average farmland price per acre
Acre of farmland that a decade ago sold for an average of $2,275 now goes for $8,700. Some banks have responded by becoming more conservative in their loans as farmland values ascend. USDA has predicted more typical weather conditions in 2013 would generate a record corn and soybean harvest.
The crash was especially severe in Iowa, where the value of the state's farmland plunged from $2,147 an acre in 1981 to a low of $787 five years later, a drop of 63 percent. A third of the state's farms went out of business.