Positive growth in farm real estate values in Washington
Washington Ag Today August 9, 2010 As of January 1st of 2010 farm real estate values in Washington were up 1.5 percent from a year earlier. That was one-tenth of a percent more than the national average reported by the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. It may be modest growth but USDA chief economist Joe Glauber says; Glauber: “Remember this is following a year that we actually saw some declines for the first time in a long while. That is if we looked at the values on January 1st of 2009 relative to 2008, I think we have dropped on average about 2.8% and that of course was following a number of years where we saw almost 10% growth annually.” Looking at some specific land categories, irrigated cropland in Washington as of the first of the year averaged 45-hundred dollars an acre, up 7.1 percent. Non-irrigated cropland in the state averaged 1150 an acre. The average cash rent in Washington for irrigated cropland was 245 dollars an acre. Washington pasture land as of January 1st averaged 820 dollars an acre, unchanged from the previous year. Cropland values in neighboring Oregon and Idaho showed declines again this past year. ? Northwest Farm Credit Services has reported 2010 second quarter earnings of 34.1 million dollars. That compares to 18.5 million for the second quarter of 2009. I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on Northwest Ag Info Net.
