Iowa Land Auction Prices, February 28-March 5, 2020

Posted on March 9, 2020 at 11:33 AM by Jim Rothermich

It was a steady auction week with 1,663 acres auctioned, of which 790 were tillable. On Tuesday, March 3, the U.S. Federal Reserve announced an emergency 0.5% rate cut to get ahead of slowdowns caused by the Coronavirus. U.S. Treasury Bonds reached all-time low rates as investors scrambled to move their money out of the stock market. Currently, with the stock market volatility, there is high demand for bonds and buyers are accepting lower and lower interest rates, driving the rate for 30-year Treasury Bonds to record lows. The U.S prime interest rate is 4.25%. A year ago it was 5.50%. The highest it ever reached was 21.5% in 1980-1981. Low interest rates are very supportive to the farmland market. Source: Paragon Investments.

Do you know why we moved our clocks forward one hour early Sunday morning - known as Daylight Savings Time? The concept of Daylight Savings Time is to shift more daylight to times when people are awake, helping to save energy. People are more likely to enjoy daylight in the evening than in the morning. In theory, this saves energy and stimulates the economy. Countries near the Equator generally don’t change their clocks.