Indiana Farmland Values in 2024-2025: A Cooling Market After the Surge

After several years of remarkable appreciation, Indiana farmland values have entered a new phase. The data from the most recent Purdue Land Value Survey and the Chicago Federal Reserve tell a consistent story: values peaked in late 2023 and have since experienced a modest pullback. For farmland owners, understanding the nuances of this correction is essential to making informed decisions about whether and when to sell.

At Schrader Real Estate and Auction Company, our president RD Schrader presents an annual analysis of farmland market conditions at our winter luncheon series across Indiana, Florida, and the Midwest. This article draws on the data and insights from his 2025 presentation, delivered this past February in Fort Wayne.

The Purdue Land Value Survey: A Quality-by-Quality Breakdown

The June 2024 Purdue Land Value Survey provides the most granular look at Indiana farmland pricing. The numbers show a market that is softening, but the degree of correction varies significantly by land quality:

• Top-quality farmland: $14,392 per acre as of June 2024, down from $14,831 in December 2023. Purdue projects a further modest decline to approximately $14,325 by December 2024 — a total correction of just 0.5% from the peak.
• Average-quality farmland: $11,630 per acre, with a projected decline of 1.9% by year-end 2024.
• Poor-quality farmland: $9,071 per acre, projected to decline 3.5% — the steepest percentage drop among the three tiers.

The pattern is clear and instructive: the best land is holding its value remarkably well, while lower-quality land is experiencing a more pronounced correction. This makes intuitive sense. Top-quality farmland generates the strongest yields, commands the highest cash rents, and attracts the deepest pool of motivated buyers. When the market softens, it is the marginal land that gives back the most.

The Chicago Fed Confirms the Trend

The Chicago Federal Reserve's agricultural land survey provides a complementary data point. For full-year 2024, the Chicago Fed reports that Indiana "good" farmland values declined approximately 3% — a figure consistent with the Purdue projections when accounting for the mix of land qualities across the state.

A 3% decline after several years of double-digit appreciation is not a market in distress. It is a healthy correction following a period of rapid price escalation driven by strong commodity prices, farm income, and historically low interest rates. The land market is finding a new equilibrium, and by historical standards, current values remain elevated.

Cash Rents: The Income Side of the Equation

While land values have softened modestly, cash rental rates present a more mixed picture:

• Top-quality land: $313 per acre, up 2.29% year-over-year
• Average-quality land: $230 per acre, up a modest 0.91%
• Poor-quality land: $204 per acre, down 3.73%

The stability of cash rents for top- and average-quality land provides a floor of sorts for land values. As long as the income stream from farmland remains solid, values have fundamental support. The decline in rents for poor-quality ground, however, mirrors the steeper value correction for that tier — tenants are unwilling to pay premium rents on land that does not produce premium yields.

Transition Land: The Outlier Story

Perhaps the most striking figure in the Purdue data is the performance of transition land — agricultural acreage on the fringe of development, where competing uses such as residential, commercial, or renewable energy development create additional demand. Transition land values surged 21.6% year-over-year to $30,666 per acre, dramatically outperforming every other category.

This divergence highlights an increasingly important dynamic in farmland markets: non-agricultural demand drivers are becoming a significant force. Solar energy development, data center construction, and suburban expansion are creating bidder classes that evaluate land on fundamentally different criteria than traditional agricultural buyers. We explore this renewable energy dimension in more detail in our analysis of the renewable energy land squeeze.

What This Means for Sellers

For farmland owners considering a sale, the current market presents a nuanced picture. Values remain near historic highs despite the modest correction. Top-quality ground has barely moved. And the competitive auction environment continues to demonstrate that well-marketed properties attract aggressive bidding from qualified buyers.

The critical insight from this data is that farmland is not a monolithic market. Quality matters enormously, both for the pace of any correction and for the pool of buyers your property will attract. A professional evaluation of your specific land — its productivity, its location, and its potential competing uses — is essential to understanding where your land fits in the current market.

At Schrader, we have conducted over 10,000 land auctions across 40 states. Our auction managers can provide a detailed, data-driven assessment of your property's position in today's market. If you are a farmland owner weighing your options, contact our team to discuss what the current data means for your specific property.