A panel of Accredited Land Consultants of the REALTORS® Land Institute (RLI) shed light on the impacts of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak on land values and land market trends across the country in a recent Virtual Round Table session. The panel, which consisted of expert land agents from across the country, mostly pointed towards a positive outlook for the land market despite volatility in other areas. One key market they covered was ranch land real estate.
Clayton Pilgrim, ALC, with Century 21 Harvey Properties in Paris, TX, shares his insights on the impacts ranchers are seeing from the shutdown caused by the outbreak. You can't talk about the land values for ranch land though until you talk about the demand, so he started by noting that “The restaurants being shutdown has left us right now about 10% off where we were last year, looking at $100-200 per head loss on cows. We’ve had some price adjustment, so people are pulling cattle back to try and wait until prices go back up. In my opinion, though, that’s going to cause things to go even further down.” Additionally, he noted that the demand for higher quality cuts of meat has gone down due to restaurants being shut down and people looking ahead to potentially another recession with higher levels of unemployment. “If I’m a beef producer today, I would definitely keep things tight,” he suggests to current ranch land owners.
So what does all that mean for land values? Clayton says “In my opinion, I think you’re going to see pretty declining prices in [ranch land] in the next six-months to maybe a year,” just looking at the decreased demand for poultry, beef, dairy, and other ranch land products. "One positive for any potential buyers," he joked, "is that interest is sure cheap right now!”
For more insights on the impacts of the outbreak and shutdown on the ranch land market for ranchers from Clayton as well as insights on how other land markets are being impacted, make sure to watch the full Impacts of COVID-19 on The Land Market Virtual Round Table presented by the RLI 2020 Future Leaders Committee or check out the related posts below:
If you are interested in buying, selling or investing in land real estate, make sure to Find A Land Consultant, like an ALC, in your area with the expertise needed to best assist with your transaction.
Clayton Pilgrim, ALC, is a licensed real estate agent with Century 21 Harvey Properties in Paris, Texas. Throughout his career he has been in production agriculture from on the ground operations to large scale management. Pilgrim is involved in private investing in farms, ranches and recreational tracts throughout Texas and Oklahoma. He is a member of the Realtors® Land Institute, an Accredited Land Consultant and on the board of the Future Leaders Committee. He resides in Paris, Texas with his wife, Kristy and daughter, Caroline.