(Des Moines Register) -- Iowa farmland owners and investors should be mindful of Wall Street's current trouble, but they should also watch corn and soybean prices more closely, a farmland broker said this week. Troy Louwagie of Mount Vernon, a land consultant with Hertz Real Estate Services, said the Iowa Farm and Land Realtors survey showed that farmland values rose by 6.6% since the last survey in March and by 17.6% since the same survey a year ago. Land prices have risen because of record commodity prices, Louwagie said, and a continuation of those prices will determine how long the increase continues. The survey released Tuesday showed a slight cooling from an annual average farmland value increase of 20% or more during the last five years because less land is being bought this year for suburban commercial and housing development and recreation. As a result, Iowa is returning to its traditional pattern where farmers dominated land purchases.
