The average price paid for an acre of Jackson County farmland in 2017 increased over the year prior, even as average sale prices in most neighboring counties and across the region continued to slide.
The average price paid for an acre of Jackson County farmland in the first half of last year was $7,399 — 8.4 percent more than the average paid in the same time period in 2016. The sales price spike in Jackson County brings to an end a consecutive-year slide in average local sale prices dating back to 2015.
The increase in average sales price for Jackson County farmland is an outlier among neighboring counties in southwestern Minnesota. From 2016 to 2017, four of the five neighboring counties experienced decreases, ranging from a slight 2.4 percent slide in Watonwan County to a nearly 20-percent drop in Nobles County. Average sale prices among neighboring counties fell by more than 8.5 percent from 2016 to 2017; average sale prices across the 14-county region of southwestern Minnesota fell by around 6 percent in the same timeframe.