Economic and Marketing INFORMATION 
FOR INDIANA
FARMERS
Lafayette,   Indiana
May  26,   1952
Prepared by members of the Agricultural Staff of Purdue University
How Much Is Your farm Worth?
by
HOWARD G.  DIESSUN, Agricultural Economics
INDIANA FARM Real Es-
I tate prices are expected
to increase moderately in
the year or two ahead.
Rapid rises, such as occurred during the past two
years, are not expected to
continue unless prospects
for war increase materially.
The Present Situation
It is estimated that Indiana farm land prices increased 10 percent during
the year ending March,
1952. Added to a 20 percent rise the previous year,
most of which came after
the outbreak of the Korean
War, Indiana land prices
have increased approximately 30 percent in two
years. The rate of increase
averaged nearly 1 percent
per month during the past year—even during the recent months of declining commodity prices.
The estimated index of farm land values presently
exceeds the World War I peak by more than 40 percent. Price rises are greatest for small acreages in
the better land areas.
The change in average value of farm real estate
from 1940 to 1950 is shown by type-of-farming areas
lr> the map on page 2. Both dollar and percentage
increases were greatest in Central and Northern Indiana during this decade. State farm real estate
values increased 117 percent between 1940 and 1950,
•According to Census enumerations. At the present
t'roe, land prices are about triple 1940 prices.
Transfers Remain Low
Sales of Indiana farms have not increased despite
rapidly rising values. During the past four years,
voluntary sales  have averaged  40 farms  per  1,000
each
year.   Total transfers, which include inheritance,
gifts, estates and forced
sales as well as voluntary
sales, have averaged 65
farms per 1,000 per year.
There has been little variation from this figure in any
year since March, 1948.
Annual voluntary sales are
currently one-third less
than the postwar peak
reached in  1946.
Even these average estimates can be misleading,
however. Voluntary transfers are much fewer for
farms exceeding 120 acres
than for smaller farms or
tracts of real estate. The
U.S.D.A. estimates that 28
percent of all land purchases were for farm enlargement purposes in the
Eastern Cornbelt States
during the year ending,
March 1, 1951.
$400 Land Not Typical
Much publicity is given to land selling above $400
per acre. U.S.D.A. statistics for Indiana in the year
ending March, 1950, and for the Eastern Cornbelt for
the two years ending March, 1951 indicate such cases
remain the exception (see Table 1). Probably about
10 and certainly not more than 15 percent of Indiana
farm sales during the past year exceeded $400 per
acre. In most instances, these were either small farms
with good buildings and soils, or small tracts with exceptionally good soils that were added to existing
farms.
In the year ending March, 1951, the average price
of land sales per acre by quality of land in the Eastern Cornbelt was as follows: "good" land, $293;
"average" land, $198; "poor" land, $126.
During the year ending March, 1951, about 62 percent of the transfers involved credit. Farm mortgages
averaged $12,850 per tract and $85 per acre on the