Public Transportation Accessibility, Proximity to New York City, and Residential Property Values in New Jersey

Abstract

In recent years as housing with better transit accessibility has become unaffordable to many households in many regions globally, the call to study the connection between transit and property values has shifted to concern itself with the negative consequences of transit access being capitalized into property values. The primary purpose of this research is to define the effect of station proximity and other characteristics on housing prices and provide evidence if there is displacement in the area with better accessibility to transit. The outcome reveals that locational factors are associated with housing prices. Inherent housing features, the number of beds, structure age, and parking spots were the strongest predictors in this model of housing prices. Relative to housing near other transit lines, housing near the Northeast Corridor Line, which provides direct access to New York Penn Station, had much higher sales prices. Given the significant increase in the poverty rate in a high-density area with a transit station, low-income people move into the inner-city area with higher population density and public transportation accessibility. We expect that the results can contribute to providing improved housing price forecasting model, responding to the housing crisis, and ultimately establishing sophisticated strategies for affordability and livability.