for those of you in rural areas What do you expect the value to
Do in the next say 20 years. Will it be somewhat stagnant like the last 20 or
Go up like from the eighties to the 90-2000's

I think that farm land within 30 minutes drive of a major city will continue to rapidly escalate in price. I think that farm land that is further out will show slow growth, linked to soybean and grain prices. Wooded land, especially if not tillable if cleared, will probably remain more stagnant in price, except in areas where resorts are developed, or if it is within an hour drive of a major city.

Keith

Rural farm land in WI certainly was not stagnant in the last 20 years. The largest and fastest increases in rural ( farm land) came from about 2005 to 2014. Average farm land prices in that time in Wi more than doubled. There has been a leveling off or a slight drop the last 3-5 years. The negative thing about buying farm land currently is that it may fall quite a bit over the next couple years if we don't get our trade issues resolved, but prices will come back and continue to rise, but from an investment point of view buying tillable farm land for 4-8,000 an acre requires a lot of cash or leverage. also one needs a good rate of return from rent or crops to cover the costs.
The one advantage of buying ag land in WI is dairy farmers need land to raise crops and spread manure. The average farm needs about 2-2.5 acres per cow to handle the feed needs and manure application.
With the dairy economy in the toilet for the last 3 years they are more inclined to rent than buy. If you buy an 80 with say 70 tillable for say 400K and you borrow all the money your annual payments will be about 30k per year.
If a dairy farmer pays you $250 per acre for the tillable you will only need about 14 k from other sources to pay the rest of the mortgage and the taxes which are extremely low on ag land.
There may be other investments that will yield as good of a return without the steep entrance fee. Currently land is an investment for those with lots of available cash that don't like securities, gold or silver.
Bryce

Land prices have shot up here in the last 20 years. In my area in particular they have tripled, or more, on some tracts.

Oil and gas money and/or recreational buyers seem to be the driving force.

As of late, however, they seem to have leveled off.

You get out in western KS or eastern CO land prices are still based on potential ag revenues from cattle or crops relating to livestock feed. In populated areas like northeast KS prices keep going up. People buy ground at big numbers not for lumber sales but hunting. Ground is then leased to a cowboy for grazing. Often its because someone just wants to live outside the city. Some real mansions around here out in the middle of nowhere. Its value to produce calves or grow livestock feed is never considered.

Any one care to throw some numbers out there? Virginia land in my neck of the woods is $10,000 + per acre. 20 miles from town. It's been expensive like this for 10-15 years.

there is stuff going that high on the outskirts of the Kansas City Lawrence area. Some even higher on small properties. There are lots in the city bringing 100,000 plus. get out in far west ks 700-1200 an acre. A livable home can be bought out there under 50,000 in those small towns.

That listing is pretty cool, Danny. Any house with an acre of land under $100,000 is sold within a week or two here.

Since no more is being made I would not think it is going down much....

We purchased a piece 7 months ago. We were recently contacted and offered 3X what we paid for it.

When the wife and I came back to the farm after college in 1998. We bought a nice house in town. It was pretty small 900 square feet, but it came with almost an entire city block. We payed $7,800 for it as a recall. Nice place!! Sold it in 2002 for $14,000.

In Wisconsin unless some one is kind enough to build a mega Dairy , Hog farm or , chicken operation on your lot line. it would be hard to loose money on build able land in WI.

after all there is only so much Wisconsin and every FIB wants to own a piece of it.

land here in the u p of mi. goes for 700 to 1500 per acer, higher if on water

Amish got rich off mineral rights and land in southern PA and are all relocating to my area driving land prices sky high.money is no option to them and the have realators under contract looking for places for them.

I have bought and sold land through out my life time. I can say I never lost one dime on land. I never buy anything if it has structures on it. I have sold land for 15K an acre and bought junk land for very little and worth a lot today from what is was at one time.

So, in a nut shell land IMO continues to have value which goes up, BUT you my have to own it for a while and find the right person to make that profit. I have had experts say land is a bad investment and advise not to buy, but I have found out differently.

I should have stated hunting/rec land, not farm land

Most of the land in my neck of the woods is recreational/ hunting land.

i bought 45 acres with a new septic ,has a well and electric. no buildings, 75%wooded ,a bit wet in some areas, great WT-hunting property.
was gonna build but got a house and 28 acres right down the road for 130K.
this was 12 years ago, paid 1850. for vacant land. other land now around the area 3800 pa. and up for same property. rich Pittsburgh-Cleveland folk with cash buying it up.

Hunting land in this area (far north central WI) has done nothing for 10 years. Paper Companies sold a lot of acreage creating a glut and now the CWD has made people very cautious about buying land. Most of the available acreage has sat on the market for several years. I don't see it as a good investment and I own 100+ acres of it. Lake property is an entirely different story.