(Ames) Iowa State University’s 2023 land value survey showed land prices starting to level off. Dr. Chad Hart, Professor of Economics at Iowa State University, tells KSOM/KS95 News the land values have substantially grown over the past two years.
Dr Hart said 2021 land values rose nearly 30 percent, and there was a 17 percent increase in land values in 2022. He says in 2023, land values rose three percent.
Hart expects land values to pull back in 2024, given the higher interest rates the Feds gave over the past year and the pullback in commodity prices this past year.
Hart says the positive is we continue to see a good chunk of Iowa farmland that is debt-free, while at the same time, as you look at farm debt across the nation, it continues to rise.
Dr. Hart says what has been changing for farmers is reducing their short-term debt and reducing the demand for operating loans. Still, they have been increasing their debt in more extended terms related to real estate mortgages.
Dr. Hart says he looks at 2024 as more of a return to normal in the farm economy but with more of a soft landing, which means not a lot of economic stress.
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