The object of the study reflected in the paper is the market sector of agricultural lands in Latvia. The goal set out in this scientific paper is to explore the development trends current in the target sector of the market and identify problems and barriers to successful progress common to the entire real estate market in this country.

The price of agricultural land and arable land is particularly low in Estonia when compared to Western European countries. The demand for agricultural land was low during the first decade after the collapse of the Soviet agriculture system. The situation is changing and the demand for agricultural land is increasing at the present time. Yet, simultaneously, the formation of arable land prices is not studied much. There are several factors affecting land prices and spatial characteristics are among them.

The ongoing processes in agriculture, and the national economy in general, as well as continuous targeted reconstruction of the European Union Common Agricultural and Rural Development Policy, and other processes of globalisation and international integration, steadily and directly resound to Latvia, and create new objectives related to the use of land. The agreement on rural development adopted during the European Union Salzburg Conference has also established or determined new functions for the use of land.

The fragmentation of landholdings is considered as disturbing factor for agriculture. The aim of this article is to evaluate the extent of land fragmentation of the large landholdings in Estonia. The Januszewski and Schmook indexes were calculated for that purpose. The detailed survey of three agricultural landholdings was conducted in order to assess the possibilities to reduce the land fragmentation and improve their land use conditions. Results showed that Estonian agricultural producers’ landholdings are considerably fragmented.

In the conditions of the Republic of Belarus there was shown the necessity of detection and recording of socially-significant sights and brand objects in the process of managing land resources. There was examined the classification of land plots and objects of real estate, which appear to be territory brands. There were determined the main approaches to the formation of the system of such objects on the basic level of state management.

This paper presents a case study of the economic damages to homeowners in a northern New Jersey community due to an exotic forest insect--the hemlock woolly adelgid. Hedonic property value methods are used to estimate the effect of hemlock health on property values. A statistically significant relationship between hemlock health and residential property values is established. Moreover, there are some signs of spillover impacts from hemlock decline, as negative effects are realized on the parcels where the declining hemlock stands are located as well as on neighboring properties.

A simulation model incorporating stochastic yields, prices, and government payments generates returns for landowners and tenants under cash, share, and flexible leases. Corn, soybeans, wheat, cotton, peanuts, and wheat-double crop soybeans crop enterprises are studied. Alternatives are evaluated by mean returns, coefficient of variation, and certainty equivalent analysis.

The effect of risk on farmland values and returns is analyzed using a capitalization model. County-level models are estimated using spatial econometric techniques. Our results show that riskier regions and growing conditions have both lower land values and higher risk-adjusted rates of return to farmland.

Without support, the levels of agricultural public goods will fall short of the demand in high cost countries like Norway, Finland and Iceland. However, as demonstrated in this paper using Norway as a case, the current support and agricultural activity is far out of proportions from a public goods perspective. Model simulations show that at most 40% of the current support level can be defended by the public good argument. Furthermore, the present support, stimulating high production levels, is badly targeted at the public goods in question.

Estimated monetary value of agricultural lands supposes determination of the profit part attributable to land itself (ground rent), but the only characteristic is insufficient for complex evaluation of land cost. Volatility of profitability of agricultural lands, depending on seasonal fluctuations, along with economical risks, requires to be considered for calculation of the capitalization coefficient. The paper deals with the main approaches to determination of the capitalization coefficient while calculating monetary value of farm lands.

Land-use conflicts highlight several myths about property rights. The central myth is that property rights are linked to natural rights, that property rights are durable and unchanging, and that any interference with these property rights requires public compensation. However, particular settings and circumstances lead to conflicting rights claims which the courts must sort through to determine where the more compelling rights claim resides. Situations are not protected because they have property rights.