Land Broker Liz Strom: Illinois Farmland Values Stabilizing

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Cattle, corn, and soybeans filled Liz Strom’s life as she grew up on the family farm in central Illinois. She still goes back to the farm when her schedule allows. But these days she is thinking about more than just her family’s farm.

Strom, an accredited farm manager and Vice President at Murray Wise Associates in Champaign, Illinois, is watching farmland values. She saw them rise quickly but doesn’t expect them to fall with that same force.

“As far as land values, I would say we’ve been pretty stable for the most part,” Strom told American Farmland Owner from her company’s office in Champaign.

Liz Strom bio:

• Murray Wise Associates – Vice President

• Licensed real estate broker, auctioneer, and drone pilot

• President of the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers 

• 2024 Land Broker of the Year by the Illinois chapter of the REALTORS® Land Institute

• Hertz Farm Management – Former farm manager and real estate broker

RELATED: Peoples Company, based in Clive, Iowa, announced that it has acquired Murray Wise Associates from Farmland Partners. 

Peoples Company President Steve Bruere stated, “Murray Wise Associates has long been recognized as a trusted name in farmland auctions and brokerage. This acquisition not only strengthens our presence in key agricultural markets but also reflects a broader shift in the industry toward leveraging specialized farm management expertise. We’re excited to welcome the Murray Wise team and to continue delivering exceptional value to landowners and investors.” Global Ag Investing has details about the acquisition. 

Farmland Values in Illinois

Strom said, “We had our highs, like, in ‘21, ‘22, ‘23 . The market was exploding, and we saw A-quality farms around central Illinois bring 18, 19, 20-plus thousand (dollars per acre). And that was a pretty common number back then.”

Those years — roughly 2021 through 2023 — marked some of the most dramatic appreciation in farmland values in Illinois history. Fueled by strong commodity prices and fierce competition among both farmers and investors, land auctions regularly shattered previous records.

But that surge couldn’t last forever. According to Strom, the market has since cooled slightly, though it remains resilient. “We’ve come down off of that,” she said. “Now I would see, say, A-quality farms are trading more for about 15, 16, 17 (thousand dollars per acre).”

Strom continued, “Every once in a while, you still do see those really high numbers, but they’re just not as common as they once were.”

Farmland Competition Still Strong in the Midwest

While Illinois prices have moderated, the broader Midwest still sees occasional eye-popping sales. Strom noted that some recent Iowa farmland auctions reached impressive levels. “I saw a sale, a couple sales actually, in Iowa that were, like, $23,000,” she said. “And so there still definitely is competition in the marketplace.”

That competitive spirit — particularly for the best-quality, well-drained, and highly productive land — remains a defining feature of the farmland market. Even in a period of stabilization, the demand for prime ground continues to attract both local operators and outside investors who view farmland as a long-term, tangible asset.

Strom admitted that the pace of appreciation caught many by surprise, and she wondered if farmland values had hit a ceiling for a while. “I certainly felt that way when we were starting to hit the 20s,” she said.

“It was like, wow, someone got another $20,000 sale,” Strom said, “and then as we continued to go on, there was more and more of them. Then it became more of a common number for those really high-quality farms that are highly sought after in this area.”

That rapid normalization of such high sale prices underscored how dynamic the farmland market had become.