Last updated: October 31, 2026
What water rights actually sell for
Published transaction prices and wholesale benchmarks for water in the western United States, drawn from WestWater Research reporting and public studies of wholesale water prices.
There is no single national price for water rights. A permanent right on the Colorado Front Range can trade for tens of thousands of dollars per acre-foot, while a one-year agricultural transfer in California can change hands for a few hundred dollars per acre-foot. The gap is the point: seniority, location, and whether the deal is a permanent sale or a seasonal lease move the price more than any statewide average. One acre-foot equals 326,000 gallons. The figures below keep sale, lease, and wholesale prices in separate rows so they are never read as one market.
The figures
| Figure | Value | Trend vs prior period | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Colorado-Big Thompson Project water, northern Colorado, 2025 | $85,000 per acre-foot | ▼ Down Prior: $101,000 per acre-foot in 2022 | Water Education Colorado, reporting WestWater Research |
| Western water deals tracked in WestWater Research latest annual report | 2.5 million acre-feet in leases and sales, worth a combined $1 billion | ● Baseline Prior: Single-report total — no prior-report total stated in the cited article | Water Education Colorado, reporting WestWater Research |
| Twin Lakes system (Fryingpan-Arkansas Project), price change 2022–2025 | Up 17% | ▲ Up Prior: 2022 level not stated in the cited article — percentage change only | Water Education Colorado, reporting WestWater Research |
| Arizona water prices, reported rise | Up 75% | ▲ Up Prior: Base level not stated in the cited article — percentage change only | Water Education Colorado, reporting WestWater Research |
| California, South of Delta transfer, May 2025 week | 5,000 acre-feet of federal project water transferred between agricultural water districts at $411 per acre-foot | ● Baseline Prior: Single transfer — no prior-period equivalent transfer stated | WestWater Research, California Water Market Report |
| California, State Water Project 2024 carryover transfer, March 2025 | Just over 2,000 acre-feet transferred between agricultural water districts South of the Delta at $185 per acre-foot | ● Baseline Prior: Single transfer — no prior-period equivalent transfer stated | WestWater Research, California Water Market Report |
| Nasdaq Veles California Water Index (NQH2O) | $341.73 as of May 21, 2025 | ▼ Down Prior: $408.68 as of April 30, 2025 | WestWater Research, California Water Market Report |
| California project allocations, April 2025 week | Central Valley Project South of Delta agricultural and State Water Project allocations both increased to 50% | ● Baseline Prior: Allocation levels before the increase not stated in the cited report | WestWater Research, California Water Market Report |
| Lower Colorado River Basin wholesale water, weighted average price by source | Bureau of Reclamation (Colorado River) water: $0.12 per acre-foot; water from other non-state, non-federal sources: $853.15 per acre-foot | ● Baseline Prior: Single-study comparison — wholesale delivery prices, not retail water bills | UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability / Natural Resources Defense Council study |
| Lower Colorado River Basin wholesale water, weighted average price by buyer type | Primarily agricultural districts: $30.32 per acre-foot; primarily municipal utilities: $512.01 per acre-foot | ● Baseline Prior: Single-study comparison — wholesale delivery prices, not retail water bills | UCLA Institute of the Environment and Sustainability / Natural Resources Defense Council study |
| Western U.S. median transfer prices, 1987–2008 (2008 dollars) — dated series, shown for context only | Agriculture-to-urban sale: $295 per acre-foot; agriculture-to-agriculture sale: $144 per acre-foot; agriculture-to-urban lease: $74 per acre-foot; agriculture-to-agriculture lease: $19 per acre-foot | ● Baseline Prior: Dated series — do not compare directly with 2025 prices | Brewer, Glennon, Ker & Libecap, NBER Working Paper 13002, via Water Rising Institute summary |
How to read these numbers
Included: permanent-right prices reported from WestWater Research's annual report, individual California transfers and the Nasdaq Veles California Water Index as reported in WestWater's weekly California reports, and wholesale-price comparisons from the UCLA / Natural Resources Defense Council study of the Lower Colorado River Basin. Excluded: retail household water bills, which measure delivery and treatment costs rather than the price of the right itself, and any asking price that could not be tied to a reported transaction. Permanent sales, seasonal leases, and wholesale delivery prices are different products; the table labels each row so a lease price is never mistaken for a sale price. The 1987–2008 median series is dated and shown only to illustrate the long-standing gap between sale and lease prices and between agricultural and urban buyers.
Disclaimer: Water rights are governed by state law, and seniority, basin, and transfer rules decide whether a given right can be sold or leased at all. Figures on this page are aggregated public estimates assembled for information only. They are not investment advice, legal advice, or a professional opinion on any specific right, transaction, or basin. Original reporting and the underlying studies remain the work of the sources linked above; this page summarizes their published figures with attribution and adds no proprietary dataset.
waterrightsvalues.com is offered for sale at $14,888.
Buy Now — $14,888 via Afternic
Questions about this domain: info@primedomaincapital.com
Changelog
- October 2026: Initial edition — Colorado-Big Thompson 2025 price and 2022 comparison, WestWater annual-report volume, California transfers and index levels, and Lower Basin wholesale-price comparisons established.