Nearby Residential Property Research Articles

Is something better than nothing? The impact of foreclosed and lease-purchase properties on residential property values

Lease-purchase (L-P) programmes that rehabilitate foreclosed property for sale as affordable housing may provide a way to reduce foreclosure externalities on nearby property values. This paper investigates the feasibility of such a strategy by estimating the effects of foreclosed properties on nearby residential property values compared with those of an L-P programme operated by the Cleveland Housing Network, Cleveland, Ohio. The findings indicate that although both L-P and foreclosed properties have a negative effect on the value of nearby non-distressed homes, the negative effect of foreclosure is larger. At the same time, the scope of the foreclosure externality is greater in low- and moderate-income neighbourhoods, while the foreclosure externality is generally smaller in high income neighbourhoods. Such results imply that an L-P strategy is likely to be more effective in offsetting foreclosure externalities in low- and moderate-income neighbourhoods than in high income neighbourhoods.

Value Capitalization Effects of Golf Courses, Waterfronts, Parks, Open Spaces, and Green Landscapes — A Cross-Disciplinary Review

This article is a cross-disciplinary literature review of eight environmental amenities and their marginal price effect on nearby residential property values. The purpose of the article is to present variation in price contributing effects of amenities on home values and to identify most commonly used value capturing measurement variables, proximity to and view of, amenities. Additionally, variants of these variables are identified and are presented to showcase how they are used in different situations for different amenity types. Further, this article also highlights which variant of the variable is most suited to capture the marginal price effect by the amenity types. This is the first attempt to compile a comprehensive review of the literature from five disciplines across eight amenity types and provides a useful base for scholars and practitioners interested in the topic.

The Influence of Urban Landscape Spatial Patterns on Single-Family Property Values.

Many empirical studies assessing the economic benefits of urban green space have continually documented that green space tends to increase both value and sale price of nearby residential properties. Previous studies, however, have not fully captured the quality of neighborhood level landscape spatial patterns on housing prices. To fill this literature gap, this study examined the association between landscape spatial patterns of urban green spaces and single-family home sale transactions using a spatial regression model. The research was conducted through the analysis of 11,326 housing transaction records from 2010 to 2012 in Austin, TX, USA. Variables measuring the structural, locational and neighborhood characteristics of housing were coupled with Geographic Information Systems, remote sensing and FRAGSTATS to calculate several landscape indices measuring the quality of existing landscape spatial patterns. After controlling for any spatial autocorrelation effects, we found that that larger tree and urban forest areas surrounding single-family homes positively contributed to property values, while more fragmented, isolated and irregularly shaped landscape spatial patterns resulted in the inverse. The results of this research increase awareness of the role of urban green spaces while informing community design/planning practices about the linkages between landscape spatial structure and economic benefits.

Strip Clubs, 'Secondary Effects', and Residential Property Prices

The 'secondary effects' legal doctrine allows municipalities to zone, or otherwise regulate, sexually oriented businesses. Negative 'secondary effects' (economic externalities) justify limiting First Amendment protection of speech conducted inside strip clubs. One example of a secondary effect, cited in no fewer than four United States Supreme Court rulings, is the negative effect of strip clubs on the quality of the surrounding neighborhood. Little empirical evidence that strip clubs do, in fact, have a negative effect on the surrounding neighborhood exists. To the extent that changes in neighborhood quality are reflected by changes in property prices, property prices should decrease when a strip club opens up nearby. We estimate an augmented repeat sales regression model of housing prices to estimate the effect of strip clubs on nearby residential property prices. Using real estate transactions from King County, Washington, we test the hypothesis that strip clubs have a negative effect on surrounding residential property prices. We exploit the unique and unexpected termination of a 17 year moratorium on new strip club openings in order to generate exogenous variation in the operation of strip clubs. We find no statistical evidence that strip clubs have 'secondary effects' on nearby residential property prices.

The Impact of Wind Farms on the Prices of Nearby Houses in Poland: A Review and Synthesis

Abstract Since 2009/10 Poland has experienced a dynamic growth of wind energy production. Currently, wind energy is the most popular resource of renewable energy in Poland. Despite the importance of wind energy for the Polish economy, there is no reliable and comprehensive research on the causal effects of wind farm facilities on property prices. The aim of this article is to critically review existing research related to the impact of wind farms on prices of nearby residential properties. The article concentrates on Polish as well as international scientific literature. Besides presenting the main findings obtained from the review of literature, the article clusters these findings based on information that is crucial to the analysis: methodology, data, and subject of study. The literature review is followed by a description of the characteristics of wind energy in Poland, which includes differences in the location of wind farms between Poland and other countries. The article concludes that despite the fact that some international research points to a significant causal effect of wind farms on property prices, these results cannot be easily transposed to Polish circumstances. Based on the reviewed literature, the article moreover shows directions for improving future analyses in Poland, particularly with respect to the methodology.

Property tax delinquency and its spillover effects on nearby properties

This paper investigates the impact of property tax delinquency on the sales price of nearby residential properties, an effect that we call the “delinquency discount”. We use a sample of 34,500 home sales and the population of delinquent properties for Chicago, Illinois during the period 2010 to 2013. We focus on the delinquency discount for properties within the same Census Block. We also examine the effect of delinquency duration on neighboring properties, as this measures the level of their financial distress. We estimate the magnitude of the delinquency discount using several alternative estimation methods, in each case controlling for local foreclosure activity. Our preferred method is a matching estimator, as it works to eliminate the potential for omitted variable bias that is common in this type of estimation. We find large, negative, and statistically meaningful effects of delinquent properties for which the local government has placed a tax lien and has put the lien up for sale to private investors. For properties with a tax lien that are not successfully sold, we estimate a negative spillover of 5.1% ($12,872) on surrounding properties. Properties with a tax lien that are sold to private investors have a smaller, but still negative impact on surrounding property values of 2.5% ($6310).

How do Ghana’s landfills affect residential property values? A case study of two sites in Accra

Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Ghana lacks well-engineered sanitary landfill sites. Increased urbanization and concomitant real estate growth lead landfills to compete with residential land use, resulting in closer proximity between landfill sites and residential neighborhoods. The effects of landfills on the property values of nearby residential communities have been the subject of much debate in the developed world, where state-of-the-art and environmentally well-engineered landfills are common. However, academic and other research is inconclusive on the effects of landfills on property values in the developed countries. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by exploring the effects of landfills on residential property values in Ghana, using the Oblogo and Mallam landfills in Accra as a case study. Our analysis indicates that while landfills do depress nearby residential property values, the effects are contingent on property location relative to the level of urbanization in a community, and year of completion and total costs of property development.

Effect of an Open-air, Mixed-use Shopping Center on the Price of Nearby Residential Properties

In this paper, we examine the nonlinear effect of an open-air, mixed-use shopping center on residential property prices in the surrounding area. Using difference-in-difference estimators and accoun...

Property Tax Delinquency and Its Spillover Effects on Nearby Properties

This paper investigates the impact of property tax delinquency on the sales price of nearby residential properties, an effect that we call the “delinquency discount”. Using a unique data set from Chicago, we control for the duration of delinquency as well as the potential simultaneous relationship between property tax delinquency and home prices. We find the delinquency discount of one additional recently delinquent property within 660 feet is 3.4 percent on nearby housing prices. We also find that the effect of the delinquency discount increases with the duration of delinquency and decreases with distance from the sale. The results provide local governments with a more complete estimate of the cost of property tax delinquency. This is important as lawmakers weigh the benefits and costs of alternative policies.

Effects of Rail Transit on Residential Property Values

The impacts of a rail transit system on residential property values have been examined for many metropolitan areas in the United States, China, and other countries, yet there have been few comparison studies between countries. Studies have reported both the positive effects of rail transit resulting from improved accessibility as well as the nuisance effects from noise, pollution, crime, and unsightliness. The net effects of a rail transit system could be mixed, and there has been no agreement on which would dominate. This study used METRORail in Houston, Texas, and the Metro in Shanghai, China, as empirical cases and compared their effects on nearby residential property values. A hedonic price model with ordinary linear regression was used in the case study of Shanghai's rail transit lines. The Houston case study applied ordinary linear regression and multilevel regression techniques to examine the hierarchical structures of spatial data explicitly. The modeling results from both cases suggest that the overall effects of rail transit lines on residential property values are significantly positive. Notable variations of rail transit effects were also observed at various distance ranges and time spans.

Measuring the Impact of Church Externalities on House Prices

This study extends literature that empirically investigates the impact of the externalities generated by churches on prices of nearby residential properties with particular reference to selected areas in Lagos, Nigeria; but with some implications for economic studies in other parts of the world The study hypothesized that the proximity of a church has nosignificant effect (positive or negative) on house prices. The hypothesis is tested with a standard hedonic pricing model using the net rents of 450 apartments (flats) across the study area. The results confirmed the more common belief that neighborhood churches, particularly the larger ones, impact on the values of nearby residential properties negatively. It is further revealed that where a more powerful positive externalities exists side-by-side, the effects of the negative externalities can be considerably tempered or completely overshadowed. The results bring to light the environmental, social and economic (the triple bottom line) implications of the externalities generated by neighborhood churches in the study area. It is expected to assist urban planners, the courts, mortgagees and real estate valuers in resolving the controversies on the nuisance versus amenity effects of neighborhood churches.

Impact of Bus Transit Centers on Values of Nearby Single-Family Residential Land in Houston, Texas

Public transit professionals continue to seek methods that offer greater service opportunities without a material increase in the costs of service provision. One strategy is to construct bus transit centers, which operate much like the airline hub-and-spoke concept. More frequent destinations can be made available with shorter patron wait times and little or no increase in the number of bus hours. Patrons tend to appreciate the convenience of a transfer occurring in a lighted facility as well as the increased level of bus service. Many bus-based centers may be close to single-family neighborhoods, and residents might express concern about property values given the presence of a bus transit center nearby. In addition to the bus transit centers that serve traditional local or express routes, several bus rapid transit lines are planned in other cities, with stations that might lead nearby communities to ask similar questions about property values. The impact of bus transit centers is assessed on nearby single-family residential property values in Houston, Texas. Five Houston transit centers show that the transit centers in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods have a positive influence on property values. In the single affluent neighborhood in the study, results indicate the transit center negatively affects property values, but the influence is less than that of other variables.

The Economic Impact of Greening Urban Vacant Land: A Spatial Difference-In-Differences Analysis

Vacant land is a serious problem in many cities, and cities have recently begun to explore greening as a management strategy to reduce the negative influence of vacancy. The city of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania pioneered the use of a simple greening treatment—removal of debris coupled with planting grass and trees—as a means of improving blighted communities. Though they are becoming more popular, the actual economic impact of these programs is not well understood. This paper details the use of a spatial difference-in-differences approach for measuring the impact of Philadelphia's innovative vacant land greening program on nearby residential property values. This approach compares observed changes in property values surrounding treated vacant lots with observed changes around control lots—lots which might have been treated but were not. While property values throughout the city increased during the study period, properties surrounding greened vacant lots had a greater increase in value than properties surrounding nongreened vacant lots. By developing both global and local versions of the model, we also explore spatial variation in the impacts of the program—offering insight into which kinds of neighborhoods might derive the greatest economic benefit from vacant land greening programs.

Coastal Erosion as a Natural Resource Management Problem: An Economic Perspective

Natural forces render the coastal environment an evolving landscape, with the majority of coastline in the U.S. exhibiting net erosion in recent decades. This article provides an interdisciplinary introduction to economic dynamic optimization models for analyzing beach replenishment and explores differences between these theoretically based welfare economic models and typical applications of benefit-cost analysis employed by public agencies and consultants. Welfare economic models conceptualize benefits of beach area as service flows accruing to nearby residential property owners, recreational beach users, and local businesses, while the costs include pecuniary engineering expenditures, opportunity costs, as well as negative impacts on the coastal environment. Combining information on net benefits with an equation representing beach dynamics, this framework is capable of identifying the conditions under which beach replenishment is welfare-enhancing, and an optimal replenishment schedule can be derived. By congressional mandate, applications of benefit-cost analysis employed by public agencies focus attention on storm damage reduction, with limitations placed on assessment of recreational benefits. We provide an overview of empirical results and compare and contrast the two approaches.

The Impact of Neighbourhood Churches on House Prices

This study extends literature that empirically investigates the impact of neighborhood churches on residential property values with particular reference to selected areas in Lagos metropolis. The hypothesis that proximity to a church has no effect (positive or negative) on house prices is tested with a standard hedonic pricing model using a sample of 450 rented apartments (flats) across the study areas. The results followed the more common belief that neighborhood churches, particularly the large ones, impact negatively on the values of nearby residential properties. It further revealed that where more powerful positive externalities exist in close proximity, the negative effects of churches, even the large ones, on residential property values can be neutralized or even overshadowed. Among others, the results of the study is expected to bring to light the social and economic implications of churches located within residential neighborhoods in the study area and thereby assist urban planners, the courts and real estate valuers in resolving the debate on the nuisance versus amenity effects of neighborhood churches.

Assessing the Effect of Publicly Assisted Brownfield Redevelopment on Surrounding Property Values

This study measures and compares the impact of publicly assisted brownfield redevelopment on nearby residential property values in Milwaukee and Minneapolis. It also examines the influence of land use, neighborhood characteristics, and other redevelopment factors on this impact. The research approach incorporates a hedonic method to quantify nearby property value effects at more than 100 brownfield projects, and stakeholder interviews are used to assess perceived impacts to real estate conditions. The results reveal that the spillover effect in terms of raising surrounding property values is significant in both quantity and geographic scope, as redevelopment led to a net increase of 11.4% in nearby housing prices in Milwaukee and 2.7% in Minneapolis. It also reveals that project size, value, and the amount of public funding have minor impacts on this effect; factors such as proximity to major roads, distance from rail, and higher incomes have greater positive impacts.

Economic constraints to effective livestock waste management and policy implications.

Abstract Livestock operations contribute significantly to the agricultural output of many developed and developing nations. Over the past several decades, increased concentration of livestock farms, particularly in the USA, Europe, Canada and Australia, has spurred greater concern over the environmental implications of animal feeding operations. Manure generated as a by-product of livestock production has been linked to water and air pollution problems in many watersheds around the world. Location of confined livestock operations in close proximity to urban areas has also had impacts on nearby residential property values. Practices designed to reduce adverse environmental impacts of manure production and handling show varying degrees of promise. However, the usefulness of these practices is limited in some areas by various economic constraints such as cost to livestock operations, lack of adequate land for crop utilization of manure nutrients, and lack of incentives to promote uses of manure that are beneficial both from an environmental standpoint and from the farmer's point of view. This paper presents a review of the literature with an emphasis on the economic constraints livestock producers face in relation to manure management and how effective policies can be designed to encourage adoption of cost-effective livestock waste handling practices.

Spillovers from tax increment financing districts: Implications for housing price appreciation

Abstract Tax increment financing (TIF) has been both applauded and castigated for causing rapid appreciation of nearby residential properties. We study the spillover effects of TIF on the appreciation of single-family Chicago homes that sold multiple times between 1993 and 1999. After controlling for structural characteristics of the home, neighborhood conditions, and information about the nature and scale of activities within TIF districts, we find that proximity to industrial TIF districts is actually associated with a decrease in the rate of appreciation. However, proximity to mixed-use TIF districts that contain both commercial and residential parcels increases the appreciation of nearby houses. We discuss some of the policy implications of our findings in the conclusion.

Applied GIS system in environmental planning at Nagytétény bay

In the densely populated part of Nagyteteny bay Metallochemia factory has been operating as a pollution source resulting from stack emission as early as since the beginning of the 1900’s. The nearby residential properties were impacted by significant concentrations of heavy metals, which found their way also to the deeper strata of the soil. Our task was to perform the detailed environmental state investigation of the nearly 1,400 impacted properties located in an area of 3.5 km2 and to prepare a technical remediation action plan. For the execution of the task a complex GIS system was developed, to take the numerous design aspects (such as technological and horticultural condition of the objects on the properties, presence of public utilities, current and planned land use, percentage of built-up area, archaeological, cultural, protected natural and other restricted areas, objects, and morphologies, as well as pedological, geological and hydro-geological conditions) into consideration. For the work three series of aerial photographs, taken at different times, and approximately 20 thematic maps with different scales and projections had to be integrated into the system. Data processing was executed by ArcView GIS programme. This system made us possible to manage and evaluate the territorial relationships between the data, as well as to make design calculations, and to thematically represent the results by using previously developed logical functions. On the basis of the design considerations, environmental technical and horticultural remediation action plans were developed for each property. This study presents the main steps of fieldwork and the building of the GIS system without analysis of the collected data.

The Amenity and Disamenity Impacts of Agriculture: Estimates from a Hedonic Pricing Model

AbstractThe positive and negative externalities from farmland are increasingly a focus of public policy discussion about agriculture and land use. A GIS‐based hedonic pricing model shows that agricultural open space increases nearby residential property values, but larger‐scale animal operations and mushroom production have negative impacts. Animal production facilities with as few as 200 animal equivalent units reduce nearby property values, but larger facilities do not necessarily generate larger impacts. Because they tend to occur together, the negative impacts of animal agriculture and the positive impacts of open space must be simultaneously modeled to avoid omitted variable bias.