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Document Type

Thesis

Date of this Version

1-1962

Citation

Thesis (M.S.)—University of Nebraska—Lincoln, 1962. Department of Agricultural Economics.

Comments

Copyright 1962, the author. Used by permission.

Abstract

This study has three purposes:(1)To show trends in the price of farm land with emphasis placed on recent years: (2) To show trends in the assessed value of farm land; and (3) To show the relationships which exist between sales prices and assessed values of farm land.

Although data were available on a county basis, information will be presented only on a district and state basis.The number of sales in individual counties is generally too few to permit inference to be drawn at the county level.Also, some counties have not reported their sales every year. Combining the data from counties have not reported their sales every year.Combining the data from counties into districts provide results which are much more reliable.

One limitation of this study is that during the years 1952-1960, sales of farm land represented approximately one and one-half percent of the land in farms.Therefore, sales in any given year for any district represent a small part of the area in farms and the results from these sales may not necessarily be representative of the district in which they occur.

Data were collected from records made available through the State Tax Commissioner’s office.These records consisted of copies of all bona fide sales of 40 acres or more of farm land in Nebraska.A record of each land transaction is sent to the State Tax Commissioner’s office by the respective county register of deeds.Information from these records was placed on IBM cards and the data were used in this form for purposes of analysis.

The data were carefully screened in an attempt to eliminate all sales that were not bona fide or for farming purposes.Tracts were eliminated for the purposes of this study if they were smaller than 40 acres in size, sold for less than $10 per acre, or differed grossly from the average price per acre for the county, or had an assessment-sale ratio of over 100 percent.Other tracts also had to be discarded because of lack of information concerning one or more of the essential variables, such as assessed value.

The data were arranged first by countries, then into nine relatively homogeneous districts first by countries, then into nine relatively homogeneous districts, and finally collectively for state averages.Scotts Bluff County, because of its diversified characteristics, was omitted from the Northwest District, but was used in compiling totals for the entire state and in some analyses was considered as the tenth district.

A multiple regression analysis was made using assessed value as the dependent variable and sales price and the size of tract as the independent variables.The multiple regression analysis was calculated for the nine districts and Scotts Bluff County for the year 1960.

Advisor: Loyd K. Fischer

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