Experts believe Iowa farmland may increase in value over the next few months.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago reported from January to April of this year, values dropped seven percent. In southeast Iowa land value dropped only five percent.
Although land value may be dropping, the Farm National Company in Des Moines said medium quality farm land is steady in certain parts of the state.
Many people are perusing for the perfect piece of land and there is a lot of land to choose from.
Livestock land is not expected to do as well as green farmland.
Bob Wells at the Iowa State University Farm said the market is steady because of low interest rates. Most loans have a 5-6 percent interest rate.
“One of the biggest fears we have is rapidly increasing interest rates, which would be detrimental to farmland values,” Wells said.
70 percent of the purchases made over the year was made by actual farmers and 24 percent were made by investors.
“A lot of our investor purchasers have left the market,” Wells said. “The biggest pool of people we have out there for land are the farmers.”
At the end of 2008 the Iowa State University Extension reported that farmland was valued at $4,500 an acre. It is expected by the end of the year values will be between $5,000-6000.
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