The selling price of farmland is on the rise in southwestern Manitoba.

The increase comes after the province's bi-annual assessment on local residential values.

"This is basically just for the valuation of our community," explained Killarney-Turtle Mountain Mayor Rick Pauls. "It is kind of a report card saying our community is now worth more as a collective whole in property values which is a good economic factor for us to have municipally. The only thing that really affects us municipally is because our borrowing capabilities are based on our overall tax assessment we technically now would have 33 percent more borrowing capacity if we chose to do it as a community."

Pauls noted the total worth of property has increased on average 33.9 percent throughout the municipality. He added the majority of this increase fell on landowners with agricultural property whose land rose over 75 percent in value.

Meanwhile, housing in Canada is becoming increasingly expensive.

"About 15 to 20 years ago you used to be able to get a fairly decent home for $40,000, even a three bed room bungalow were going for $100,000 at that time," said Pauls. "Now we are seeing those figures more than double. I think a lot of that has to do is number one, we were behind the times in our real estate pricing and things like that. For new home owners the only thing that they have going for them now a days is the low interest rates. To get into a basic home now is going to cost you between 130,000 and 160,000 dollars."

He adds the same increases are taking place in rental houses with two bedroom homes almost doubling in cost.

"We are probably in a sellers market right now," stated Pauls. "It is a great economic indicator for our community. It shows that we are growing and overall we are very pleased with those numbers. I think the common misconception is that people think 'my property jumped by 30 percent, I am going to have to pay 30 percent more taxes next year.' Nothing could be further from the truth we adjust the mill rates accordingly."