The U.S. average farm real estate value, a measurement that includes the value of all land and buildings on farms, clocked in at a record $3,800 per acre. This 12% increase over last year represents a percentage change not seen since 2006, when values increased 14% over the previous year. Looking at the dollar value of the change, the $420 per acre increase over 2020 is a level not seen since the USDA first began the survey in 1997. These levels vary significantly throughout the country, with the highest real estate values concentrated in areas of the country with larger volumes of high-value crops (think wine grapes and tree nuts in California), as well as areas experiencing upward pressure due to proximity to urban areas with little remaining developable land, like the small states of the Northeast. Much of the Midwest had higher real estate values, followed by the South and Pacific Northwest, and finally the Plains and Mountain states.
