What is my land worth? How landowners should read the numbers

Your land is worth what a ready buyer would pay for your parcel today, and the best evidence for that is recent sales of similar land near you. The statewide numbers you see in the news measure different things, so they disagree, sometimes by thousands of dollars an acre. They're useful for direction and a rough range, not for the price of your 80 acres.

Why do the published land values disagree?

Here are the major published numbers for Wisconsin and Iowa, side by side. They're all correct. They just measure different land, different ways.

Wisconsin

Iowa

In Wisconsin, the spread between USDA's farm real estate average and the recorded price of bare farmland is $2,357 an acre (Kedron calculation). In Iowa, Iowa State's survey sits $1,449 above USDA's farm real estate figure (Kedron calculation). Neither source is wrong. They're answering different questions.

What each land value number measures

• USDA's Land Values Summary asks farm operators what their land and buildings are worth. The farm real estate figure covers "all land and buildings used for agricultural production, including dwellings," so it blends cropland, pasture, woods and farmsteads into one average. It's useful for comparing states and years. It isn't a sale price. USDA says it sampled roughly 30,000 farm operations, April through June, for the 2026 release.
• University and broker surveys (Iowa State, RLI) ask professionals who work with land to estimate values for high-, medium- and low-quality ground in their area. They're close to the market and they report quality tiers, which helps. They're still opinions, not sales.
• Recorded sale reports (Wisconsin's NASS and DATCP land sales, UW-Madison Extension, Minnesota's Land Economics data from county auditors) count real sales. They're the closest to what buyers paid. The catch is that each one filters differently, by parcel size, by use, or by leaving out family sales, and some counties have only a few sales a year.
• Lender surveys (the Chicago and Minneapolis Federal Reserve banks) ask ag lenders how values changed. They report percent changes for "good" farmland, not dollars per acre. Use them for direction, not for a price.

Why a statewide average doesn't fit your parcel

A statewide average is a blend of every kind of ground in the state. Your land is one kind, in one place.

Location moves the number a long way. Iowa State's 2025 survey put O'Brien County at $16,269 an acre and Appanoose County at $6,679. The same state, a 2.4-to-1 gap (Kedron calculation).

Wooded and hunting land is its own market. Wisconsin's 2025 recorded forest land sales averaged $3,952 an acre statewide, and among counties with at least 20 sales the averages ranged from $1,566 in Douglas County (25 sales) to $8,230 in Buffalo County (21 sales). That's more than five times as much per acre for wooded land in the Driftless as in the Northwoods (Kedron calculation). A farmland average says almost nothing about a wooded 40. For county detail, see Wisconsin wooded and hunting land prices by county.

Most properties are a mix. A farm with 90 tillable acres, 25 acres of woods and a building site has three kinds of land in it, and each one sells at a different rate. One per-acre figure for the whole farm hides that.

Small samples swing. Pierce County, Wisconsin, recorded three sales of bare farmland in 2025, covering 183 acres. One unusual sale changes that county's average a lot.

How an agent prices a specific parcel

A land agent's price should come from sales, not averages. Here's what a good pricing process looks like, so you know what to ask for.

1. Find comparable sales. Recent sales of land like yours, as close as possible in location, size and use. Hunting ground gets compared with hunting ground, tillable with tillable.
2. Split the property into its parts. Tillable acres, pasture, timber, building site, water. Each part gets its own reasoning.
3. Use the soil rating for cropland. In Iowa that's CSR2, Iowa State's 5-to-100 rating of soil productivity. Iowa State's 2025 survey tied average CSR2 scores of 83, 70 and 55 to high-, medium- and low-quality land. See CSR2 and price per acre in Iowa.
4. Adjust for what sets your land apart. Legal and practical access, road frontage, how the parcel lays, timber quality, buildings and wells, and neighbors.
5. Account for programs and leases. A CRP contract, Wisconsin Managed Forest Law enrollment, a Minnesota SFIA covenant or a farm lease carries rules and deadlines a buyer takes on. They can add value or narrow the buyer pool, and they have to be disclosed and priced.
6. Show you the work. You should see the comparable sales, the adjustments and a range, not just a number.

Your tax assessment is not a sale price

Your property tax statement lists a value, and it's natural to start there. But an assessment is set for tax purposes, under tax rules. In Wisconsin, for example, farmland is assessed at its "use value," and the Department of Revenue compares that use value against fair market value when it calculates the charge for converting farmland to other uses (Wisconsin DOR). Use your assessment to confirm acres and parcel numbers, not to set a price.

Questions to ask anyone who gives you a number

Whether it's a neighbor, a lender, an auctioneer, an agent or a letter in the mail offering cash, ask the same things:

• Which sales is this based on, and when did they close?
• How close are those properties to mine in location, size and land type?
• Does this number cover my whole property, or only the tillable acres?
• How did you account for my timber, buildings, access and any CRP, MFL or SFIA enrollment?
• Is this what I'd likely net after costs, or a gross price?

If you've received a cash offer, got a letter offering cash for your land? walks through how to check it. If you're weighing an auction against a listing, see land auction or listing.

What to do next

Write down your acres by type (tillable, pasture, woods, building site), note any program enrollments and leases with their end dates, and ask for recent comparable sales from the county you're in and the ones next to it. With that in hand, any number you're given can be checked in an afternoon. The figures on this page are as of September 30, 2026, and we update them as USDA, Iowa State, RLI and NASS Wisconsin publish new editions. More land value reports, each with its source and date, are on the market data page.