Greetings and happy New Year!

There was one land auction in Iowa last week. The farm in Howard County included 150 acres, including 146 tillable, and with a CSR- 67.9 / CSR2-82. The tract was a “no sale” – at 7,900/acre – during the auction. The sale was successfully negotiated after the auction for an undisclosed amount.

There is no doubt the inventory of farms for sale is very small. The land auction activity is beginning to pick up, but still there is very limited amount of farmland for sale. As I have been saying in previous blogs, there is a very small inventory of farms for sale. Obviously, with one farm sale last week, this proves my point.

There is a huge amount of pent up demand still for farmland. Even with considerably lower grain prices and net farm income. Why? In the long-term, farmland will regularly outperform other asset classes. According to the Illinois Farm Index, from 1972-2012, Illinois farmland had returned 10.6 percent annually, with roughly 6.6 percent coming from appreciation.

Between 2003 and 2014, farmland has yielded annual returns of 16.4 percent. Given the unmatched stability of return, farmland is a good investment! Even in a down market. So, with that said, pent-up demand plus limited supply of land for sale equals a stable to strong land market. Even with considerably lower grain prices and net farm income

Reading this blog is a good start to doing as much as you can to educate yourself about the future. Peoples Company has the resources to make you successful. That includes an opportunity to register for the 2016 Land Investment Expo on January 29, at the Sheratoin West Des Moines Hotel.

Keynote speakers for the 2016 Expo will include James “The Ragin’ Cajun” Carville and Mary Matalin, Mark Dotzour, Dennis Gartman, Rob Saik, Ben Zaitz and Dr. Bruce J. Sherrick. Click on any or all of their names to learn more. Those interested attending can learn more and register here: LandInvestmentExpo.com

Please check out our December auction results, and make sure and hit the “like” button on Facebook.