USDA Land Values Report Shows Rising Farmland Prices in 2022

The USDA’s annual Land Values Report shows that farmland values pushed higher this year. Tony Dorn is Chief of the Environmental, Economics, and Demographics Branch of the National Agricultural Statistics Service. He says farmland values jumped more than 12 percent since last year.

“The farmland values increase quite a bit. It’s the highest increase overall for the value of farm real estate since 2006 when land values increased 14 percent from 2005. For 2022, the average United States farm real estate value, which measures the value of all land and buildings on farms, averaged $3,800 per acre, up 12 percent from 2021. And the cropland average in 2022 was $5,050 per acre, which was an increase of 14 percent from 2021.”

Pastureland values averaged $1,650 per acre this year, an increase of 11.5 percent over last year. He talks about where the biggest changes in land values took place.

“For cropland, there were strong increases in the Plains States. For instance, Kansas cropland increased the most of any state, a 24 percent increase from last year. Nebraska cropland increased the second-most at 21 percent, and Iowa increased 20 percent. Pasture values were generally higher in the eastern states like they normally are. And in most years, New Jersey is the state with the highest pasture value at $14,400 per acre, and the average of the northeastern states is $7,140. Some of the biggest increases for pasture are also in the Plains States. Nebraska pasture increased 23 percent to $1,850 per acre.”

Some of the highest-valued farmland sits on both the east and west coasts.

“For instance, when we’re talking especially about farm real estate values, which measures farmland and buildings, that value is strongest in California, the Midwest, and the east and northeast. Rhode Island actually has the highest farm real estate value at $17,500, and California is the fifth at $12,000 per acre.”

Farmland values were higher across the board, and Dorn says that’s unusual for rural America.

“Definitely, it was a very unusual year with increases across the board, so that’s very interesting and something that’s kind of unusual and everything, but it shows that it’s one of the highest increases on record, at least since 2006. In normal years, we see variations in states and regions of increases and decreases, but we certainly didn’t see that at all this year.”