If you’ve purchased, sold or appraised land in the last couple years, Michigan State University needs your help.
For the last 30 years, the Michigan Land Values Survey has been sent to Michiganders to see the valuation of ag land.
“We collect a range of responses from people around the state and asking them about their own local area,” says Matt Gammans, extension economist with Michigan State University, who is heading up the survey. “Then we pout together this report that outlines where land values are at. We also ask about what sort of rental rates people are seeing and the big drivers that are driving changes in these values—macroeconomic things like interest rates, regulation policy, things like that.”
Typically the report is mailed, but this year there is an online option.
“We know that some stakeholders around the state really look to this report when they’re making decisions about managing their farm,” says Gammans. “This is especially important when you’re talking about joint ownership across members of a family trying to know how much what we own is worth.”
Gammans says this annual report gives the most accurate picture of the marketplace.
“When people are thinking about making these buying and selling decisions or looking into the future, the fact that this report comes out every year gives people a sense of the real trends that are driving agricultural land values in Michigan,” he says.
It should take roughly 10 minutes to complete the paper survey or the online version. Gammans says there’s not a hard deadline, but they would like the survey to be completed by the first week of November. For a link to the survey, click here.
