It has been some time since we did a check-in on sales activity on the North Dakota side of the southern Red River Valley, and there are some interesting trends to discuss! As we detailed earlier this year, sales started out pretty strong in Cass County yet were more moderate in Richland County. Through 9 full months now, that trend has continued in Cass while Richland has now picked up steam to outpace last year’s numbers at this time. Let’s talk a few details…

In Cass County, we count 31 arms-length deals with an average price of over $4,150/acre county-wide. That compares to a year ago at this time where we had counted 23 deals at an average price of $4,190/acre. It appears the majority of these sales are some of the less productive ground however, which generally is going to be sold at a discount to the best of the best soils. Sales for the higher productivity land have averaged over $4,800/acre YTD for example, with highs in the mid-$5k’s/tillable acre.

Richland County started quite slow but has had a much busier summer and fall, with 19 arms-length deals being recorded by our count from January through September. The average price has been around $3,600/acre which is in line with where it was at this point last year. Here again, we are seeing some of the less productive land trading which will limit the upside on pricing.

These numbers seem to indicate strong, consistent demand with largely neutral prices compared to last year. Keep in mind we saw rising prices last year so it’s great to see things not decrease given the tough time the Ag markets and operators are having this year (this blog post analyzed 2017 in Cass County for example). I expect to see a similar volume of ag land selling this fall as we saw last year…perhaps even a bit more depending on how yields and prices shake out the next couple of months.

If you want more details or to talk about buying or selling farm land in our area, feel free to contact us anytime!

Until next time,

Andy

Author Andy Westby

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