Just how hot is American farmland? By some accounts the value of farmland is up 20% this year alone. That’s better than stocks or gold. During the past two decades, owning farmland would have produced an annual return of nearly 11%, according to Hancock Agricultural Investment Group. And that covers a time period when tech stocks boomed and crashed, and housing boomed and crashed. So at a time when investors are still looking for safety, farmland is becoming the “it” investment.
The New York Observer recently had a story saying more hedge funders have been talking farmland. Successful Canadian hedge fund manager Jean-Francois Tardiff, recently said he liked farmland. And a number of investors who gained fame for calling the housing crash, including Michael Burry and Passport Capital’s John Burbank have been buying up farmland in the past two years. Famed investor Jim Rodgers, a long-time commodity bull, thinks farmland values will continue to rise.
There are good reasons to believe that is the case, and some not so good. Let’s start with the good.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member