Last year a piece Iowa farmland for sale – near Orange City – sold for 13,950$ / acre. At the time (just last year mind you) those Iowa farmland prices were all many people could talk about for some time. It was an amazing amount of money! It was a record price for any Iowa farms for sale and many couldn’t see that figure being surpassed for many years.
But here we are in 2011, just one year later, and another “buzz” generating sale has just taken place in the great state of Iowa. A one hundred twenty (120) acre farmstead near Sioux Center just sold for a whopping 16,750$ / acre. Another new Iowa record for farmland prices!
Just 10 years ago Iowa farmland prices averaged 1,926$ / Acre.
Iowa farmland values soured 34% just in the period from Sept 2010 to Sept 2011! The fact that corn prices have doubled as well as soybean prices shooting up obviously are a major factor in the increased valuation of Iowa farmland.
Although popular opinion says that Iowa farmers are in a very strong financial position overall – one can’t help but be a little aprehensive at this frantic pace of increasing farmland prices. Afterall, there have been periods in history (1919-1920 and 1972-1974) when land prices saw huge booms and what followed were 2 very severe farm depressions.
But hopefully the current practice of banks requiring as much as 50% down before any monies are loaned will help offset the danger of any severe crises such as we saw in those earlier periods.
The deadline to pay the second part of 2009-10 property taxes without a late penalty is Thursday.
Polk County Treasurer Mary Maloney said she expects 20,000 customers to come through her office this month, so she encourages taxpayers to make payments online at www.IowaTaxAndTags.gov. Online payments can be made via credit card or electronic check, and the website is available around the clock.
Full or partial payments can be made. Late interest accrues at 1.5 percent per month after the deadline.
More details can be found in the entire article at the Des Moines Register here.
Wow – I just read about 5 hospital workers in the University of Iowa hospital system who happened to find a listening device hidden in their office. Apparently their boss had planted it while keeping the receiver in his office, so he could listen in on the private conversations of his staff.
I just can’t help but be amazed at the degree to which management standards have deteriorated over the years. Whatever it is a manager is concerned about ( he said it was complaints from another member of staff about these employees “chatting” too much) you would think there would be better ways to handle it. But BUGGING the employees?
To me this is obviously someone in a management position who has no business being there. Managing people involves communicating with your employees in order to solve problems. And to be so incredibly insecure that you have to resort to planting a bug in order to learn your staffs’ thoughts tells me he does not possess the communication or management skills needed to supervise a group of people.
But then again, to my even greater amazement, the HR representative was in on it as well. It boggles the mind!
And to think there is a very powerful faction in this country right now trying everything within their power to eliminate unions?? Luckily these workers are part of a Union who will hopefully fight on their behalf to make sure this kind of incompetent unprofessional behavior doesn’t happen again. But what would happen if they weren’t Unionized? The answer: absolutely nothing. Which is just what every under-qualified, incompetent, inadequate manager would wish for. That way they don’t have to actually do their job and – manage people.
As the final two weeks of the homebuyer tax credit tick away, many sellers are playing a game of “chicken” with buyers by refusing to negotiate on price and seeking other concessions, knowing that buyers may not have time to find another home in time to make the tax credit deadline, according to reports from real estate professionals across the country posted in the popular real estate site Active Rain.
Moral of the story – always have a back up if possible. I know a Home isn’t like a Sports Jacket where you can find 2 or 3 that you really like. Many times, after months of looking, there is only one that stands out among the crowd. But unfortunately I am so stubborn that I am afraid i would tell a Seller to go stick it, if I thought he was playing this game with me.
Ok – some potentially useful information for those few who may be in a position to buy now.
Follow the link below to the full DM Register article, but to summarize briefly, legislation signed in November (The Worker, Home ownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009) provides for an $8,000 1st-time home buyer tax credit. It had been set to expire Dec.1 but has been extended to Home purchasers who sign a contract before April 30 and close by June 30.
Some very worthwhile changes to the bill were made, like raised income limits, and also if eligibility requirements are met, people who want to “trade up” can qualify.
On a negative note – the tax credit cannot be claimed if the purchase price of the principle residence exceeds $800,000. (Yes that is the actual price limit and yes I am interjecting a bit of sarcasm here.)
But a nice little tax credit if you qualify, so look into it if you are buying soon.
Background: Born and raised in Des Moines, I graduated from Dowling Catholic High School and earned a finance degree from Loras College in Dubuque. My 15-year career in the financial services and consumer credit industries includes work in Michigan, Wisconsin and upstate New York, but I returned to Des Moines to build my career and raise my family. I am proud to be a business owner in such a great community.
