Farmland Investing Statistics (2026)

US farmland set records again in 2025. Cropland averaged $5,830 per acre, up 4.7%, and pastureland averaged $1,920, up 4.9%. Blending all types, farm real estate (land plus buildings) averaged $4,350 per acre, a 4.3% gain (see the table below).

The strength was broad: USDA reported that no state recorded a decrease in average cropland value in 2025. Even so, the pace has cooled from the double-digit surges of 2021 and 2022, settling into mid-single-digit growth as higher interest rates weigh on land buyers.

Farmland has been a remarkably steady climber. US cropland went from $4,420 per acre in 2021 to $5,050 in 2022 (a 14.3% jump), then $5,460 in 2023, $5,570 in 2024, and $5,830 in 2025 (see the chart and table below).

Zooming out further, farm real estate has roughly quadrupled since 2000, when it averaged about $1,090 per acre. That long climb, even adjusted for inflation, is a core part of the case for farmland as a store of real value rather than a quick trade.

Farmland is one of the largest asset classes most investors never touch. The US had about 873,950,000 acres in farms across 1,865,000 farms in 2025, with the average farm running 469 acres (see the table below).

USDA values total farm-sector assets, the bulk of which is real estate, at $4.42 trillion in 2025, up 4.7%, against $3.83 trillion of equity and a low 13.4% debt-to-asset ratio. The land base is slowly consolidating: farm numbers fell by 15,000 and total acreage by 2.5 million from 2024.

Farmland pays its owners through rent, not just price gains. US cropland cash rent averaged $161 per acre in 2025, roughly flat (+0.6%), with irrigated cropland at $244 and non-irrigated at $147; pastureland rented for about $15.50 (see the snapshot table above).

Rents vary enormously by geography and water. California cropland rents topped the country near $346 per acre, followed by Arizona (~$334) and Hawaii (~$295). For an investor, that rent is the income leg of total return, historically running just under 4% a year on institutional farmland.

The standard yardstick is the NCREIF Farmland Index, which tracks institutional-quality US farms. Since 1992 it has returned about 10% a year (10.15% by one tally, 10.7% since 1991 by another), combining cash-rent income with land appreciation.

As of late 2024 the index covered 1,023 properties worth $16.1 billion, split into annual cropland (row crops like corn and soybeans, about 61%) and permanent cropland (orchards and vineyards, about 39%). It is a private-market benchmark, so returns are appraisal-based and smoother than public markets.

Farmland's long win streak broke recently. The NCREIF index posted -1.03% in 2024, its first negative annual return ever, as land appreciation swung to -3.46% and only the 2.49% income leg kept the loss small. In 2025 it eked out +0.20% (3.05% income, -2.80% appreciation) (see the table below).

The pullback traces to higher interest rates and softer crop prices squeezing land values, especially permanent cropland (orchards and vineyards), which fell about -10% in 2024 while annual row-crop land still returned +5.66%. It is a useful reminder that farmland can decline, even if it does so rarely and mildly.

Head to head over the long run, farmland has held up well against equities. From 1992 to 2020 US farmland returned about 10.84% a year versus 7.87% for the S&P 500, according to a FarmTogether analysis of NCREIF data (see the chart below).

That said, the comparison is not apples to apples: farmland returns are appraisal-based and less liquid, and public stocks are marked to market every second. Farmland's recent flat-to-negative years also show that its long-run edge is not guaranteed in every window.

Farmland's most striking feature is not its return but its calm. From 1992 to 2020 its annualized volatility was about 6.84%, far below the S&P 500's 16.9% and gold's 14.8%, and closer to high-grade bonds at 4.67% (see the chart and table below).

Combining solid returns with low volatility produced a Sharpe ratio near 1.18 on one NCREIF-based analysis, well above US stocks (0.42), bonds (0.36), and gold (0.21). Some of that smoothness reflects appraisal-based pricing, but the underlying cash flows are genuinely stable.

This is farmland's headline pitch, and the data broadly supports it. Farmland values are roughly 67-70% correlated with the Consumer Price Index, more than four times gold's correlation, while the S&P 500's correlation with inflation is about -10% since 1928 (per AcreTrader).

The mechanism is direct: farmland produces food, so when crop prices rise with inflation, both rents and land values tend to follow. In 2022, when inflation ran near 8%, US farmland appreciated 11.71% by USDA's measure, one real-world stress test the asset passed.

Not all farmland behaves the same. Annual cropland grows row crops like corn, soybeans, and wheat that are replanted each year; permanent cropland holds trees and vines (almonds, apples, grapes) that take years to mature and carry higher income but more price swings.

The gap showed up sharply in 2024: annual cropland returned +5.66% (3.02% income, 2.58% appreciation) while permanent cropland fell about -10.18%. Historically permanent cropland has averaged 9.89% with a heavy 8.46% income leg, but it is the more volatile of the two categories.

Farmland is intensely local. Values run from a few thousand dollars an acre across the Great Plains to five figures in land-scarce or high-value-crop states; Rhode Island farm real estate topped $22,500 per acre while Massachusetts neared $14,900.

Growth also clustered in 2025: Michigan (+7.8%), Tennessee (+7.7%), and South Dakota (+6.8%) led the states, while cash rents jumped fastest in Washington (+10.7%), Montana (+8.2%), and Alabama (+8.1%). Location, soil quality, and water access drive most of the spread.

You do not have to buy a farm to own farmland. Beyond direct purchase (illiquid and six-figure), there are two publicly traded farmland REITs, Gladstone Land (LAND), which owns about 115,000 acres across 15 states and yields roughly 5.3%, and Farmland Partners (FPI), at roughly a 4.1% yield (see the table below).

Crowdfunding platforms such as AcreTrader and FarmTogether sell fractional stakes in specific farms, typically to accredited investors with minimums of $10,000 to $15,000 or more. Each route trades off liquidity, fees, and how directly you own the underlying land.

Land values ultimately rest on what the land can earn. USDA estimated 2025 net farm income at about $154.6 billion, revised down roughly $25 billion from an earlier forecast as crop prices and margins softened, a headwind that helps explain the flat NCREIF returns.

When farm profitability dips, buyers can pay less for land and rents plateau, which is exactly the 2024-2025 pattern. Longer term, though, a growing population, finite arable land, and productivity gains underpin the case that quality farmland holds real value.

Farmland's appeal is diversification: a real asset with bond-like volatility, equity-like long-run returns, a genuine inflation hedge, and low correlation to stocks. For a portfolio dominated by public equities, even a small farmland sleeve can smooth the ride.

The catch is access and liquidity. Direct ownership is expensive and hands-on, crowdfunding is limited to accredited investors and hard to sell early, and the two REITs give easy exposure but trade like stocks (and can swing more than the land itself). Match the vehicle to your time horizon, and remember 2024 showed farmland can fall, not just rise.