Farmland values stabilize in Midwest, sink in western Plains

For the first time since the summer of 2015, farmland values in the Midwest are holding steady, says the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank. In a quarterly survey, agricultural bankers told the regional Fed that they expect land values to remain stable through spring.

Some 69 percent of bankers expected no change in land values in their area during the second quarter of the year, said the Chicago Fed in ts AgLetter, while 29 percent expected a decline. “A few Iowa bankers expected an increase.” Iowa and Wisconsin saw modest increases in land values during the first quarter of the year, counter-balanced for the Chicago district by declines in Illinois and Indiana. Land values were steady in Michigan.

The Kansas City Fed said its survey of farm bankers indicated financial stress was worse in the western Plains than in the eastern half of its district, which includes Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Colorado, western Missouri and northern New Mexico.

“District farmland values trended lower in response to conditions in the regional farm economy,” said the Kansas City Fed. Non-irrigated cropland in the eastern half of the district fell by 3 percent in the past year, but by 24 percent in the western portion. ” As the farm economy remains under pressure, it is possible that challenges may intensify in some regions even as conditions may begin to stabilize in other areas,” it said in its Ag Credit Survey.

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