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Objectives: This study investigated the resilience of single-family housing values in walkable versus unwalkable neighborhoods during the economic downturn from 2008 to 2012 in Dallas, Texas.Methods: Using propensity score matching and difference in differences methods, this study established a natural experimental design to compare before-and-after value changes of single-family (SF) homes in walkable neighborhoods with unwalkable neighborhoods during the Great Recession. Two thousand seven hundred ninety-nine SF homes within 18 Tax Increment Financing (TIF) districts were categorized into walkable (Walk Score ≥50) and unwalkable (<50) groups. Six hundred twenty-four dwellings in walkable neighborhoods were matched with the most identical ones in the unwalkable neighborhoods by controlling for the selected structural and residential location variables. Relative average treatment effects were examined for SF values in walkable and unwalkable neighborhoods.Results: On average, the SF homes in walkable neighborhoods held $4566 (2.08%) more value than their how walkable counterparts.Conclusions: This study aims to help planners and decision-makers by documenting the unmet demand for walkable communities and their sustained economic benefit. Increased awareness of the sustained value of walkable communities can be used by lenders who finance and by policy makers who regulate placemaking. Results from this study can be integrated with research that demonstrates health-care cost savings of walkable environments to create an even more comprehensive set of evidence-based interventions to increase their supply. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract In the State of New York, atmospheric deposition of mercury ranks among the 10 most prevalent causes of adverse impacts on water quality. This paper examines the impacts of mercury pollution by exploring the relationship between property values and fish consumption advisory (FCA) designation on New York lakes. We find that New York State property values within one mile of an FCA-designated lake decrease by 6–7 percent on average. This negative impact decreases as the distance between properties and lakes increases. Regressions using samples derived with Mahalanobis metric matching find an even larger FCA effect, ranging from 7 to 10 percent. Our results can serve as a partial indication of the benefits of the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), which includes the first mercury emission standard in the United States. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) is considered to be a powerful model intended to achieve sustainable urban development. A well-designed TOD enhances the accessibility of different kinds of activities, reduces transportation costs and improves the comfort and safety of travel for the neighbourhood as whole, thereby increasing the willingness to pay for real estate properties located nearby. This study examines the housing price premiums of bus transit-oriented development (BTOD), a particular type of TOD that has become quite common in practice, especially in cities where public transportation is provided primarily through a bus system instead of a metro or light rail system. BTOD projects are built at major nodes of a bus network and typically include housing units and commercial services. Our research focuses on four completed BTODs in the Seattle metropolitan area, and employs data on sales prices, physical attributes, neighbourhood characteristics and location features for almost 7000 single-family homes located within a 1.5-mile radius. Using Hedonic price analysis, we find that these BTODs have generated significant positive effects on the values of adjacent homes, especially those located within 0.5 miles. Results from a more sophisticated longitudinal analysis using the data for Renton, one of the BTODs, confirm the price premiums while gaining additional insights about the temporal variations. These findings have an important policy implication, which is especially relevant for cities with an extensive bus transit system: local governments can generate additional tax revenues while advancing sustainability through bus transit-oriented developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Popularity of infill development is increasing because of the environmental benefits and cost saving potential it provides, which relate to the possibility to use existing infrastructure and services. However, the impact of infill development on value of existing properties has not been studied to a sufficient extent. Therefore, the aim of our study is to analyse whether infill development affects the prices of existing apartments. We carried out statistical analysis based on data from seven case neighbourhoods, and prices of more than 6000 housing transactions from one decade. The results of our analysis do not support the hypothesis of infill development affecting positively existing housing prices, but neither did the study show a significant negative effect. Both amenity effect and negative externalities may provide explanations as to why property values do not change due to infill development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors consider the interconnection of the concepts "environmental factors of life quality" - "health saving" - " property value " (as the boundaries of human life activity, aimed at health saving taking into account the environmental risks) using the example of Moscow. The issue of the environmental component in the assessment of real estate and the environment is one of the most discussed at the moment. The authors concluded that today's methods used to estimate the value of residential properties in Moscow almost don't reflect the level of ecological cleanliness of the districts and, as a consequence, the level of health saving of the population living there. The methodology for assessing the property value should be based, inter alia, on a system of healthsaving indicators, including: environmental performance (sanitary and hygienic), social indicators and lifestyle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Water is arguably the world's most critical resource, although its aesthetic and recreational functions typically receive less attention than its consumptive uses. Views of, and access to, attractive water resources are capitalized into property prices in the form of sales price and rental premiums, measured since the 1970s with the hedonic pricing technique. This study synthesizes the evidence to date with respect to the value of lakes and reservoirs as aesthetic and recreational resources to nearby residents. Findings are reported relating to the effects of scenic views of, and proximity, to reservoirs and large artificial lakes, the North American Great Lakes, and other smaller inland lakes. Of the 44 distinct reviewed studies that included tests of statistical significance, only two failed to produce any significant findings in the directions anticipated (i.e., a positive impact of water frontage or view and/or negative impact of increasing distance). Improvements in methodological approaches—from early studies employing anecdotal observation and visual comparison to more recent investigations employing advanced geographical information systems and rigorous spatially explicit regression techniques—are traced. The potential implications of climate variability and changes for property values are addressed, as is the growing movement towards the adoption of green infrastructure. The need to consider changes to aesthetic and recreational values, in addition to outcomes for more traditional consumptive uses during cost–benefit analyses associated with proposed (re)developments, is emphasized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Incomplete information can lead households to underprice environmental disamenities in the housing market. To bound the true implicit prices, researchers sometimes study high-profile cases involving significant media and community attention. However, prior research finds that high-profile cases may lead to “stigma” effects that can confound interpretation of the results. This study compares these opposing effects at sixteen of the highest profile underground storage tank releases across the United States over the last thirty years. Using covariate matching and difference-in-differences hedonic regressions, we estimate the change in housing values around each site. We then conduct a cross-site meta-analysis to estimate the average treatment effects. We find an average housing price depreciation of 2–6% upon discovery of a release, which is an upper bound on the implicit price of contamination at more typical sites. Following cleanup, we find a housing price appreciation of a similar magnitude, suggesting that even in high-profile cases, surrounding neighborhoods do not experience persistent stigma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The desirability of living on or close to water is reflected in sometimes substantial property price premiums. Water quality has an important influence on property prices, since it impacts a water body’s appearance, capacity to support wildlife, and recreational potential. As water quality continues to be altered by human use and activity, and in light of new threats posed by projected climate and associated environmental change, understanding the impact of changing quality on property prices, and the associated property tax base, is paramount. This paper reviews the body of evidence on this topic to date. Of the 43 distinct studies represented in the 48 publications reviewed, the expected, statistically significant relationship between water quality and property price was demonstrated in at least one of the models developed in all but two studies. As a whole, they provide convincing evidence that clean water has a positive effect on property values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using hedonic methods, we examine how chemical accidents at industrial facilities impact home values. The study focuses on facilities regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Risk Management Plan (RMP) program, which is in place to reduce the risk of harm to offsite populations from accidental chemical fires, explosions, and releases of toxic vapors. RMP facility and accident data were linked to residential transactions in Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. To facilitate causal inference, alternative difference-in-differences and triple differences models are estimated, where we compare homes near and far, and before and after, an accident; as well as homes near facilities where an accident did and did not occur. We find that the typical accident does not generally affect home values, but accidents resulting in offsite injuries, property damage, evacuations, or shelter-in-place orders lead to a 5% to 8% decrease in the value of homes within five kilometers; suggesting an average loss of $12,000 to $20,000. The benefits of policies that help avoid these impacts are particularly relevant from an environmental justice standpoint. Proximity to an RMP facility, irrespective of any incidents, is associated with significantly lower home values. Existing inequities are exacerbated by chemical accidents that impact offsite populations. • Hedonic study of home price impacts from chemical accidents at industrial sites. • Focus on MI, OH, and PA sites regulated by US EPA's Risk Management Plan program. • Implement alternative difference-in-differences and triple difference comparisons. • Find home values decline by 5–8% from accidents that impact nearby communities. • Existing inequities are exacerbated by these accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban trees offer extensive environmental benefits. However, the distribution of trees in urban areas often disproportionately favors higher-income neighborhoods. Implementing tree-planting programs in lower-income neighborhoods may provide environmental amenity values but may also lead to unintended consequences, such as gentrification. This paper focuses on one of the largest tree-planting programs in the U.S., the MillionTreesNYC Program, and estimates the impact of an increased supply of urban street trees on housing values and neighborhood compositions. The results demonstrate that the additional urban street trees did serve as an environmental amenity, resulting in higher housing values and attracting more white, educated, and young households to areas with new trees. However, the gentrification effects of this tree-planting program were relatively small, with minimal change in community composition. These findings suggest that it is possible to provide public goods without significant displacement of the existing population while also reaping the numerous benefits trees offer to urban areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The emerald ash borer (EAB) was first detected in North America in 2002, and since its introduction, this invasive pest has killed millions of ash trees. While EAB kills native North American ash trees in all settings, its impacts have been especially large in urban areas where ash has been a dominant street tree, especially in residential areas. While some management costs, such as insecticide treatment, tree removal, or tree replacement, are relatively straightforward to compute, the impact that EAB has had on residential property values is less clear. To better understand the economic cost of EAB in urban settings, we conducted a hedonic property value analysis to evaluate the impact of ash tree damages due to EAB infestation on housing sales prices. This study was conducted in the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which had high stocking levels of ash trees prior to EAB’s arrival. The objectives of the study are to investigate: (1) how EAB-infested ash trees affect property values; (2) whether the benefits from healthy ash trees to property value change after arrival of EAB; and (3) whether healthy ash trees located within infested neighborhoods provide the same benefits as the healthy ash trees located outside of infested neighborhoods. In general, our results show that the EAB outbreak has had a negative impact on home values for properties located in close proximity to the ash tree component of the urban forest. This result holds true for neighborhoods where EAB does not yet pose an imminent threat, and is amplified for neighborhoods where EAB has been detected. Our results highlight the early stages of a dynamic economic process that impacts urban residential property owners subject to the risk of EAB or other tree pests and diseases. In general, we find that forward-looking behavior of residential property owners is capitalized into property values during the process of forest pest infestation.

Rivers, streams, and canals support a variety of critical agricultural, industrial, transportation, ecological, and household uses. They also provide important aesthetic, recreational, and sociocultural benefits. This review paper synthesizes the evidence to date regarding the value of these linear water features as aesthetic and recreational resources to adjacent and nearby residents. Specifically, it summarizes 25 studies that have used the hedonic pricing method to calculate the effects of views of and proximity to rivers, streams, and canals on surrounding residential property values. The majority of studies indicated that significant positive property price effects are associated with river, stream, and canal view and proximity, though these effects appear less definitive in rural than urban settings. Implications of the body of evidence for planning, management, and development are discussed, and potential effects of climate change and diversion policies are highlighted. Improvements in measurement facilitated by advanced geographic information systems and rigorous spatially explicit regression techniques are noted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the high-speed-rail (HSR) construction boom of China, although some cities have upgraded old train stations in inner cities to be compatible with HSR, more cities have built new HSR stations on undeveloped land in the urban periphery. This study investigates the impact of intra-city access to inter-city transport nodes and explores the implications of HSR station locations for the accessibility and residential property values in Chinese cities connected by bullet trains. We find that for the cities with HSR stations in suburbs, the gains in inter-city travel brought by HSR are largely offset by the prolonged intra-city travel time to reach the stations, thus limiting frequent usage of HSR for daily commuting. The inner-city HSR station in Hangzhou shows a positive impact on residential property value in the vicinity, while the suburban HSR station in Guangzhou has not been observed to raise the residential property values noticeably in the short term despite the government’s intention to stimulate development in surrounding areas. The research findings show the need for better connections of HSR stations with the city to magnify the accessibility provided by HSR and careful integrated planning to promote desirable urban development outcomes in station areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to ascertain the factors of property value of a singlefamily dwelling in twin cities of Bryan and College Station in Texas, USA. Probable correlates of the value of a single-family, detached dwelling include both physical and environmental attributes. The action of buying or selling a house requires a reliable estimate of its value. People take into account both physical and environmental attributes of a house when they want to buy one. Physical characteristics include the size of the dwelling, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, location, and lot size; environmental attributes include the quality of immediate outdoor spaces of the dwelling, defined as curb appeal and measured using territorial markers, and degree of maintenance of front yard. A sample of 112 single-family dwellings from 14 neighborhoods was randomly selected for the study in twin cities of Bryan and College Station in Texas, USA. Data related to all the variables included in the model was collected. Statistical technique used for data analyses was General Linear Model. Results indicated that the size of dwelling, number bathrooms, location, and at least one environmental attribute have a statistically significant effect on the property value of single family dwellings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Research Papers of the Wroclaw University of Economics / Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wroclawiu is the property of Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny we Wroclawiu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Research Papers of the Wroclaw University of Economics / Prace Naukowe Uniwersytetu Ekonomicznego we Wroclawiu is the property of Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny we Wroclawiu and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Submerged aquatic vegetation (SAV) in the Chesapeake Bay is well below half of its historic levels, largely due to excessive nutrient and sediment loads degrading water quality. SAV provides important ecosystem functions, many of which are beneficial to local residents. To understand the implicit value residents place on SAV and the ecosystem services it provides, we undertake a hedonic property value study using residential transactions in 11 Maryland counties adjacent to the Chesapeake Bay. These data are matched to highresolution maps of SAV coverage. We pose a quasi-experimental comparison and examine how the prices of homes near the waterfront vary with the presence of SAV. On average, waterfront and near-waterfront homes within 200 meters of the shore sell at about a 6.5% premium when SAV is present. Applying these estimates to the 185,000-acre SAV attainment goal suggests total property value gains on the order of $436 million. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A nature park in an urban area, which generally includes environmentally valuable natural landscape such as forests, mountains, rivers, and beaches, provides valuable benefits for the public such as recreational opportunities and an aesthetic landscape. However, residents near nature parks could be more vulnerable to natural disasters like floods, tsunamis, and landslides. In order to understand the trade-off between the amenity and hazard effects of nature parks, this study explores the case of the Woomyeon Nature Park (WNP) in Seoul, Korea, which experienced a catastrophic landslide disaster in 2011. The hazard and amenity effects of the WNP before and after a landslide event are analyzed using a difference-in-difference approach with a random coefficient model. The results show that the amenity effect of the WNP has continued after the landslide disaster in apartment complexes near the WNP, but its housing market premiums have fallen by up to 11.3% since the event due to the risk of landslide. The existence of the WNP hazard effect underlines the importance of disaster prevention efforts in urban open space design and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of World of Real Estate Journal / Swiat Nieruchomosci is the property of Foundation of the Cracow University of Economics and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Nature-based solutions (NbS) are a cornerstone of climate change adaptation worldwide. Yet, evidence on their economic benefits is scarce, especially since the provided environmental amenities usually spatially correlate with climate-induced hazards, effects of which NbS aim to curb. This lack of empirical evidence creates obscurity regarding social acceptability of NbS, hindering their uptake and upscaling. We apply hedonic price models to estimate homeowners' willingness-to-pay for NbS, which offer flood safety and environmental benefits, while controlling for spatio-temporal changes in capitalized flood risk discounts due to the 1993-1995 floods in the Limburg Province, the Netherlands. We reveal a pre-flood effect of 5.6% (discounting on average -€12,753 for flood-prone properties), which rises to 10.9% (−€24,691 on average) immediately after the floods. However, the effect is only transitory. The flood discount of home values diminishes over time and eventually vanishes in 9–12 years, which coincides with the implementation of the largest and oldest NbS intervention in the Netherlands. Our analysis shows that NbS amenities provide a 15% (€33,687 on average) premium to nearby residential property prices. This evidence of the evolving flood risk discount and the stable NbS premium for individual homeowners could support the economic feasibility and wide acceptability of NbS for climate change adaptations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Federal Emergency Management Agency requires that buildings located in floodplains which undergo 'substantial improvement' must comply with current floodplain management standards. However, the wording of the 'substantial improvement' clause in the National Flood Insurance Program (44 C.F.R § 59.1) is highly ambiguous, leading to a loophole that can be easily exploited by property owners. We thus suggest a new interpretation of the law which we believe to be in the law's intended spirit. We mathematize our new interpretation of the law and formally prove that it does not have a substantial impact on poorer property owners who are unable to make the needed improvements at one time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building a rail transit system into a neighbourhood generally raises expectations about the positive impact of the rail project on property values. Despite this general belief, the paper argues that the nature and magnitude of the effect vary depending on local and regional contextual factors. In this respect, the introduction of Tehran's Metro Rail System (TMRS) between the low-income/run-down neighbourhoods on the south side and high-quality/affluent neighbourhoods on the north side of the city provides a suitable opportunity to examine this issue. Thus, the paper focuses on Shariati and Qolhak Stations in the northern parts, and Shohada and Shemiran Stations in the southern parts of the city, comparing price trends before and after the opening of the stations. The effect is estimated for treated and control properties of the metro stations using both trend analysis and a difference-in-differences model. Moreover, in order to identify the mediating contextual factors that influence the magnitude and direction of the impact, a survey is conducted close to the selected metro stations by means of qualitative methods of impact assessment. The paper found an overall negative effect of the metro stations on the sales value of residential properties located in Tehran's affluent neighbourhoods. On the contrary, the effect is positive and high for properties located close to the southern stations in the poor and run-down neighbourhoods of the city. The qualitative survey indicates that this negative effect in the northern neighbourhoods may be due to such contextual factors as a lack of considerable demand for public transport, inappropriate land-use management, perceptions of crime and privacy, and nuisance effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]