The Housing Market Bust and Farmland Values: Identifying the Changing Influence of Proximity to Urban Centers

Though about one-third of farmland is subject to urban influences, little is known about how changes in urban land markets affect farmland values. This paper identifies the impact of the recent residential housing market bust and subsequent economic recession on farmland values, using parcel-level farmland sales data from 2001-2010 for a 50-county region under urbanization pressure in Western Ohio. Our estimates from hedonic regressions reveal that farmland was not immune to the residential housing bust; the portion of farmland value attributable to urban demands for developable land was almost completely wiped out shortly after the housing market bust in 2009-2010