Land Values

If you use Boise as an example, towns like Meridian and Eagle used to be filled with fields whether it was sugar beets, corn, potatoes, hay, whatever. Well those days are gone as developers of come in with housing communities or malls and urban growth. It turns out that buyers of agricultural land are wondering if now is a good time to make a purchase, while at the same point in the market, sellers are asking if they should sell. Individual landowners and investors are both scratching their heads as to the current land market and where it might go.

Randy Dickhut with Farmers National Company has a perspective if you are on the fence, no pun intended. "It's a very interesting perspective on the land market right now. In our areas land values remain stronger than we might have thought with the underlying commodity prices being lower and farm and ranch incomes being lower. It is somewhat surprising that it remained historically good. At the same time, you have those economic clouds out there that are reality and the income that cropland specifically produces has declined from its highs of a few years ago. With rising interest rates, is it going to affect land values too as those keep moving up and bond yields keep moving up. At the same time can commodity prices strengthen some and stabilize. So it kinda plays both sides of the market."