Farmland values for the Central Corn Belt were flat in the second quarter of 2026 from a year earlier, reports the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. This is the slowest year-over-year growth since the fourth quarter of 2024, the bank notes.
Values for “good” agricultural land also showed no change in the second quarter of 2026 relative to the first quarter, according to survey responses from agricultural lenders in Illinois, Indiana and Iowa. Illinois and Iowa farmland values saw year-over-year increases, while Indiana and Wisconsin farmland values mote year-over-year decreases.
In real terms (after being adjusted for inflation with the Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index, or PCEPI), there was a year-over-year decrease of 3.7% in district ag land values. “This is the largest year-over-year decline in real farmland values for the district since the third quarter of 2016,” the bank states. “Several lenders state investment activity for data centers and solar and wind farms helped hold up agricultural land values.”
Only 5% of the respondents believe farmland values will rise in the third quarter of 2026, while 81% anticipate them to be stable and 14% expect them to fall. A large share of survey respondents (43%) say farmland is overvalued; 57% viewed farmland as appropriately valued (not a single respondent reported it as undervalued).
Agricultural credit conditions were weaker in the second quarter of 2026 compared with a year ago. The share of farm loans with “major” or “severe” repayment problems in the district’s agricultural bank loan portfolio (as measured in the second quarter of every year) was 3.7% in 2026, up from last year’s level of 2.9% and the highest reading since 2020. Furthermore, the share of farm loans with “no” repayment problems declined to 88.5% from 90.1% a year earlier. In addition, repayment rates for non-real-estate farm loans were lower in the second quarter of 2026 compared with a year ago. Renewals and extensions of such loans were higher.
