Farmland the next real estate bubble?

"Prices are rising above what the productive capacity of that land can support."

Our sister newspaper, The Des Moines Register, reports today that the value of Iowa farmland shot up 13% in the year ending Oct. 1. Behind the increase: rising corn and soybean prices, according to a survey of bankers by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

In September, the Iowa Realtors Land Institute said the statewide average was $4,518 per acre. Iowa’s record acre price is an inflation-adjusted average of $5,711 in 1979. That price plummeted by more than two-thirds in the 1980s, contributing to Iowa’s worst farm recession since the Great Depression.

Full Story: http://content.usatoday.com/communities/ondeadline/post/2010/11/farmland-the-next-real-estate-bubble/1