Central Corn Belt farmland values rose 3% from a year earlier, according to the quarterly survey of agricultural bankers conducted by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. While higher than a year ago, the value of “good” farmland dipped 1% in the first quarter of 2026 from the fourth quarter of 2025.
Demand to purchase farmland was lower in the three- to six-month period ending March 2026 than in the same period last year. Some 22% of survey respondents report lower demand versus 11% who report higher demand to buy farmland. Also, the amount of farmland for sale was down during the winter and early spring of 2026 compared with a year earlier. Likewise, the number of farms and the amount of acreage sold were down in the winter and early spring of 2026 relative to a year ago.
In the first quarter of 2026, 56% of survey respondents consider farmland overvalued, while just 1% consider it undervalued. Even so, more than 80% of responding bankers expect farmland values to remain unchanged in the second quarter of 2026; 9% forecast land values to decline while 8% forecast them to rise.
Annual cash rents for district farmland saw a decrease of 3% in 2026 — their second consecutive decrease after increases from 2021 through 2024. For 2026, average annual cash rents for farmland were up 2% in Indiana, but down 1% in Illinois, down 4% in Iowa, and down 1% in Wisconsin. (There were not enough survey responses from Michigan to report a numerical change for that state).
Credit conditions
District agricultural credit conditions weakened during the first quarter of 2026. Repayment rates for non-real-estate farm loans were lower in the first quarter compared with a year ago — renewals and extensions of these loans were higher. In the first quarter of 2026, demand for non-real-estate farm loans relative to a year ago was up for the tenth consecutive quarter, while the availability of funds for agricultural lending relative to a year earlier was down for the 12th consecutive quarter.
The breakdown:
- 50% of the responding bankers noted higher loan demand compared with a year ago and 9% noted lower demand.
- 10% of the responding bankers report their institutions had more funds available to lend in the first quarter of 2026 than a year earlier, while 20% report their institutions had less.
- 38% of respondents observed lower rates of repayment for the first quarter of 2026 relative to the first quarter of 2025, while 1% observed higher rates.
- 38% of survey respondents report higher levels of loan renewals and extensions during the first quarter compared with a year earlier. Just 2% report lower levels of them. Furthermore, respondents report, on average, 17% of their farm borrowers had more carryover debt (loans not paid off at the end of the growing season and subsequently carried over into the next one) in 2026 than in 2025.