The Effects of Farmland, Farmland Preservation, and Other Neighborhood Amenities on Housing Values and Residential Growth

Abstract

Using data from a conjoint instru- The public’s increased demand for farmment, we estimate compensating variation for the land preservation has coincided with the presence of neighboring land that is dedicated to expansion of urban areas into once agriculagricultural use (versus developed uses), the pres- tural-dominated landscapes. For example, ervation of surrounding farmland as permanent analysis of voting cropland, and key neighborhood characteristics patterns in Rhode Island such as neighborhood parks, commute times, (Kline and Wichelns 1994) shows that supschool quality, and safety.We find that rural-urban port for farmland preservations programs fringe areas that are located within commuting dis- is correlated with recent population growth tance of urban areas and that have an abundance and increased housing values that typify ruof farmland could attract residential development. ral-urban fringe areas. Previous research Typical preservation efforts, featuring small par- suggests that local support of farmland prescels of preserved farmland, would induce further ervation can arise from residents’ preferresidential growth only for areas with short com- ences for attributes that locally preserved mutes and small amounts of remaining farmland.