Urban trees, house price, and redevelopment pressure in Tampa, Florida

Abstract

We examined the relationship between urban trees and the sales price of single-family homes in Tampa, Florida. We chose Tampa, because the city is facing major redevelopment pressure that may impact the association between trees and house price. In particular, a frequently voiced view in Tampa’s development community is that trees adversely affect the value of houses that are being sold for redevelopment. We estimated hedonic models of sales price controlling for house and neighborhood characteristics and correcting for spatial autocorrelation (n = 1,924). We found that trees within 152m (500 feet) of a house’s lot were significantly associated with higher sales prices. Specifically, a 1-percentage point increase in tree-canopy cover was associated with a total increase in sales price of $9,271 to $9,836 (results were largely insensitive to correction for spatial autocorrelation). Our results demonstrate that, even in a city facing major redevelopment pressure, trees are associated with higher sales prices.