(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa REALTORS Land Institute September farmland survey released today (Thursday) finds a small drop in value. The Institute’s Elliott Siefert the results at their meeting. “For the three farmland values, low, medium, and high quality land, across all regions, average down point-two percent. So essentially flat for farmland over the last six months,” Siefert says. He says the small change comes in the lower quality ground.

“Your, your really high quality ground is still bringing good money with medium and low quality, you know, most of them are still bringing about the same, but there might be a little bit of variability depending on your location,” he says. He says northwest Iowa was the region with the biggest drop.”Northwest Iowa being down two-point-nine percent and south-central being up one-point-three percent. Small changes there,” Siefert says. “This is the second survey in a row that we’ve had pretty flat numbers here. It was it was rising, as we all know there for the two years prior to that, but we’re getting more to that, that flat market right now. “

Siefert says when you expand to look at the 12-month view, there’s not much difference in values either. “From September 2022 through March and then March through the end of September in 2023, you see again not any very large changes,” he says, “just in Northwest down three-point-three percent to up four-point-four percent in south-central. So again, pretty flat as you look across the state here.” The Institute’s Matt Vegter says there optimism despite some of the economic issues landowners are facing.

“I think most folks, the general comments we saw in the survey, it’s a flat market, still a very aggressive market, net farm incomes, we planted a very expensive crop in 2023. And put prices were up. But I think the general theme I’ve heard as the the early crop yield reports, things are a little better out there in most areas than than what we thought.” He says the biggest headwind they’re facing is interest rates, which have risen and taken away a little bit of the buying power for land buyers.