From agweb.com:
Using a combination of data with boots on the ground experience, Peoples Company has released its fourth annual land values report.
The report shows a three-year period of remarkable land appreciation across the country – something Bruce Sherrick, professor and director of the TIAA Center for Farmland Research at the University of Illinois, says has not been surprising.
“We kind of have a rolling narrative around this and quite often people will remark it’s shocking that farmland almost anticipated inflation or that it’s shocking how well that’s done through time. And I don’t think I’m surprised by that,” he says. “I’m surprised by the accuracy or the degree or the strength of that relationship if anything.”
Annual rates of return have been in the double digits for many regions. In the Northern Plains region specifically, the rate of change in the past year has been especially high.
“In the last year, what we’ve seen is really quite remarkable in the middle of the country,” Sherrick says. “That area has kind of caught up to previous years in the Midwest and Lake states.”
As far as what’s affecting land values in the rest of the country, Peoples Company breaks the data into eight regions.