Every summer the USDA publishes its land values report, which is the closest thing we have to a national price check on rural land. The 2026 report came out at the end of July, and the short version is that land kept getting more expensive.
The national numbers
The average value of U.S. farm real estate, which includes cropland, pasture and the buildings on them, reached $4,500 an acre in 2026, up about 3.4% from 2025. Cropland averaged $6,020 an acre, up 3.3%. Pasture averaged $2,000 an acre, up 4.2%, a slightly faster gain than cropland.
Tennessee stood out. Tennessee cropland averaged $6,400 an acre, up 5.8%, the largest percentage increase of any state, and Tennessee pasture rose 5.5%. I see that demand every week in East Tennessee, where a lot of it comes from buyers relocating from other states.
Why the average probably isn't your price
These figures describe working agricultural land, and most of my clients aren't buying land on its farm value alone. A property with a long-range view, a homesite, year-round water and paved road frontage within an hour of an airport sells for far more per acre than the state average, sometimes several times more. The USDA number is a floor for that kind of property, not a guide.
Price per acre also tends to fall as acreage grows. A 20-acre parcel near town and a 400-acre ranch in the same county can sell at very different per-acre prices, so comparing listings by price per acre alone will mislead you.
What I'd take from this
Land has kept rising through a year of higher interest rates. If you've been waiting for rural land prices to drop, that hasn't happened yet, and the Tennessee numbers point the other way.
The land that holds value best has the things that are hard to add later: water, legal access, good soil, and a location people will still want in twenty years. Those are the things I check first, and I wrote about them in more detail in what I check before a client writes an offer.
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This article is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. All loans are subject to underwriting approval.
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