Single-family Residential Properties Research Articles

A matching method for land valuation

One approach to land valuation, particularly used by accessors, is to base price estimates of target properties on comparable properties that recently sold. These properties are chosen to be close matches of the target unit and their transaction prices are used to predict the market price of the target unit. But the choice of comparables is typically not consistent and transparent. In this study, a systematic analytical procedure for choosing comparables that is easy to implement is developed. A hedonic regression using these comparables is then run and the predicted value of the target unit is the assessed value. One of the advantages of this procedure is that it should be straightforward for assessors and public finance officials to use and understand and easy to explain to residents.This approach is used to estimate land value as well as market prices (that includes the value of the structure) for single family residential properties using data from Maricopa County Arizona from 2007-2018. The best estimators obtain a median prediction accuracy error of 10% and more than 60% of these predictions have a prediction accuracy error within 10% for later years in the sample. These are within the bounds obtained by Zillow for 666 U.S. counties. Market prices are disaggregated into structure, lot, and neighborhood values. On average, these three components make up approximately 30%, 20%, and 50% of total average price. This provides for a nice “rule of thumb” for decomposing the market average property value into these three components; two of which relate to land value.

The Economic Impact of Flood Zone Designations on Residential Property Valuation in Miami-Dade County

In the United States, flood events are the most economically damaging type of natural disaster. Some of the most widely used tools for understanding property flood risk in the United States are the Flood Insurance Rate Maps (FIRMs) produced by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Numerous previous studies have attempted to estimate the impact on property valuation from a home’s being mapped into a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) within FIRMs. However, as these maps have widely served as the source of data about true flood risk, there have been limits on the ability of researchers to disentangle these zone designation impacts as due to actual flood risk or as due to perceived flood risk. New advancements in flood modeling have allowed for the prediction of high-quality property-level flood inundation, both now and in the future. By integrating these flood modeling advancements, true flood risk may be controlled for in models looking to explore the avenues by which property valuation impacts occur. To this end, this study builds on insights from recent research looking at the valuation of single-family residential properties in Miami-Dade County (MDC), which utilizes a high-resolution floodplain model to estimate the impact of actual property inundation on sales prices. By controlling for actual property flood risk, impacts of SFHA designations are estimated in MDC through implementation of a difference in difference model which utilizes the release of updated FIRMS in 2009 and the 217,222 transactions and 120,693 property designation changes which occurred within the dataset.

The Effect of the Raiders’ Relocation to Las Vegas on Residential Property Values

We examine the effect of National Football League’s Raiders organization relocation from Oakland, California to Las Vegas, Nevada on real estate properties. We focus on residential properties in Las Vegas, and two key dates: the announcement of relocation and inauguration of the Allegiant stadium. Using data from the Clark County Assessor’s Office, we employ a hedonic pricing model for single-family residential properties. Our results show differential effects across space and values. Residential properties closer to the stadium experience positive effects of the announcement, while those farther way experience negative effects. The effect of the across the conditional distribution is downward slopping for the announcement suggesting positive effects for properties in lower tail of the conditional distribution and negative effects for those in the upper tail. The inauguration has overall no statistically significant effect, suggesting the gap in prices from the announcement is closed.

Publisher Correction: The Bargaining and Contagion Effects of Investors in Single Family Residential Properties: The Case of Denver Colorado

The original version of this article unfortunately contained mistakes. Errors were found within Tables 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7. The corrected versions of these tables are as follows.

The Influence of Canopy Cover on Property Values in a Small Southern US City

Urban forests have been shown to impact residential property values in the United States and other countries. This study demonstrates a hedonic pricing analysis estimating the impact of urban forest canopy cover on single-family residential property values using Lakeland, Tennessee, during the period of 2001 to 2005 as a typical study area for the southern United States. Canopy cover on the lot was not a significant contributor to property values. However, a 1.0% increase in canopy within buffers of 100 m, 500 m, and 1 km surrounding the lot was associated with a 0.12%, 0.17%, and 0.21% increase in home sales prices, respectively. Although the percentage increases were small, given the price of a home in areas like these, the dollar values were high. These results can be used to assist urban planners and policy makers in prioritizing forested lands for conservation and to evaluate economic effects of urban forestry policies and programs.

The Bargaining and Contagion Effects of Investors in Single Family Residential Properties: The Case of Denver Colorado

We study the bargaining power of investors and the contagion effects of investor-owned single family homes on nearby property values. By controlling for the characteristics of both buyers and sellers, we find that investors tend to have more bargaining power than owner-occupiers — they purchase at lower prices and sell at higher prices, all else equal. We identify two types of investors: Professional Investors (e.g., corporations and partnerships) and Individual Investors. We find differences in the behavior of these two types of investors. For example, Individual Investors tend to invest in homes similar in terms of unobserved quality to those purchased by owner-occupiers. The tendency to buy lower quality homes is primarily attributable to Professional Investors. We also find that Professional Investors have more bargaining power than Individual Investors. For the contagion analysis, we use a repeat sales methodology and find that increasing ownership by investors in a neighborhood is associated with a small positive effect on nearby property values.

The Bargaining and Contagion Effects of Investors in Single Family Residential Properties: The Case of Denver Colorado

We study the bargaining power of investors and the contagion effects of investor-owned single family homes on nearby property values. By controlling for the characteristics of both buyers and sellers, we find that investors tend to have more bargaining power than owner-occupiers — they purchase at lower prices and sell at higher prices, all else equal. We identify two types of investors: Professional Investors (e.g., corporations and partnerships) and Individual Investors. We find differences in the behavior of these two types of investors. For example, Individual Investors tend to invest in homes similar in terms of unobserved quality to those purchased by owner- occupiers. The tendency to buy lower quality homes is primarily attributable to Professional Investors. We also find that Professional Investors have more bargaining power than Individual Investors. For the contagion analysis, we use a repeat sales methodology and find that increasing ownership by investors in a neighborhood is associated with a small positive effect on nearby property values.

Announcement effects of urban regeneration plans on residential property values: Evidence from Ulsan, Korea

This article examines whether, and to what extent, the announcement of new urban regeneration plans has influenced residential property values in Ulsan, Korea, where state-led initiatives have recently taken place to revitalize urban core areas in a more incremental and participatory manner. This is accomplished by analyzing data for single-family residential properties sold from January 2014 to December 2016 in the Ulsan Metropolitan area. A sample of 7139 transactions is used for hedonic analysis with consideration of the detailed timing of plan information dissemination from the beginning of the planning process to the release of the final plan. The results showed that the urban regeneration strategic plan's release in December 2015 had a significant influence on the values of residential properties within and around the project sites, but this influence varied across neighborhoods. The effect of the plan release was found to be most significant in/around the project sites where residents showed a high level of willingness to participate. In these areas, price escalations were found to occur even before the release of the final plan, suggesting that appropriate planning interventions are required at early stages of urban regeneration projects to protect vulnerable groups of residents from potential displacement.

Building Water-Efficient Cities

Problem, research strategy, and findings: Cities across the United States must have reliable and consistent water supplies to support public health, promote economic growth, and protect the environment. The way we build and design cities influences water consumption patterns; however, the most significant factors of the built environment and their associations with water use are not well explored. In this study we seek to reveal the ways in which characteristics of the built environment influence urban water use. We analyze spatially detailed data sets of water use and the built environment in four different cities in the western United States. Our findings indicate the built environment in these cities has a substantial influence on single-family residential water use. Specifically, we find that vegetated land cover, housing density, and lot size are influential determinants of water use. However, we did find variation in the strength and significance of these variables between the cities, and there remains a need for city-specific analyses.Takeaway for practice: The results indicate even small changes to design and permitting for single-family residential properties can produce substantial cumulative water savings for cities. Based on our findings, we propose planning and design strategies such as form-based codes, zoning, and municipal ordinances to help growing cities reduce their water use. We present estimates of the water conservation impacts these strategies might achieve and provide specific examples of planning documents, municipal ordinances, and land use plans some cities are already using to reduce their water use. Overall, our study provides empirical evidence to further support integrating land use planning and water management.

Os bairros-jardim em São Paulo

Os bairros Jardim América, Jardim Europa, Jardim Paulista e Jardim Paulistano formam o primeiro conjunto urbano tombado na cidade de São Paulo pelo Conselho de Defesa do Patrimônio Histórico, Arqueológico, Artístico e Turístico do Estado de São Paulo (Condephaat). O texto discute o tombamento dos Jardins a partir de três eixos. O primeiro aborda o papel do zoneamento na proteção dos bairros-jardim e a convergência entre a concepção do instrumento e os interesses da Cia City: garantir a exclusividade do uso residencial unifamiliar e a valorização da propriedade. O segundo discute a dicotomia entre valores e significados urbanos do patrimônio cultural e do zoneamento. Por fim, são apontados desafios de inclusão do patrimônio cultural no campo mais abrangente dos valores urbanos, como caminho para reconhecer as práticas sociais como indissociáveis da base material na dimensão urbana.

Fast Geographically Weighted Regression (FastGWR): a scalable algorithm to investigate spatial process heterogeneity in millions of observations

ABSTRACTGeographically Weighted Regression (GWR) is a widely used tool for exploring spatial heterogeneity of processes over geographic space. GWR computes location-specific parameter estimates, which makes its calibration process computationally intensive. The maximum number of data points that can be handled by current open-source GWR software is approximately 15,000 observations on a standard desktop. In the era of big data, this places a severe limitation on the use of GWR. To overcome this limitation, we propose a highly scalable, open-source FastGWR implementation based on Python and the Message Passing Interface (MPI) that scales to the order of millions of observations. FastGWR optimizes memory usage along with parallelization to boost performance significantly. To illustrate the performance of FastGWR, a hedonic house price model is calibrated on approximately 1.3 million single-family residential properties from a Zillow dataset for the city of Los Angeles, which is the first effort to apply GWR to a dataset of this size. The results show that FastGWR scales linearly as the number of cores within the High-Performance Computing (HPC) environment increases. It also outperforms currently available open-sourced GWR software packages with drastic speed reductions – up to thousands of times faster – on a standard desktop.

Urban Stream Restoration Projects: Do Project Phase, Distance, and Type Affect Nearby Property Sale Prices?

Between 1990 and 2014, more than 200 restoration projects were implemented in the Johnson Creek Watershed, Oregon, to mitigate storm water runoff, restore floodplains, remove invasive plants, restore wetlands, and improve fish and wildlife habitat. We use a repeat-sales model to investigate if restoration projects have an effect on the sale price of nearby single-family residential properties, and if estimated effects vary by project phase, distance, and type. Properties in closest proximity to storm water, floodplain, and revegetation projects experience a positive effect during different project phases. Estimated effects for wetland projects are negative for 9 of the 12 distance/project phase variables.

Wildfire mitigation behavior on single family residential properties near Balcones Canyonlands Preserve wildlands in Austin, Texas

Wildfires have become an increasingly important issue in central Texas as more people move to the wildland-urban interface. Although mitigation can reduce the risk of damage from wildfire, not all homeowners choose to mitigate. Using the area surrounding the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve wildlands in Austin, Texas as a case study, this research examined the factors that lead to homeowners' decisions to or not to mitigate for wildfires. In particular, this study examined the difference between behavioral intention and behavior relating to wildfire mitigation.Study methods included a mail survey of residents living in subdivisions adjacent to the Balcones Canyonlands Preserve wildlands. This study adopted the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as the conceptual framework to explain homeowners' behaviors and intentions. Statistical analysis was performed on survey responses relating to the conceptual variables in the TPB model. The Intention model indicated that Attitude was the most important variable (40.6% of total variance) relating to Intention, followed by Subjective Norm (10.1%), and Behavioral Control (1.3%). Risk Perception and Residency explained an additional 2.2% of the total variance.The Behavior models indicated that only Intention and Subjective Norm were predictors for Mitigation Behavior 1 (keeping gutters and roof free of leaves, needles, and branches), only Intention and Behavioral Control were predictors for Mitigation Behavior 2 (keeping tree limbs pruned at least 10 feet from the roof), and only Intention was a predictor for Mitigation Behavior 3 (keeping dead vegetation cleared within 30 feet of the house). The models explained 52.4% of the variance in performance of Mitigation Behavior 1, 38.9% in Mitigation Behavior 2, and 42.2% in Mitigation Behavior 3. The models were better at predicting respondents who did perform mitigation behaviors compared with those who did not.

The impact of walkable environment on single-family residential property values

Due to the impact of urban sprawl, the need for responsible property investing, and the emerging evidence supporting the linkage between walkable environment (in terms of built environment and walk accessibility) and residential property value, there is a critical need to develop systematic methodologies to quantify the impact of walkable environment on residential property value. This study provides a new generalized dissimilarity index for quantifying land-use mix, a key component of built environment, and a new method for measuring a property’s walk accessibility and then links them to residential property values. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models are used to validate these methods by examining the empirical property data in Eastern Adelaide, Australia. The results of the OLS models show that the proposed dissimilarity index and property walk-accessibility method outperform other commonly used land-use mix quantification and walk-accessibility methods in estimating single-family residential property values in terms of the goodness-of-fit and explanatory power. This study provides insights for investors to understand the impact of walkable environment on single-family residential property values to enable them to make more informed decisions on property investment, and for planners to design neighborhoods featuring better walkable environments.

The Impact of Hurricane Mitigation Features and Inspection Information on House Prices

This paper examines the effect of hurricane mitigation features and their verification on the transaction prices of single-family homes. Some of these features are obvious to buyers and sellers (visible) and others are not easily observed (hidden). Prior research on the relationship between these features and house prices has implicitly assumed that the features are known and that buyers and sellers are equally informed. This paper contributes to the literature by examining the potentially different effects of the visible and hidden features, and the verification of each, on prices in an environment of incomplete and asymmetric buyer-seller information. We assemble a dataset that includes sale information on all detached single-family residential properties in Miami-Dade County merged with a dataset of insured properties from Citizens Property Insurance Corporation. Using a treatment effects model, we find that properties with both visible and hidden mitigation features that have been verified by inspection sell, on average, at prices approximately 10% higher than properties where the features have not been verified, ceteris paribus. The results also indicate that although visible and hidden features differ significantly in their effects on price, the magnitude of the effect of the inspection on price is surprisingly similar whether features are visible or hidden. Our findings indicate that the price effect of the inspection is due to a combination of the risk mitigating benefits of the features and the insurance premium credits they represent.

Certification Matters: Is Green Talk Cheap Talk?

There is an active and growing literature examining the rental rate, sales price, and occupancy premiums associated with sustainable or energy efficient certified real estate. To date, the focus has rested largely on office properties and for sale single family residential properties. We examine the rental rates achieved by green multifamily properties, providing the first look at the population of LEED market-rate apartments in the United States. We find an approximate 8.9 percent rental rate premium associated with LEED apartments. Moreover, this research provides the first indication that LEED certification garners an additional premium over non-certified space that identifies as green, indicating the strength of the certification signal and contributing to the longstanding discussion on the merits of certification.

The Effects of Protest Format and Agent Use on Residential Appeals Adjustments

ABSTRACT This study examines how protest format and use of an agent affect the magnitude of the adjustments obtained in property tax appeals. The sample includes all single-family residential properties in Harris County, Texas for which a property tax protest was filed in 2010 or 2011 (n = 290,022). A protest can be settled in one of three formats: electronically (only when an agent is not used), an informal hearing, or a formal hearing. Because an owner's decision to use an agent is voluntary, I use a two-stage estimation process to help control for potential selection bias. The first-stage probit model is used to generate the predicted probability that an owner will use an agent, while the second-stage Tobit regression models the appeals adjustment as a function of protest format, agent use, control variables, and the selection-bias variable. Empirical results show that when an owner does not use an agent, appeals adjustments for electronic settlements are smaller than for informal settlements, and appeals adjustments for informal settlements are smaller than for formal settlements. When an agent is used, results show the opposite: appeals adjustments for informal settlements are greater than for formal settlements. Results also show that appeals adjustments are smaller when an agent is used compared with owners representing themselves, regardless of whether the hearing is formal or informal. Results are generally consistent with agency problems whereby property tax agents accept suboptimal appeals adjustments. Results from the first-stage probit model provide evidence on factors that affect the likelihood that an owner will use an agent.

Effects of irrigated parks on outdoor residential water use in a semi-arid city

We investigate whether public park amenities act as a substitute for outdoor water use by single-family residential (SFR) households in semi-arid Tucson, AZ, USA. Specifically we account for the effects of a park's proximity, size, and greenness (measured by NDVI), as well as the presence of a public swimming pool. SFR households with and without home pools are analyzed separately. We control for SFR property attributes, including house size, age, yard size and property NDVI. Results suggest that SFR outdoor water use is influenced by the conditions of all parks within an 8km (5mile) street distance. We also find significant differences between the “with” and “without” home pool groups. Households with pools used more outdoor water per square meter of house, per year of house age and per unit of NDVI. Households without pools appeared to reduce outdoor use in response to nearby small parks and increased park NDVI. “With pool” households had the opposite response: they appeared to increase outdoor water use in response to these variables. However, “with pool” households did reduce their outdoor water use in response to nearby public pools. Medium and large parks were associated with increased outdoor water use for both groups. We conclude that public green space and pools can substitute for private versions of these amenities, and if well designed, can contribute to water demand management and urban sustainability. This may be an avenue for addressing water supply shortages in semi-arid cities and other areas where populations are growing but water supplies are finite.

Determinants of establishment survival for residential trees in Sacramento County, CA

Urban forests can provide ecosystem services that motivate tree planting campaigns, and tree survival is a key element of program success and projected benefits. We studied survival in a shade tree give-away program in Sacramento, CA, monitoring a cohort of young trees for five years on single-family residential properties. We used conditional inference trees to identify the most important risk factors at different life history stages, and survival analysis to evaluate post-planting survivorship. Our analysis included socioeconomic, biophysical, and maintenance characteristics. In addition to field observations of tree planting status, survival, and maintenance, we also collected property ownership information through the Multiple Listing Service and neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics from the U.S. Census. We found that 84.9% of trees were planted, with 70.9% survivorship at five years post-planting. Overall, 58.9% of delivered trees survived to five years, which the local program calls survivability. Planting rates were higher in neighborhoods with higher educational attainment, and on owner-occupied properties with stable residential ownership. Five-year survival was also higher for properties with stable homeownership, as well as for tree species with low water use demand. When we incorporated maintenance characteristics from the first year of field observations, factors related to tree care were important to survival. Many residents did not adhere to recommended maintenance practices. Our results illustrate the critical role of tree care and consistent homeownership to young tree mortality on residential properties, and suggest that survival assumptions in urban forest ecosystem services models may be overly optimistic.

Valuing water quality in urban watersheds: A comparative analysis of Johnson Creek, Oregon, and Burnt Bridge Creek, Washington

This study uses the hedonic price method to investigate the effect of five water quality parameters on the sale price of single-family residential properties in two urbanized watersheds in the Portland, Oregon-Vancouver, Washington metropolitan area. Water quality parameters include E. coli or fecal coliform, which can affect human health, decrease water clarity and generate foul odors; pH, dissolved oxygen, and stream temperature, which can impact fish and wildlife populations; and total suspended solids, which can affect water clarity, aquatic life, and aesthetics. Properties within ¼ mile, ½, mile, one mile, or more than one mile from Johnson Creek are estimated to experience an increase in sale price of 13.71%, 7.05%, 8.18%, and 3.12%, respectively, from a one mg/L increase in dissolved oxygen levels during the dry season (May–October). Estimates for a 100 count per 100 mL increase in E. coli during the dry season are −2.81% for properties within ¼ mile of Johnson Creek, −0.86% (½ mile), −1.19% (one mile), and −0.71% (greater than one mile). Results for properties in Burnt Bridge Creek include a significantly positive effect for a one mg/L increase in dissolved oxygen levels during the dry season for properties within ½ mile (4.49%), one mile (2.95%), or greater than one mile from the creek (3.17%). Results for other water quality parameters in Burnt Bridge Creek are generally consistent with a priori expectations. Restoration efforts underway in both study areas might be cost justified based on their estimated effect on property sale prices.