Follow the simple three-step plan to create and analyze your own Minnesota farm real estate sales database. You can also examine all variables if you click on Individual Records. When you're ready to go, click Generate Report. Or, to see your data in a map, click on our new feature: MLE Map on the left-side menu.

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…).

Graphs and tables summarizing this data at the multi-county region and at the statewide levels are contained in the Minnesota Farm Real Estate Study. An annual update is usually available by March 1. For annual cash rents, check out our statewide rent study.

MLE gives you access to every farm real estate sale in Minnesota since 1990. Included are all "agricultural" sales (those for which the buyer indicates no intention of changing use) reported to the Minnesota Department of Revenue by county assessors. Sales price includes both land and buildings.

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 Button.

These files include sales from January 1, 1990 through September 30 of the reported year. Each record is a single sale. Some sales have missing data for some of the variables. Original data from Minnesota Department of Revenue Certificates of Real Estate Value. Sales that were not "arms-length" or for which the buyer stated that the property would be converted to something other than agriculture were excluded. The Department of Revenue adjusted sales prices for terms and time. The dataset used here excludes sales with per-acre prices over $15,000 and those that were less than 20 acres in size. Sales may or may not include improvements such as structures.

For details on how we assigned sales to watersheds, click here.

Field names

County: County in which sale occurred

Township/City: Minor civil division in which sale occurred

Sale Year: Calendar year of sale

Parcel Size: Number of deeded acres in parcel

Tillable Acres: Number of tillable acres in parcel

Productivity: Average crop equivalent rating (1 low to 100 high) for whole parcel (assigned by local assessor). Information on the productivity index is contained in the introduction to the Soil Data section of Minnesota Land Economics.

Total Sales Price: Total reported sales price for land and buildings, less personal property, adjusted for contract terms and deflated to January 1 of the year of sale

Per-Acre Sales Price: Total reported sales price for land and buildings, less personal property, adjusted for terms and time, divided by deeded acres ($/acre)