Newsom has taken away the water for farmers. He has limited the type of pesticides they can use. The cost of fuel is the highest in the nation. Any wonder he is successful in ending the agriculture industry in California?
“For the San Joaquin Valley, where the northern region enjoys more ample water supplies than other parts of the valley, even there, farmland values have declined significantly. For instance, almond orchards that a few years ago sold for $60,000 an acre in areas with ample surface water deliveries and good groundwater supplies, saw values fall below $44,000 an acre, with most sales in the low- to mid-$30,000 range, according to Janie Gatzman, an agricultural appraiser and a co-chair of the annual Trends Report.
Conservative estimates suggest that $17 billion of value in irrigated lands alone has been erased from financial ledgers, according to Scott Bozzo, an accredited farm manager with Macotera Ag Group from Lodi, California. Bozzo was recently named farm manager of the year by the California ASFMRA chapter.
As the value of farmland goes down, so does the collection of property taxes—Newsom has found a way to bankrupt our smaller counties. On this record he will run for President.
Calif. farmland values are plummeting. Where’s the bottom?
Professional agricultural land appraisers with the California Chapter of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA) and others have been warning of this cliff for several years now.
Todd Fitchette, Farm Progress, 4/8/25 https://www.farmprogress.com/farm-business/calif-farmland-values-are-plummeting-where-s-the-bottom-
Farmers across California are removing or have abandoned thousands of acres of almonds in the wake of poor commodity prices and a response to reduced irrigation availability under the California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act. Farmland values in general are mostly down across the state, with perhaps a couple of exceptions.
Farmland values across California are down significantly over this time last year and the bottom may not yet be in view. While this has erased billions of dollars in farm equity across the state, the fallout will be seen in communities and public services as county tax assessments are likely reduced on appeal.
The trends are daunting, but not unforeseen. Professional agricultural land appraisers with the California Chapter of the American Society of Farm Managers and Rural Appraisers (ASFMRA) and others have been warning of this cliff for several years now. Implementation of the California Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA) and other factors including poor commodity prices for major crops have led to double-digit declines in farmland values year-over-year.
The latest Trends Report from the California ASFMRA reveals a significant correction in land values due largely to SGMA, though land values in some cases did not seem to be following as quickly with what some said was coming.
They’re falling now.
For the San Joaquin Valley, where the northern region enjoys more ample water supplies than other parts of the valley, even there, farmland values have declined significantly. For instance, almond orchards that a few years ago sold for $60,000 an acre in areas with ample surface water deliveries and good groundwater supplies, saw values fall below $44,000 an acre, with most sales in the low- to mid-$30,000 range, according to Janie Gatzman, an agricultural appraiser and a co-chair of the annual Trends Report.
Conservative estimates suggest that $17 billion of value in irrigated lands alone has been erased from financial ledgers, according to Scott Bozzo, an accredited farm manager with Macotera Ag Group from Lodi, California. Bozzo was recently named farm manager of the year by the California ASFMRA chapter.
Bozzo’s assumed numbers based on 8.5 million acres of irrigated farmland in California at an average value of $10,000 an acre. He admits the valuation number is conservative given that prime vineyards in Napa County can sell for over $500,000 an acre, and pistachio orchards with two good water supplies are still trading above $30,000. Meanwhile, land in western Fresno County and in other water-challenged areas is selling for less than $10,000 an acre.
“I would argue that $10,000 an acre is a conservative number for irrigated lands in California,” Bozzo said.
Rural appraisers pointed to this several years ago after passage of SGMA by the California Legislature. As the teeth of SGMA are being seen and landowners now see the significant reductions in groundwater pumping predicted with its passage, land prices in those areas with only wells for irrigation are falling fast.
Counties with plentiful water supplies like Stanislaus and San Joaquin are not the only one suffering, though their land values in some cases remain higher than other parts of the San Joaquin Valley. The one outlier seen in the report came from within Fresno Irrigation District (FID), where cropland sold for as high as $36,000 an acre in a rare upward trend seen across the state.
Matt Pennebaker, broker and accredited rural appraiser with Advanced Ag Realty & Appraisal in Reedley, California, said buyers want to be in FID because of the secure water availability and relatively low water costs.
“People are getting out of these less water secure areas and they’re trying to get into FID,” Pennebaker said. “FID has limited ground. We usually have 20-acre and 40-acre parcels in those areas, so they’re tightly held, hard to get into, and when they do come on the market, they still hold a good value.”
Kern County
California’s most valuable agricultural county by gross output continues to be Kern, which in 2023 exceeded $8.62 billion in gross agricultural sales, according to the Kern County Department of Agriculture.
Kern has several tier 1 water districts. Those are the districts with the most secure water supplies. However, it has many other water and irrigation districts with much more challenged supplies of irrigation water.
The highest agricultural land values in Kern County remain in the river districts or where districts have done a good job managing groundwater, according to the Trends Report.
Declines in agricultural land values have been seen across the board in the county, according to Michael Ming, owner, broker, and accredited rural appraiser of Alliance Ag Services in Bakersfield, California.
Though almond commodity returns appear to be rebounding from lows seen a year ago, the weaker commodity prices of recent years and higher interest rates have brought volatility to almond orchard transactions, according to the Trends Report. Depending on location, almond orchard values traded for as high as $25,000 to under $10,000 an acre, Ming said.
This is down from highs seen from 2018 to 2022 of $35,000 an acre for almond orchard sales.
Pistachio orchard sales saw a much larger drop in values, down from a high of $55,000 an acre in 2023 to the top sales commanding $35,000 a year later. Some pistachio orchards traded for as little as $10,000 an acre in the region.
Large and small pistachio blocks in white land areas – these are areas with underground wells as the single source of irrigation water – saw little to no buyer interest.
These price declines are affecting lending portfolios as well, Pennebaker said.
“I’ve worked with some lenders who had some loans that were made in 2019, and now when we get to 2024, they’re reevaluating their portfolio,” he said.
These downward trends in land values and returns to growers led to several big and small bankruptcies across the state in 2024.
