Farmland in much of Southern and Western Ontario is still selling at eye-popping prices and prices were still rising in 2017, says a new report by land use and value researcher Prof. Brady Deaton at the University of Guelph.
Deaton surveyed hundreds of people, many of them farmers, to gather 805 responses on average price for average-quality farmland and calculated a median price by county.
His conclusions are similar to a February farmland price report by London-based Valco Real Estate Appraisers and Consultants’ appraiser Ryan Parker. Both calculated a median price (the middle price on a list).
Here’s what Deaton’s research turned up. Parker’s price is listed in brackets.
Median price for an acre of average-quality farmland in 2017:
Oxford: $20,000 ($20,596)
Perth: $18,400 ($18,539)
Huron: $14,600 ($14,500)
Middlesex: $14,000 ($14,697)
Wellington: $12,600 ($14,808)
Elgin: $12,000 ($12,941)
Kent: $12,000 ($11,859)
Lambton: $10,000 ($12,124)
Essex: $9,000 ($9,537)
Bruce: $8,500 ($8,987)
Grey: $7,000 ($8,641)
London-based agricultural appraiser Ryan Parker, who researched the Valco report, said that a long-overdue push on lower-end land prices was likely part of the reason prices were still going up in 2017. Price increases back in the early-to-mid 2010s were largely driven by commodity price increases, he said.
Prices didn’t go down in any county in Western Ontario or Southern Ontario, according to the Valco report.
