Increased interest rates, low commodity prices lead to the drop, but the farmland market remains strong overall.

Low commodity prices coupled with increased interest rates have led to the first significant decrease in farmland values since 2018.

A semiannual survey of Iowa land trends and values released March 20 by the Realtors Land Institute (RLI) Iowa Chapter shows ag land values decreased 3.1% over the past six months on a statewide average of high, medium and low quality land across the nine crop-reporting districts.

That follows a 0.2% decrease reported in...