Agricultural land prices for Wood County have shown similar escalation to that of the national average.

According to figures supplied by Brian Jones, a deputy clerk with the Wood County auditor’s office, a
comparison in the last five years shows a 54 percent increase.
In 2006 the average price was $2,600 per acre on 42 sales, with a high price of $3,750 per acre. To date
this year, the average price is $4,000 per acre on 25 sales. The largest price fetched on any one sale
was $6,250 per acre.
The minimum price to date in 2011 is $2,550 per acre nearly equal to the average from 2006.
The average sale in size is down from 60 acres to 58 acres.
Jones also picked out two parcels, one from each of the studied years that were less than a mile apart.
In November 2006, a parcel nearly 83 acres sold at $2,400 per acre; while a 72-acre parcel this May sold
for $5,250 per acre, more than doubling the price in five years.
Jones attributes the increase to a variety of causes including farmers competing against farmers to
expand their acreage because of increasing grain prices; global demand increases for soybeans around the
world and corn demand due to the growth in ethanol.
He indicated the market is right for sales as the demand is strong, supply is low, along with lower
prevailing interest rates.
The auditor’s office statistics show a steady increase in Ohio cropland value from 1998 when it was
$2,150 per acre, to a $4,400 average per acre this year. Over those years there was an increase in all
years, except for a drop in 2009.
Of the sales to date this year, they range across 14 different townships in the county.