By Frank Giles
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Statistics Service has released its 2022 Land Values Summary. The annual report shows agricultural property increased year-over-year following other trends in inflation.
The United States farm real estate value, a measurement of the value of all land and buildings on farms, averaged $3,800 per acre for 2022, up $420 per acre (12.4%) from 2021. The U.S. cropland value averaged $5,050 per acre, an increase of $630 per acre (14.3%) from the previous year. The U.S. pasture value averaged $1,650 per acre, an increase of $170 per acre (11.5%) from 2021.
Here’s a few snapshots of Florida farmland values from the USDA report:
- Farm Real Estate Average Value Per Acre: $6,600 up by 9.6% from 2021
- Cropland Average Value Per Acre: $7,960 up by 9% from 2021
- Irrigated Cropland Average Value Per Acre: $9,100 up by 9% from 2021
- Non-Irrigated Cropland Average Value Per Acre: $6,900 up by 9.2% from 2021
The Lay of the Land Conference held in Lakeland, Florida, in April also emphasized a hot market for land sales. The conference is hosted by SVN | Saunders Ralston Dantzler Real Estate. The Lay of the Land Report is released every year during the conference reflecting verified land sales from the previous year.
Dean Saunders, founder and managing director of SVN | Saunders Ralston Dantzler, said that every sector of real estate was hot in 2021 and was unlike anything he has witnessed before.
“We had a 37% increase in the number of real estate transactions year-over-year from 2020 to 2021,” Saunders said. “That was around 900,000 transactions in 2021, and this data leaves three Florida counties out (which have not reported yet). The value increase was 268% higher year-over-year. We did almost $1 trillion worth of real estate transactions last year. That is astonishing. It was a fourfold increase of what happened in 2020.”
Last year, citrus groves continued to make up a significant portion of agricultural real estate sales. There were 71 citrus land sales reported in 2021. The sales price for the transactions totaled $118,360,343. Average prices for citrus land were $7,266 per gross acre and $9,688 per net-tree acre. That was 33% higher than what citrus land fetched in 2020.