Iowa cropland values rose a modest 0.6% the past six months, according to the semi-annual survey conducted by the Iowa Realtors Land Institute. That gain coupled with the previous survey’s rise puts the state value up about 1.9% on an annual basis.
“The point of our survey isn’t to establish a price but to find the trend,” comments Matt Vegter, Hertz Real Estate Services, Nevada, Iowa, who conducts the survey along with colleague Jameson Anders. “When we look at values being steady to higher in seven out of the nine crop reporting districts, it suggests a sideways market that is trying to trend up.”
Six of the crop reporting districts show a positive increase, one district is flat, and two districts (North Central and Northwest) are down slightly. East Central Iowa saw the greatest strength, up 2.5%. North Central saw the greatest decrease, down 1.3%.
He says the market has found optimism with the rise in commodity prices the past 60 days. “That optimism has come from rising crop prices, but it is being tempered by rising input prices for fuel and fertilizer and higher interest rates,” he states.
Despite the small six-month decline posted by the Northwest district, it still lists a gain on an annual basis. The north central district,however, shows declines in both six-month periods. Its combined annual decrease is 1.8%. The East Central district reports the strongest annual percentage increase at 4.5% followed by the North East district at 4.4%.
Pasture values rose 1.9% the past six months, following the March survey when they were up 2.6%. The cattle market continues to support strong demand for pastureland from cattle producers in Iowa, Vegter notes.
The strongest gain in pasture land values is in the East Central district with its 5.2%. It is followed by the Northeast district’s 4.5% increase. The Southwest district is the only district to post a negative, down 0.3%. The South Central was unchanged. The other five districts register gains of 0.3% to 2.5%.
Timber and recreational land values rose 2.1%, reflecting continued interest in recreational ground despite rising interest rates. “We usually see pressure on timber values when interest rates rise,” he comments, “but that has not happened yet. It will be interesting to see if this uptrend continues the next six months in the face of higher interest rates.”
The East Central district again led gains in timber values with a 6% six-month increase. The Northeast district follows with a 4.6% rise. The North Central and South Central districts each post a slight decline of -0.2%. The remaining five districts list increases of 0.1% to 2.6%.
They note the history of the RLI survey shows a 44.3% rise in the value of tillable cropland from Sept. 1, 2020 to March 1, 2023. That was followed by a 10.5% decline from Sept. 1, 2023 to Sept. 1, 2025. Now the state has marked an annual gain once again.
Buyers are still very active,” says Anders. “They are just a little more selective in the farms they are willing to pursue. If it’s not a perfect farm, they are discounting the blemishes a farm has, maybe even a little more than they would have a few years ago. But if it’s a good farm – they are paying healthy values to compete and get the farm bought.”
Looking ahead, Vegter notes the rise in optimism from higher crop prices, “but the income from these higher prices is still in the fields. It hasn’t been harvested. Looking at the books there is a good volume of sales coming to the market the next six months. It will be interesting to see if the optimism can handle the coming increase in sales volumes.”