The Midwest land market has seen thousands of acres cross the auction block this fall, providing insight into where we are. Although the land market is in a state of flux, there still are plenty of bright spots. In short, prices remain resilient with some highlights.

Here’s a snapshot of our recent auction sales:

There are other stand-out auctions that have occurred, and you can go to SteffesAuctioneers.com right now to browse past land auction results in your area.

Why are prices still strong?

With $4 corn, $9 beans and $5 wheat, you might wonder how land values remain so resilient. Here’s a closer look at some key factors:

Net farm income exceeds expectations. Despite lower commodity prices, net farm income for 2024 is projected to reach $140 billion, far surpassing earlier forecasts of $118 billion. Many farmers managed to turn a profit, and some of those growing specialty crops such as sugar beets, potatoes, field peas and non-GMO varieties experienced exceptional years.

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Better than years past. From 2019 to 2024, net farm income averaged about $130 billion annually, a marked improvement over the $85 billion average from 2013 to 2018. And it’s a far cry from $62 billion in 2016.

Granted, everything on the farm — from land to machinery — is arguably twice as expensive now, thanks to some of the money printing that went on during the last five years. For example, at a macroeconomic level, M2 (all the cash and cash equivalents out there) grew from $12 trillion in 2016 to $21 trillion today. Yikes!

Put simply, it’s not as bad as you might expect when looking at commodity prices. And that leads us to today’s land prices.

Moving ahead

According to the American Bankers Association’s recent survey of ag bankers throughout the Midwest, bankers think only 51% of borrowers will be profitable in 2025. That’s not a great outlook. That said, the equity built into farmland and the cash reserves that farmers have accumulated in recent years help a lot.

Although the incoming administration’s tariffs could add short-term challenges, I believe demand for farmland will remain strong through the spring. In fact, we still could see prices at or near-record highs next year. Things would need to get much worse for land values to flinch significantly. Farmland’s resilience as an investment is why it continues to be such a reliable and highly sought-after asset.

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