DES MOINES (AP) — Iowa farmland values have increased this year, reversing several years of declines, but industry experts say the change likely isn’t a signal that the agricultural economy is improving.
Steve Bruere is president of Peoples Co., a farm management and brokerage firm. He tells The Des Moines Register that a lack of farms on the market has driven up the value.
The Realtors Land Institute’s Iowa chapter says farmland values climbed nearly 3 percent to almost $6,700 an acre for the year ending in September.
Farm prices dropped in 2011 after a drought increased corn and soybean prices.
Iowa agricultural income has dropped nearly 70 percent since 2013, bringing in $2.6 billion last year.
Bruere says if a downturn in the farm economy continues, farm sales may increase and values would be reduced.