The Land Report released its annual list of top 100 landowners in the U.S., and the popularity of land means the big keep getting bigger.
There is a new No. 1 biggest owner, Stan Kroenke, who surged to the top spot after acquiring the 937,000-acre Singleton ranch in New Mexico. He now owns more than 2.7 million acres.
Since its inception in 2007, The Land Report’s top spot has been held by someone with at least 2 million acres as Ted Turner was the first holder of the top title.
“2 million has always been the floor,” says Eric O’Keefe, editor of the Land Report.
O’Keefe says this report highlights the trend of landowners doubling down in this asset class.
“There is room at the top for additional acquisitions,” he says. “I don’t expect this to be the last from Kroenke Ranches. I don’t expect this to be the last from the Emersons or the Reeds or the other major timberland owners. I expect that the list will change and re-reorder in years to come.”
The top 100 landowners illustrate how more investment money is coming into land and bringing consolidation.
“It is a function of there’s more money out there than there is land available, and on the investor side of things they like the non-correlation with the stock market, and the positive correlation with inflation, and that’s what’s driving a lot of this interest in farmland,” says Steve Bruere, president of Peoples Company.
O’Keefe gives the example of Jeff Bezos, who in 2007 was No. 23 with 290,000 acres. In 2026, Bezos is ranked No. 21 with 462,000 acres.
“He’s gone up two slots, in 20 years,” he says. “What that tells me is that there is increasing concentration by leading landowners in that asset class. No. 100 in 2007 was 75,000 acres. Now it’s 170,000 acres. And so you’re seeing more individuals, more families, more family offices, more investors looking at land and accumulating greater concentrations.”
What Can Any Landowner Take Away From The Report?
It’s important to note, the top 100 listing is by quantity, which often is more plentiful in ranchland and forestland not row crop or specialty crop production. Bruere says, that doesn’t mean investment dollars aren’t going into row crop ground as well.
“It’s definitely a trend for these high net worth individual family office types are buying farmland,” he says. “I think the farmland market is going to stay pretty stable to maybe even get a little stronger, honestly, just because there’s so much interest in owning land.”
O’Keefe says it’s time to be bullish on land purchases if it’s available to you as an option.
“Buy that 20, that 40, that 160, that seems a little overpriced right now, but it’s going to, in the long run, increase the value of your current holdings, and it’s only going to go up,” O’Keefe says.
He also emphasizes optionality as a takeaway, looking at what monetization is possible from the land.
“I look at Kroenke Ranches, they purchased the Wagner in 2016, more than half a million acres of deeded land behind one fence in Texas,” O’Keefe says. “It had been run primarily as a cattle operation. It had some farming, and it certainly had a wildlife component. Now it has 130 wind turbines that generate 367 megawatts of electricity that can power more than 100,000 homes.”