At least 3,000 square miles of the state now under the control of noncitizens, according to a report in The Midwesterner:
Data from a USDA report on Foreign Holdings of U.S. Agricultural Land released this month shows foreign owners now hold 1,893,744 acres in the Great Lakes State, which equates to 5% of the entire state or 8.8% of Michigan’s privately held agricultural land.
The figure, which counts acres owned by noncitizens or U.S. companies with a “significant foreign interest” through Dec. 31, 2024, is an increases of 71,697 acres over the year prior, and “more than double the acreage reported a decade ago,” according to MLive.
In terms of total acreage, Michigan ranks sixth nationally, behind Oklahoma, Alabama, Colorado, Maine, and Texas, though the state ranks third for percentage of private agricultural land owned by foreigners.
Only Hawaii at 17.1% and Maine at 21.3% have more foreign-owned agricultural land than Michigan.
