Twentieth Century Trends in Farmland Values
Farmland values have exhibited unprecedented increases in recent years. Nationwide, the compound annual rate of increase in farmland prices has been on the order of 16.5 percent during the past five years. The value of an asset appreciating at this rate doubles every four and a half years. If this rate of increase were to persist until the end of the century, land currently valued at $1,000 per acre would be worth $33,535 per acre in the year 2000. If the rate were to drop to onehalf the level experienced during the past five years, the value of that same land would rise to "only" $6,192 per acre by the year 2000.
