast with virtually all other real property
A couple of charts produced by the Fed tell the tale (click on the charts for a larger view).
Farmland makes up 24 percent of the total value of all real property in Minnesota now, up from 16 percent in 2007, the Fed's analysis shows.
-- Paul Tosto
