Illinois Farmland Values Fall in 2024, Especially in 4th Quarter

What really became evident in the fourth quarter of 2024 will be a trend to watch in 2025, according to Luke Worrell, Worrell Land Services Co-Owner and Managing Broker in Jacksonville, Illinois.

“In 2024, we were kind of treading water,” Worrell told American Farmland Owner from his home office in Springfield, “...and then certainly started to go down right at the tail end of 2024."

Luke Worrell bio

• Worrell Land Services Co-Owner, Managing Broker

• Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers

             --Chair of Illinois Farmland Values and Lease Trends Committee

• Realtors Land Institute 2023 National President

• Jacksonville Area Association of Realtors, past president

As chair of the Illinois Farmland Values and Lease Trends Committee for the Illinois Society of Professional Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers, Worrell helps to analyze the numbers in the latest annual report. 

Worrell knows -- after spending more than two decades in the family land business -- farmland values can vary. The final quarter began a significant change, though. Signs of a market adjustment were underway and apparent in ISPFMRA’s latest land values report.

“I hated the fact that we had to stop our data at December 31," he explained. "I feel like it didn’t necessarily give the whole story because in 2024, we were kind of treading water... and then certainly started to go down right at the tail end of 2024."

This slowdown, which began in the final quarter of 2024, became more pronounced as 2025 unfolded. Worrell observed that a substantial portion of the pullback occurred in the first quarter of 2025, as farmland values began to readjust after a period of rapid increases.

"People are saying that we’re probably down somewhere between 10 and 15 percent off the highs of late 2022 and 2023, when things were euphoric and everything was going nuts," Worrell added.

RELATED: Longtime banker Terry Engelken noticed something happening in rural communities when he talked to American Farmland Owner last December.  

Illinois Farmland Values Soared in 2022 and 2023

The big question on many minds is whether the surge in farmland values that Illinois farmland owners saw in 2022 and 2023 was sustainable or merely a speculative bubble. Worrell, who has seen these cycles unfold over the years, was quick to recognize that some of the market's growth was fueled by a sense of urgency.

"In 2022, it was pretty chaotic," Worrell explained. "Everything went to auction. In the past, certain firms would go to auction. But in 2022, it was like, throw everything at the auction because we didn’t even know what to ask for."

The market was moving so fast that there was a sense of uncertainty at what price point properties should be valued. "Let’s just put it in the public forum, and it’s going to shake out," Worrell said, emphasizing how the rapid price increases in 2022 were not entirely driven by fundamental factors but by the speculative nature of the market at the time.

Illinois Farmland Values Similar to 2010s

For those who have been following farmland markets for several decades, Worrell’s analysis feels familiar. He compared the current situation to the early 2010s, when a similar boom-and-bust cycle unfolded in the farmland market.

"If you look back at the values we saw from 2012 to 2014, we saw a big jump up, kind of a boom in the market, and then we went down about 10 to 15 percent," Worrell noted. "That’s exactly what we’re doing right now."

This historical perspective offers some reassurance to landowners and investors, suggesting that the current pullback could be part of a typical market cycle. "We kind of just treaded water for a year or two until we got another reason to shoot this thing back up," Worrell observed.

Given the similarities between today’s market and previous cycles, he is optimistic that farmland values will eventually stabilize and rise again.

Future Illinois Farmand Values

While the market correction is undeniable, Worrell is confident that the Illinois farmland market is not heading toward a crash. "I don’t think we’re standing above a trap door," he said. "Yes, we’ve pulled back, but it makes sense that we’ve pulled back. We went up 50 percent in two years. That’s not exactly like a sustainable pace."

In the wake of this pullback, Worrell believes that farmland values will eventually settle into that sustainability.  

"We’re kind of settling into a ‘new norm’ here for a bit," he concluded, offering a sense of stability in an otherwise volatile market.

RELATED: Farm CPA Paul Neiffer offers these things to remember if farmland owners are considering a 1031 exchange.