Central Valley Farmland Prices To Decline

The Stockton Record is reporting that Central Valley farmland prices are poised for a decline.

California farmland has had a nice run.

Even for most of 2008, after commercial real estate values slipped and housing prices tumbled, strong profits from many grain, nut and vegetable crops helped keep farm and ranch values rising or at least stable.

But the market seems poised for a change, experts are saying.

“You could see the level of transactions starting to decelerate during the course of 2008, and then after September, when we had the financial meltdown, a lot of people went to the sideline,” said Mark Clarke, with Rabobank’s AgriFinance office in Santa Maria, who spoke at the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers forum last week in Sacramento.

And farmland sales activity continues at a near standstill, said Randal Edwards, an appraiser with Edwards, Lien & Toso in Hilmar.

“I think the dinosaur is sitting on the tip of its tail right now,” he said. But the question remains: “Which way is it going to go?”

Clarke was cautious about making predictions.

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