After three years of declines, the average value of Iowa farmland increased 2 percent this year to $7,326 per acre, according to the 2017 Iowa State University Land Value Survey, which was conducted in November by the Center for Agricultural and Rural Development at Iowa State University and Iowa State University Extension and Outreach. The increase in the average price of farmland was consistent with reports from the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the Realtors Land Institute, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The average value of an acre of Iowa farmland reached a historic peak of $8,716 per acre by 2013, following five consecutive years of double-digit growth, according to a release. In the following three years, land values dropped 8.9 percent, 3.9 percent and 5.9 percent, marking the first time since the 1980s farm crisis that farmland values fell three years in a row. Read more