| cy 
FARM LAND VALUES IN IOWA. 15 
PAYMENT AT TIME OF SALE. 
It was found that the terms of sale tended more or less to conform 
to established custom which prevailed in the period before the 
“boom.” In the Corn Belt it is a general practice to give possession 
of farms both to purchasers and to lessees on March 1. Accordingly, 
at the time of purchase a small cash payment is made to bind the 
sale, and the greater part of the cash payment is made on March 1, 
when possession of the farm is given. 
Only about 5 per cent of the sales involved an initial payment of 
as much as 50 per cent of the purchase price. Nearly 95 per cent 
of the purchasers paid 10 per cent or less, while nearly three-fourths 
paid 5 per cent or less. 
CASH PAYMENT MARCH 1, 1920. 
Of a total of 918 sales 865 involved a cash payment March 1, 1920, 
averaging 33.3 per cent of the total sale price. The remaining 53 
sales were cases involving full cash payment at time of sale or the 
initial cash payment plus the mortgage indebtedness left nothing to 
be paid March 1. Of the 865 cases involving a March 1 settlement, 
about 37 per cent agreed to pay less than 25 per cent of the purchase 
price March 1, 1920. 
If we add the initial cash payment to the cash payment due 
March 1, we obtain what may be considered the total amount: of 
cash, as distinguished from indebtedness, involved in the terms of 
sale. This total cash payment averages 40.7 per cent of the total 
consideration involved. 
TaBLe VITI.—Total cash payment, including initial and March 1 payments. 
Number of : . Per cent of 
farms pur- Percent of purchases DECE to be paid Aili | 
chased. purchased. 
87 dl OD act ese ee EPR Se ere eine ee 9.3 
238 sOrandninder- 100 <42 3 ee eee 25.7 
340 2 AnGdInG ChipOsssss eee oe eee 36. 7 
262 PRAT GUESS Sr Se tiae eee see eee ee 28.3 
As shown in Table VIII, more than one-fourth of the total sales 
involved a cash payment of less than 25 per cent, while nearly two- 
thirds of the sales represented cash payments of less than 50 per cent. 
MORTGAGE INDEBTEDNESS. 
The sales involving one or more mortgages were 839 out of a total of 
927. The average of all classes of mortgages is 64 per cent of the sale 
price of the farms mortgaged. As shown in Table IX, a considerable 
number of buyers, about one-eighth of all, have incurred indebtedness 
amounting to as much as 80 per cent or more of the purchase price, 
