The 2020 Iowa Land Value Survey shows Henry County had the highest percentage decrease in land values in the state.
According to Iowa State University Extension and Outreach, Henry County saw a 3.4% decrease in land values from 2019 to 2020. Still, ISU Farm Management Specialist Charles Brown says Henry County farmers and landowners shouldn’t be overly concerned with the dip in land prices, “As I go back and look at it, it was a pretty good decrease for Henry County for 2020, but when you look at 2019 (prices), that was up considerable to what 2018 was and 2020 was still a little above 2018 was from a land price standpoint.”
Brown says land values can be affected by ag loan interest rates, the general farm economy, by the size of yields, and the price paid for those commodities.
Henry County’s average price per acre of land dropped from just over $6,900 in 2019 to just under $6,700 in 2020. Washington County also saw a decrease from almost $8,600 per acre in 2019 to just under $8,400 per acre in 2020. 78 of Iowa’s 99 counties showed an increase in land values.