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Land prices / insane!!!

You’re right but you can over do the what ifs. Paralysis by analysis. Land is still one of the most consistent investments out there. Of course you can’t see everything. No such thing as a sure thing. Look at Dallas County. The 4th fastest growing county in the nation. Those who have owned there for decades can’t believe the money they’re making. Those who didn’t buy there because of a what if are looking for a lake to jump into. I’m late to the game, but not out of the game there, I bought in Dallas Co in December. It sucked but I see it increasing substantially.
 
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Windlooker said:
I think larger tracts, 600ac plus, were established years ago when timber was considered garbage land. Many hunters want to own as much as possible but money limitations today with the crazy prices break up the tracts.
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We'll take that 600 acres that use to throw off several nice bucks a year and split it 10 ways...10x the hunters=less quality bucks over time. Those 40s and 80s should be less valuable just by the quality of the hunt and your larger farms will become fewer and far between bringing the value up just by the supply.
 
Windlooker said:
I’m late to the game, but not out of the game there, I bought in Dallas Co in December. It sucked but I see it increasing substantially.
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Not jumping on you Windlooker but your opinion is somewhat clouded. You just bought ground so you would like to take the same ride as what took place the last 5 or 10 years. I'm not seeing it. I do have one thing in common with you, I'm signing a purchase agreement next week tripling my present acreage. I accept those risks and they are real risks.
 
I bought my primary residence and ground with it in Dallas Co. My straight rec ground is in SC Iowa. A little different ride than straight rec ground. I think I’ll be ok but who knows.
 
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Thinkin Rut said:
I'm thinking the real risks are the ones we choose not to see or look at. People today are so orgasmic over land, they don't take into account all the what ifs.
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Great point - in just about any market it's good to be cautious when others are so euphoric. When you start hearing things like "won't/can't lose money" then it's a good sign that things might be a bit overheated.
 
Thinkin Rut said:
We'll take that 600 acres that use to throw off several nice bucks a year and split it 10 ways...10x the hunters=less quality bucks over time. Those 40s and 80s should be less valuable just by the quality of the hunt and your larger farms will become fewer and far between bringing the value up just by the supply.
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The 40's (and the 80's) are more valuable per acre because they're simply affordable to a larger pool of buyers. I don't disagree with you that all the breaking up of large acreages eventually means the quality of hunting goes down, but for a lot of guys there's a big difference between hunting on hundreds of acres of public land vs. 40 acres of *your own dirt*. For a lot of guys, just being able to hunt their own ground trumps the need to have an opportunity at a 160" buck every year. Especially if you've got kids and are nervous about just *safety* at a minimum in the public woods during gun season. It's just the way of things, especially in an area where all the youtube hunting video wannabe stars are hyping up public land. Don't get me wrong, I love that we have public land available to hunt. I have hunted public land all over the U.S., and a lot in southern Iowa, but it still doesn't compare - for me - to even a small acreage *that is my own*.
 
I got a post card in the mail from a local "realtor" company. They were saying now is the time for me to sell. They bragged that they auctioned off two parcels as an example. One was 49.91 acres south of Tiffin, Iowa in Johnson County. The other was 232.84 acres south of Lisbon in Linn County. They listed one sold for $6,550.00/acre, the other for $9,900.00/acre. I'm guessing the smaller parcel went higher due to development potential. $6,500/acre seems low for ag ground. I'm not looking to buy or sell right now.
 
JNRBRONC said:
I got a post card in the mail from a local "realtor" company. They were saying now is the time for me to sell. They bragged that they auctioned off two parcels as an example. One was 49.91 acres south of Tiffin, Iowa in Johnson County. The other was 232.84 acres south of Lisbon in Linn County. They listed one sold for $6,550.00/acre, the other for $9,900.00/acre. I'm guessing the smaller parcel went higher due to development potential. $6,500/acre seems low for ag ground. I'm not looking to buy or sell right now.
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Pretty low quality ag ground at 38 csr2 for one of the parcels and a little better 47 csr2 for the other one (the 2 parcels that made up the 232.84 acres). And they were being farmed organic so probably not the "cleanest" looking and didn't show as well. I don't know the market in that area of Iowa, but based on the soil quality, my guess is they probably sold for about what was appropriate.
 
Is $400/acre cash rent a common standard? I struggle to see that penciling out this year. Agreement was signed Feb 2024. 50-acre, school district owned property east of Ankeny
 

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jflournoy said:
The 40's (and the 80's) are more valuable per acre because they're simply affordable to a larger pool of buyers. I don't disagree with you that all the breaking up of large acreages eventually means the quality of hunting goes down, but for a lot of guys there's a big difference between hunting on hundreds of acres of public land vs. 40 acres of *your own dirt*. For a lot of guys, just being able to hunt their own ground trumps the need to have an opportunity at a 160" buck every year. Especially if you've got kids and are nervous about just *safety* at a minimum in the public woods during gun season. It's just the way of things, especially in an area where all the youtube hunting video wannabe stars are hyping up public land. Don't get me wrong, I love that we have public land available to hunt. I have hunted public land all over the U.S., and a lot in southern Iowa, but it still doesn't compare - for me - to even a small acreage *that is my own*.
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I get this at the present time. I was more curious...if the larger REC tracts continue to get cut up to satisfy certain buyers and to bring more money per acre to the owner of the "doner" larger piece, if that would create a situation where larger more rare pieces would then become more valuable simply because of supply. Smaller pool of buyers buying larger tracts but an even smaller pool of larger tracts to buy. I'm talking 10-20 years down the road.
 
The guy who bought the 1306 in van buren is trying to flip already and I can buy the main 700 acres for 11k per acre . Guess our farm across the road is worth 10k/acre then . Any takers ?
 
Thinkin Rut said:
I get this at the present time. I was more curious...if the larger REC tracts continue to get cut up to satisfy certain buyers and to bring more money per acre to the owner of the "doner" larger piece, if that would create a situation where larger more rare pieces would then become more valuable simply because of supply. Smaller pool of buyers buying larger tracts but an even smaller pool of larger tracts to buy. I'm talking 10-20 years down the road.
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I've had that thought too. In theory it makes sense to me but it would be the exception to the rule at this point in time, and just an educated guess for the future.
 
I know 4 pieces that have sold/are selling here in the 6 month window- and every single one of them cut the woods/acreages out and sold only the farm ground on them. They had easements put in so they could access the woods, but dumped all the farm ground with them. The one across the road they are expecting 13-17,000 for it. A few miles up the road just brought 13,500 an acre. Another one over in East Central Iowa just brought 9500 acre, and one in Allamakee I was trying to buy that borders my fence went for 8800. I offered him 6000 but he talked to a realtor that would get him "so much more"... Its more yes, and I dont blame him. Crazy to see, but people are doing what they can and people keep buying all they can.
 
Had a land auction today in north central Iowa with 3 tillable tracts and a 15 acre timber (more like scrub brush) tract that butted against my farm. The first 2 tillable tracts were not great and went for 7,100 and 6,750 and I thought maybe I'll get the timber for a decent price... NOPE, I let it go at $5,350. That's a crazy price for 15 acres with a road on 3 sides and no timber value. That's a lot more per acre than I paid for my farm last summer that has 30 tillable acres. I'm stumped...

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A farm in Western MN sold by auction the other day for $4500/acre. It had quite a few wetlands on it, but good soils .

I was thinking $5500-6000 an acre, but low corn prices are having any impact .
 
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