Follow the simple three-step plan to create and analyze your own Minnesota farm real estate sales database. When you're ready to go, click Generate Report.

You’ll need to choose the geographic area you want covered, which data elements you want us to provide, and how you want us to display the data. You do this by first choosing your Boundaries (county, watershed…), then your Location (specific county and township/city), and finally your Attributes (year, summary level…).

Where appropriate, use Continue to move back to the main page and view your updated choices. To move back to the main page without making your changes take effect, press Cancel.

In 2009, the Minnesota Legislature created several new classifications for agricultural and timber land in the state. On Minnesota Land Economics, the reclassifications are handled by treating post-2008 land valuation data in a separate section. If you select "2009 and onward" on the attributes page, you will be presented with the new valuation classifications. At present, MLE MAP (green button to the left) does not present 2009 Land Value data.

These changes resulted in valuation data that is not directly comparable for that reported in previous years. In some counties, the currently reported numbers aren't even close to the previous year. Many of the inconsistencies are expected to be resolved by the time the final 2009 Mini Abstract is posted here in December. In the meantime, please be careful with the 2009 numbers!

You have access here to annual county assessor estimated market values for nearly every Minnesota city and township since 1993. Included are value estimates for total farmland, tillable farmland, timberland, and Green Acres and Agricultural Preserves properties. (The latter two are farmland preservation programs with special property tax treatment for participants. Agricultural Preserves enrollment is possible only in the seven-county Twin Cities Metropolitan Area or, under a different set of rules, in a handful of non-metropolitan counties. Green Acres enrollment is open statewide.)

Details on Minnesota's property tax system are available in the Department of Revenue's most recent property tax bulletin. A description of the main variables is located further down the page.

Initial data for the current year are available by July. Final estimates are posted here in December of that year. So, for example, we posted provisional year 2009 estimates in July 2009 and we'll put up the the final,official numbers in December 2009.

These data are drawn from the annual Department of Revenue "Mini Abstracts," from 1993 onward. The dataset is a summary of county assessor records for individual properties. In the Mini Abstract, these property records (estimated values, acres, etc.) are aggregated to unique taxing jurisdictions, such as that portion of city A in school district B. For the Minnesota Land Economics web site, we further aggregate the records to the township or city level. Some jurisdictions lack some data items in some (or all) years.

For details on how we assigned cities and townships to watersheds, click here.

Field names:

Year: Year for which market values are estimated.

Farmland: All ("deeded") agricultural land, including Green Acres. From 2009 onward, this is all 2a Agricultural land minus the building site.

Tillable Land: Agricultural land that can cultivated for row crops or grains. From 2009 onward, this is 2a Tillable Agricultural.

Timberland: Class 2b forested land. For 2008, this includes the new 2c Managed Forest category. For 2009 onward, we separate the two classifications.

Green Acres: A farmland preservation preferential tax program. Green Acres parcels are taxed at their use (agriculture) value rather than their market value. Both values are reported here.

Agricultural Preserves: Farmland preservation programs open only to landowners in the seven-county Twin City Metropolitan Area (TCMA) or (under different rules) in a handful of non-metropolitan counties. In the TCMA, these properties are taxed at their use (agriculture) value rather than their market value. In the other counties, enrolled lands are taxed at their market value. The lower value is reported here for the TCMA counties. From 2009 onward, we distinguish 2a Agricultural Preserves from 2b Agricultural Preserves.

Farmland Value: The sum of agricultural land estimated values (including Green Acres low values but not including values for buildings and other "improvements")--all divided by farmland acres. .

Timberland Value: The sum of forested land estimated values, divided by timberland acres. Reported in separate categories.

Tillable Value: Total tillable value divided by tillable acres.