How much farmland in the US is foreign owned?
Foreign persons held an interest in nearly 37.6 million acres of U.S. agricultural land as of December 31, 2020. This is 2.9 percent of all privately held agricultural land and 1.7 percent of all land in the United States.
USDA Data on Foreign Ownership
USDA reports foreign persons and entities held an interest in 35.2 million acres of U.S. agricultural land in 2019, accounting for 2.7% of all privately owned agricultural land.
Canada is the biggest foreign owner of U.S. agricultural and timber land, and owns 4.7 million acres in the United States. The Netherlands is the second largest foreign owner with 4.6 million acres.
| Total Land Area (million sq. miles) | Cropland * | |
|---|---|---|
| (million acres) | ||
| Canada United States | 3.8 3.6 | 103 448 |
| north america USSR | 7.4 8.6 | 551 566 |
American Lands No More
USDA's latest data shows China owns over 191,000 acres of U.S. lands, but that was before a North Dakota land sale this Spring. A Chinese company, Fufeng Group, recently acquired 300 acres in North Dakota for $2.6 million. According to the company, it intends to establish a milling plant.
However, foreign investors acquiring real estate properties in the US were absent from this surge through a large portion of 2020 and early 2021. Prior to the second quarter of 2020, foreign investors accounted for as much as 20% of total real estate investment activity, or $100 billion annually.
What does China own in the U.S.? | CNBC Explains - YouTube
The largest holders of U.S. agriculture land are based in Canada (12.3 million acres), the Netherlands (4.9 million acres), and Italy (2.7 million acres). The single largest corporations that control U.S. agricultural land are generally institutional investors of timberland.
The company controls more than 49,000 acres of land in North Carolina, more than 42,000 in Missouri, just above 33,500 acres in Utah, over 13,000 in Virginia, more than 3,800 acres in Colorado and about 2,500 acres in Oklahoma.
The U.S. Federal Government.
While much of this land was transferred to the new state of Hawaii in 1959, the federal government did keep some.
Which country owns U.S. debt?
Foreign holders of United States treasury debt
Of the total 7.42 trillion held by foreign countries, Japan and Mainland China held the greatest portions. China held 980.8 billion U.S. dollars in U.S. securities. Japan held 1.21 trillion U.S. dollars worth.
Food prices have skyrocketed. Farmland owners benefit from this upswing. This makes it a highly effective inflation hedge — even better than most stocks and bonds. So it's not a big surprise why billionaires have invested (heavily) in the space in recent years.
China's American agricultural land holdings have increased over tenfold in the last decade, and at the beginning of 2020, investments from China held $2 billion of American agricultural land.
Most states, like Texas and Maine, have no restrictions on foreign ownership of land, contributing to the large amount of farmland that is under foreign control in these states. Six states forbid any foreign landholdings, and some, like Missouri, put caps on how much land can be held by foreign entities.
Roman Catholic Church: 70 million hectares
The largest landowner in the world is not a major oil magnate or a real estate investor. No, it's the Roman Catholic Church. According to lovemoney.com, the church owns more than 70 million hectares.
It took a moment to parse out with students that in fact China did not buy the Grand Canyon, that a google search of the actual news clearly bore that out and that the site they located was satire. This was completely unplanned and serendipitous in so many ways.
People own most farmland. Some 2.6 million owners are individuals or families, and they own more than two thirds of all farm acreage. Fewer than 32,500 non family held corpor ations own farmland, and they own less than 5 percent of all U.S. farmland. Farmland owners hold an aver age of about 280 acres each.
China has steadily accumulated U.S. Treasury securities over the last few decades. As of October 2021, the Asian nation owns $1.065 trillion, or about 3.68%, of the $28.9 trillion U.S. national debt, which is more than any other foreign country except Japan.
But a report by the Wharton School of Business at the University of Pennsylvania says the real reason for the purchases is often more mundane - to avoid paying taxes in China. The Sunshine State reached its 14th consecutive year as the top pick for foreign buyers.
International buyers accounted for 2.6% of the $2.3 trillion in existing-home sales during that time period.
Are the Chinese buying American homes?
Foreign buyers are also purchasing U.S. homes and 6% of foreign buyers are from China. Last year, Chinese investors spent a record $6.1 billion on real estate, mainly in Florida and California, according to the National Association of Realtors. That's around 10% of last year's total foreign investment.
From the NFRW Agriculture Subcommittee
In the United States, 97 percent of all farms and ranches are family owned. Those farms and ranches are owned by individuals, family partnerships or family corporations. Just 3 percent are non-family owned corporations.
Foreign investors own more than just cropland. Overall, they own or lease nearly 37.6 million acres of agricultural land, including forests and pastures.
(These people own the most land in America.) Investors from countries with less friendly relations also hold agricultural land in the U.S. These include China, with 194,179 acres, Venezuela with 28,058 acres, and Saudi Arabia with 18,586 acres.
