Iowa’s Farmland Prices Report October 1, 2021

Oct 3, 2021

Jason J Smith

Jason J Smith

Auctioneer & Land Broker

Jason is an experienced farmland broker and auctioneer with extensive experience in farmland sales across this Midwest.  Jason has worked with hundreds of clients to create advantageous outcomes.  If you are selling land schedule a consultation with Jason by calling or using the calendar.

Phone: 515-537-6633

Every cover on my blog posts has a story or a meaning.  I chose this weeks photo from the period of my childhood.  I grew up in Pocahontas County near Fonda, Iowa.  With a local IH dealer we had lots of red tractors around and almost all still picked corn and later shelled it.  I always love looking at those photos from the 70’s! What an interesting week in farmland sales in Iowa!  Many Auctioneers won’t forget this week, luckily we are not affected but thousands of auctioneers lost their online bidding software due to an ransomeware attack on their provider.  We are fortunate to own our own software.  It was another week of strong prices for farmland auction results.  

The Day the Auctions Died

While this may be outside the scope of our typical Iowa Farmland Report I think it’s important enough that sellers should know and see this issue to understand that there are differences and potential consequences of having their auction conducted on 3rd party software by an Auctioneers.  One of the very things Iowa is famous for is the death of Buddy Holly and the resulting hit song, “The Day the Music Died”.  Today reminded me of that song. Only it was the day, the AUCTIONS died.  First most important point, the DreamDirt auctions were NOT included but thousands of other auctioneers were hit with a Ransomeware attack that stopped all auctions and nobody has any idea when they will be back.  We felt pretty fortunate to having been in a forward thinking position years ago to have built our own auction software so we do not have to rely on these 3rd party providers.  I can not imagine the disruption these auctioneers, many of them friend are experiencing.  Many times I have written about DreamDirt’s significant investment in building our own auction software that is custom built for farm and land auctions and owned by DreamDirt only.  I have many times lamented about the dangers of using 3rd party generic software.  One specific software and the most popular is easily HiBid by AuctionFlex, a product of Sandhills Publishing.  Thousands of auctioneers use this software to run their auction company, store sensitive data for clients, and hold auctions.

We are an auction company, but we are always up to help other auctioneers too. DreamDirt also offers an affiliate program to other auctioneers as well as Auctioneer Partner programs.  DreamDirt Affiliated auctioneers do not work for us, they keep their own company name and branding but maintain a landing page on our website and receive a copy of our software for their own use.  This type of program is different becasue it gives them access to our audience making our solution a very robust targeted solution for farm and land type auctions.  Our BidCapture software also gives them access to every tool they need to conduct online only, simulcast and live onsite auctions.  It’s an extremely easy and fast solution to set up if you are in need.

 

Auction goers and auctioneers alike woke up Saturday October 2nd to a shocking development, the entire Sandhills Publishing Suite of websites, software and auctions including AuctionTime had disappeared from the Internet at the hands of the Ransomewear Gang Conti.  All auctions on Saturday had to be cancelled.  Even more frightening is that during ransomware attacks all client data is stolen and in the double extortion method used by Conti they often threaten and do post the data on the dark web exposing everybody’s personal information and credit cards.  This is a significant and shocking, but not surprising to us turn of events.  This is one of the exact reasons we decided to take the unprecedented step of building our own software.  Anybody using DreamDirts platform as a bidder or seller can rest assured our online bidding and auctions have continued straight though this event that has affected so many auction companies.  All of our client data is safe and secure!  Learn more about the Conti Gang and who might have acquired many bidders data from the HiBid Ransomeware Attack.

New Farmland Auction Pottawattamie County Iowa

We are honored to bring this farm to market for the family heirs to the farm in Pottawattamie County.  The farm is a total of 198.90 acres and will be sold in 2 individual tracts of 118.5 Acres and 80.4 acres.  

Tract 1

  • Acres: 118.50
  • CSR2 Rating: 72.4
  • Annual Property Taxes: $3868
  • Location: North edge of Carson, Iowa

Tract 2

  • Acres: 80.4
  • CSR2 Rating: 82.4
  • Annual Property Taxes: $2978
  • Location: North edge of Carson, Iowa

View the Auction Listing at DreamDirt.com 

 

 

heat map of Iowa Farmland sales

Iowa Land Prices at A Glance

Our Iowa Farmland Price Heatmaps have been a huge help for people that want to visiuliaze and research farmland prices in Iowa.  Here you can research your farm’s proximity or the statewide market and see individual sale results, average prices per acre, average price per CSR2 point as well as volumes of sales and the number of acres sold.  Use this market price research tool right here at DreamDirt.  Click the Iowa map to get started.

Iowa Farmland Sales News This Week

It was a heavy volume week in farmland sales in Iowa again.  This week included

  • 3442.90 Acres Sold at Auction
  • Average price of an acre of farmland $13,861
  • Average Price per CSR2 Point $158.72
  • Average quality of tract sold 87.27 CSR2

Friday morning I spoke with an attorney friend that also tracks farmland sales and we discussed the events of this week.  Of notable significance was a large farmland auction in Sac and Buena Vista County held at Storm Lake where we represented 2 bidders.  This offering of over 700 acres of above 90 CSR2 was a significant auction and a great test of the market strength.  Bidders proved there is still significant demand for farmland with a top price of $17,200 on the smallest tract of 37 acres.  $ per CSR point for this sale were however all over the board ranging from $131.8 to $186.7.  A deviation of over $55 per point in 1 auction for land over 90 CSR may seem like a mixed signal but it is my belief that this mostly had to do with tract sizes.  In this auction tracts ranged from 37 to 200 acres.

  • 37 Acres $186.70 per CSR2 Point
  • 144.56 Acres at $173.10 per CSR2 Point
  • 80 Acres at $152.10 per CSR2 Point
  • 70.55 Acres at $166.30 per CSR2 Point
  • 200 Acres at $134.70 per CSR2 Point
  • 160 Acres at $131.80 per CSR2 Point

For farms of nearly uniform quality you can see that tract size put the 3 smallest tracts in the top 4 spots in this auction.  In my experience, a seller can gain this price advantage typically in the 120 acre and under size range and this is the very reason we try to sell farms in 80-120 acre tracts to ensure sellers maximize the value of the property and more bidders get an opportunity to buy something.  Certainly nothing stops a 160 acre farm from achieving a top price but the competition of multi-parcel auctions will more often than not outdo the results of single parcel auctions.

Across the rest of the state this week prices ranged from a low of $126.30 per CSR2 point in Butler County on an 87.1 CSR farm of 157 acres to the top spot in northern Iowa in Mitchell County breaking $200 per point with a result of $207.60 per CSR2 point on 149.76 Acres of farmland.  Across the state farmland auction results averaged $158.72 per point!  A significant difference from a year ago when we averaged $123.47 per point for the same week in time during 2020.  I fully expect when the Iowa State University land value survey is released in early December we will see a significant gain in farmland valuations during 2021 and it will be a 2 digit number this year.

It’s not hard to see, it’s still a sellers market and buyers continue to compete aggressively for farmland purchases.  In the upcoming week we have a multitude of auctions hitting the auction block and I am confident the strength will continue this week. DreamDirt will be conducting 2 farmland auctions this week in Sac County near Odebolt for the Caliber Land Company and Crawford County near Denison for the Krueger Family.  We hope you have a great week and we’ll be back next week with the results of farmland auctions in Iowa.

 

 

 

County Acres $/acre CSR2 $/CSR2
Mitchell 149.76 17,750 85.5 207.6
Sioux 177.91 14,600 86.6 168.6
Clay 160 16,200 96.1 168.6
Jones 115 11,100 73.1 151.8
Buena Vista 139 11,050 85.1 129.80
Iowa 77 9,900 59.9 162.3
Winnebago 154 12,500 80.2 155.9
Mahaska 63.12 15,300 85 180
Black Hawk 180.19 11,700 90.77 128.9
Buena Vista 37.05 17,200 92 186.7
Buena Vista 80 14,400 94.7 152.1
Buena Vista 70.55 15,500 93.2 166.3
Buena Vista 160 12,300 93.3 131.8
Sac 144.56 16,700 96.5 173.1
Sac 200 12,500 92.8 134.7
Dickinson 156.18 14,600 85.2 171.4
Dickinson 155.91 14,800 85.8 172.5
Dickinson 158.37 14,800 85.1 173.9
Dickinson 159.11 14,00 87.6 159.8
Butler 157 11,000 87.1 126.3
Sioux 156.61 14,200 84.6 167.8
O'Brien 80 16,600 94.9 174.9
Franklin 140 10,900 82.7 131.8
Franklin 11,60040 11,600 87.7 132.3
Sac 155.58 15,400 91.7 168
Sac 76 13,800 92 150

Rachel Hoy assisted me in collecting data for this report.  Rachel is a licensed real estate agent and auctioneer at DreamDirt as well and either of us can help you understand the value of your farm.  You can reach me at 515-537-6633 and Rachel at 515-954-8063 or email [email protected] 

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