As we approach another harvest season in Iowa, we can look back on a very stable 2026 land market thus far. The two most recent quarterly land value reports from the Chicago Federal Reserve Bank were 2% stronger and 1% weaker, respectively. Net pricing changes this minor define a flat, sideways trading market.
Will this pricing stability continue this fall? And will there be more land sale volume offered to the market compared with recent years?
To many market observers, including our team at Hertz Farm Management, these are chicken-and-egg questions. Which one leads, pricing or volume? They are closely related, for sure, but they are not fully locked together.
Sometimes, other factors and influences, including tax consequences, impact sale decisions for farmland assets. However, during my career, I have experienced that higher land prices tend to lead to higher sale volume from landowners who have recently inherited property. In these cases, tax consequences are more muted by virtue of a stepped-up tax basis.
My instinct says a stable land market like we’ve enjoyed up to and through the summer — buoyed for some time now by $4.50-per-bushel corn and a pile of government payments — can and will absorb a bit of an uptick in volume this fall. As I review recent sales, most of them fall within a loose range from $145 to $190 per Corn Suitability Rating index (CSR2) point on tillable acres.
There also have been a few “eyebrow-raisers,” including strong sales above that range that don’t make tons of sense in these tight margin times. But I believe it is important to recognize that these surprisingly strong sales are not the trend, and they are often driven by one-off local neighborhood dynamics.
Here are recent land sales across Iowa:
Clay County. South of Dickens, ± 83 acres recently sold at public auction for $15,800 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 82 tillable acres with a CSR2 of 95.0, and equaled $168 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.
Wright County. Southwest of Kanawha, ± 80 acres recently sold at public auction for $16,500 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 78 tillable acres with a CSR2 of 74.6, and equaled $227 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.
Buchanan County. Southwest of Independence, ± 103 acres recently sold for $11,650 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 100 tillable acres with a CSR2 of 74.6, and equaled $161 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.
Calhoun County. Southwest of Lohrville, ± 80 acres recently sold at public auction for $14,200 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 79 tillable acres with a CSR2 of 86.9, and equaled $165 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.
Jasper County. Southwest of Kilduff, ± 66 acres recently sold at public auction for $18,000 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 64 cropland acres with a CSR2 of 89.4, and equaled $208 per CSR2 point on the cropland acres.
Linn County. East of Coggon, ± 80 acres recently sold for $15,200 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 78 tillable acres with a CSR2 of 83.4, and equaled $187 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.
Fremont County. Southwest of Randolph, ± 144 acres recently sold at public auction for $7,300 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 120 tillable acres with an average CSR2 of 83.4, and equaled $105 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres. Note: This farm was cut into multiple fields by timber, ditches and terraces, which made access and farming efficiency a challenge.
Wayne County. South of Confidence, ± 81 acres recently sold for $4,650 per acre. The farm consisted of ± 70 tillable acres with an average CSR2 of 36.9, and equaled $146 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.
Des Moines County. South of Danville, ± 34 acres recently sold via public auction for $12,475 per acre. The farm has ± 33 tillable acres with a CSR2 of 86.8, and equaled $148 per CSR2 point on the tillable acres.