SOLD! 115 Acres of Missouri Farmland Just Sold For $34,800 Per Acre, Smashing the Previous Record
Move over Iowa, there’s a new record farmland sale on the books. A piece of Missouri farmland underwent rapid-fire bidding, which racked the final price tag up to $34,800 per acre. The recent sale now beats out the previous record of $30,000 per acre in Iowa.
According to the bill of sale from Dyer and Fenner Auctioneers, the record sale happened last Thursday in Saline County, Mo. Two farmers got in a bidding war, and in just 15 minutes the 115 acres sold for $34,800 an acre, setting the new record.
The buyer wasn’t an investor. The winning bid came from a farmer by the name of Jeff Baxter from neighboring Carroll County, Mo. According to area farmers, the competing bidder was a farmer who’s home farm touches the land that was for sale.
Jim Rothermich of Iowa Appraisal says the bidding started at $15,000 an acre for the piece of ground that had been in the same family for four generations.
“It happened in 15 minutes, and that’s a fast auction,” says Rothermich. “That was rapid-fire bidding. There couldn't have been any hesitation at bidding. It was a fast auction with a more than $4-million deal resulting. There were two bidders, each on a mission that somebody was going to buy that farm, and it all happened very fast.”
Rothermich says the land market has definitely seen a slowdown, but this just proves if it’s high-quality ground—and the buyer has cash—anything is possible.
“What surprises me is the last time we've seen a record price was November 10, 2022. It was $30,000 an acre in Sioux County, Iowa, and it was 73 acres,” says Rothermich. “I thought that record would last for a couple of years, or at least until we got back to $7 corn or $8 corn. Well, that record didn't even last a year. And not only did we go past it, we blew past that previous record.”
Records were meant to be broken..... SOLD SOLD SOLD!!!!! $4.0+ million or $34,800/acre X 115 acres; starting bid $15k; 2 local farmer bidders; price negotiated in minutes; NO DEVELOPMENT POTENTIAL; bought to farm; bidders were not related to sellers. Near Malta Bend, MO in WC MO pic.twitter.com/YqCnAj4eU4 — Jim Rothermich, MAI, ARA, ALC (@theLandTalker) September 22, 2023
Rothermich says high interest rates haven’t showed up in the land market yet, but he thinks they eventually will, and when they do, he thinks they will impact land prices.
“The biggest takeaway is the demand for high-quality farmland is unprecedented, and people are willing to pay above market price to get a farm bought," he says. "And the way people need to look at that is their hold period could probably be 50 to 100 years. And those heirs to that property, in 50 years, are going to wonder why they didn't buy more ground at that price. It's a long-term deal."
The new record sale has both positives and negatives. Rothermich points out that people who own farmland near the piece of Saline County ground are experiencing their equity positions on the rise. But the downside is if they're looking to buy more ground, farmland prices could be higher because sellers will look at the recent sale and want a premium price for their ground.
