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Investors are again buying agriculture land as a home for investment dollars, according to a real estate sales company, Farmers National Company. Toward the end of 2008 land investors retreated from the market, but they are back, said Lee Vermeer, vice president of real estate operations at Farmers National Company. Recent auctions in western Nebraska have seen sales from $385 per acre for ranch land to $925 per acre for a combination dryland and pasture farm. At another auction, 480 acres of Conservation Reserve Program ground in northwest Kansas sold for $775 an acre. In recent weeks, better farms in the lush western Iowa/eastern half of Nebraska area are selling in the range of $4,500 to $6,000 an acre, according to sales manager Lee Meusch. In northern and central Kansas, better producing farms are trading in the range of $1,500 to $3,000 an acre -- for creek bottom or center pivot irrigated farms. "Investors stepped aside around November, but have gotten back in the game," Vermeer said. Land values have remained mostly steady despite the turbulent economy, thanks to purchases by farm owners and operators, while investment companies stepped aside. But now that uncertainty has subsided, investment companies are again looking to land, Vermeer said. Vermeer said the land market slowed somewhat in some weak spots around the country during the last six months, coupled with a drop in record-high crop prices. In the past 30-45 days, however, Vermeer said the market is gaining ground. There have been very few forced sales, according to Vermeer, indicating that land is in very stable hands.
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