One sale reaches $54,000 per acre, while the rest average $5,500 per acre.

The number of sales of agricultural land in excess of 100 acres during the first six months of 2017 followed the continuing trend set in the same period of 2015, with only about a half dozen closings.  

This time, while the story is the same, one transaction bucked the recent trend of sales from one ag-user to another with the sale of 101 acres in the Urbana area, when long-time local land-man/farmer J. R. Ramsburg sold his preliminarily approved rural well and septic subdivision of 57 residential lots to one of the Matan Companies’ ventures for $5.5 million.  The property located less than a mile south of the Urbana I-270 exit will be developed by the newly formed venture Mat-Roderick, LLC for a well-known regional builder with housing starts beginning sometime in 2018.

The balance of the farmland sales for the first six months of 2017 consisted of a mere 6 transactions totaling 889 acres, at an average price of $5,476 per acre.

With the exception of a 143-acre sale on Ball Road from GENSTAR to Ball Road Venture, LLC for $660,000, the remaining 5 closings all involved northern county agricultural land.  Of these 5 northern county closings, there was one farm in Keymar, one farm in New Windsor, one farm in Taneytown, and two farms in Thurmont. These six transactions totaled $4.87 million.

If you have a rural tract of land you are considering selling, please do not hesitate to call the team at 301-698-9696.  We are happy to share our experience with you at no obligation.

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Rocky Mackintosh, President, MacRo, Ltd., a Land and Commercial Real Estate firm based in Frederick, Maryland. He has been an active member of the Frederick, Maryland community for over four decades. He has served as chairman of the board of Frederick Memorial Hospital and as a member of the Frederick County Charter Board from 2010 to 2012.  He currently serves as chairman of the board of Frederick Mutual Insurance Company. Established in 1843, it is one of the longest enduring businesses in Frederick County.