Farmland Values in 7th District

For 2018, annual farmland values in the Seventh Federal Reserve District were steady overall. Yet, values for “good” agricultural land in the fourth quarter of 2018 were up 1 percent from the third quarter, according to 183 survey respondents representing agricultural banks across the District. Although 75 percent of the responding agricultural bankers expected farmland values to be stable during the January through March period of 2019, nearly all of the rest expected farmland values to move down. Deteriorating agricultural credit conditions continued to affect the District in the fourth quarter of 2018. Repayment rates on non-real-estate farm loans decreased in the October through December period of 2018 relative to the same period of 2017, and rates of loan renewals and extensions increased. Even so, about the same percentage (2.4 percent) of current agricultural borrowers were not likely to qualify for operating credit at the survey respondents’ banks in 2019 as in 2018. Non-real-estate loan demand in the fourth quarter of 2018 climbed from the previous year’s level, while funds available for lending were slightly lower than a year ago. The average loan-to-deposit ratio for the District (79.0 percent) was higher than a year earlier. Average interest rates on farm operating loans and farm real estate loans had moved up by the end of 2018 to levels not seen since 2010 and 2011, respectively.