Home Values Research Articles

The Age–Period–Cohort Problem in Hedonic House Prices Models

The age–period–cohort problem has been studied for decades but without resolution. There have been many suggested solutions to make the three effects estimable, but these solutions mostly exploit non-linear specifications. Yet, these approaches may suffer from misspecification or omitted variable bias. This paper is a practical-oriented study with an aim to empirically disentangle age–period–cohort effects by providing external information on the actual depreciation of housing structure rather than taking age as a proxy. It is based on appraisals of the improvement values of properties in New Zealand to estimate the age-depreciation effect. This research method provides a novel means of solving the identification problem of the age, period, and cohort trilemma. Based on about half a million housing transactions from 1990 to 2019 in the Auckland Region of New Zealand, the results show that traditional hedonic prices models using age and time dummy variables can result, ceteris paribus, in unreasonable positive depreciation rates. The use of the improvement values model can help improve the accuracy of home value assessment and reduce estimation biases. This method also has important practical implications for property valuations.

Self-reported and Market Home Values in Housing Wealth Inequality Measurement: Evidence from Warsaw and Prague

This paper aims to examine whether self-reported home valuations can be a substitute for objective market data in studies on the level of housing wealth inequality. In order to achieve this aim, information on subjective values of flats and their features in Warsaw (Poland) and Prague (Czechia) was used. Next, hedonic models were estimated to calculate the objective values of these residential properties. The results indicated that, on average, homeowners overestimated their real estate by 2.10% in Warsaw and underestimated by 5.49% in Prague. Finally, using tests for the equality of variances, it was examined whether the level of housing wealth inequality differed significantly when calculated using subjective and objective home values. The findings showed that self-reported home values cannot serve as a perfect proxy for market values when assessing the level of housing wealth inequality in both cities.

Полпред в Финляндии И. М. Майский и мятеж в Мянтселя

The article analyzes the Soviet assessments of the internal political crisis in Finland caused by the so-called mutiny in Mäntselä in late February-early March 1932. The article concentrates on the Mäntselä events, in which Lapua influences and individuals were in a prominent position, even though the movement publicly adopted a predominantly conservative anti-communist outlook centered on the values of home, religion and fatherland. The conceptual apparatus used by the USSR Envoy to Finland, Ivan Maysky, did not allow to form an adequate idea of the internal political processes in Finland. The analysis of Ivan Maysky's views on the domestic political situation in Finland is based on his reports to the leadership of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs (above all to Boris Stomonyakov, a member of the Commissariat's Board who supervised relations with Finland). Correspondence with the Commissariat shows that the leadership of the Commissariat and the Envoy differed greatly in their assessment of the events and their consequences. At the same time, it must be borne in mind that the same misunderstanding of what was happening in Finland was also displayed by the structures of the Communist International. The members of the Polish-Baltic Landersecretariat may have put very different meanings into the term “fascism”. Moreover, the emergence of fascism in Finland and its complete victory in the Comintern could be attributed to different eras (even to the beginning of the twentieth century). Furthermore, the victory of fascism in Finland could be correlated with very different social and political forces. Maysky was not the only one who did not have a clear view of fascism; in fact, he was prepared to see it as a purely militant right-wing radicalism, coloured by nationalism and backed by the state apparatus and banking circles.

The Dilemmas of Spatializing Social Issues

Cities have established official neighborhood boundaries for targeted social policy in recent decades. The authors propose that a sociological conception of neighborhoods sensitizes us to the potential consequences of imposing categorical divisions onto a largely continuous urban space. The authors specify this idea in three steps. First, they argue that designations affect people’s behavior toward target neighborhoods. Second, the heterogeneity within official boundaries may lead to informational distortion; disadvantaged areas are denied benefits solely because of location. Third, designations may generate negative reputations for targeted areas or extend existing stigma to new areas. To examine these processes, the authors study Toronto’s Priority Area Program (2006–2013). Difference-in-difference models show significant negative effects of the designation on rent, home value, and building permits. The authors provide evidence of informational distortion through income distribution analysis. An analysis of policy documents, newspaper reports, and secondary literature illustrates the stigmatizing aspects that local community members and observers interpreted about the designation.

An Economic Case Against Rent Regulations in Montgomery County, Maryland

A new light rail system threatens to increase pressure on Montgomery County’s already-chronic housing shortage for low- and middle-income residents. The 16-mile Purple Line rail corridor, expected to be completed in 2026, will run adjacent to a substantial proportion of the county’s naturally occurring affordable housing and a large population of vulnerable cost-burdened renters. Proposed economic development around the new transit stations could usher in an increase in economic development that portends rapid increases in home values, rents, and land prices. To preserve affordable housing and reduce displacement in the wake of this development, the Montgomery County Council is debating rent regulations for a county-wide transit-centered buffer zone. This policy, however, would have a negative effect as economists overwhelmingly agree that rent controls cause inefficiency, inequity, negative externalities, disutility, and restricted mobility. This paper uses an economic analysis to show that local rent regulations would fail to mitigate the chronic housing shortage and that costs to communities and businesses will outweigh the benefits provided to protected tenants. Montgomery County should reconsider implementing the proposed rent regulations, reevaluate similar policies, and expand efficient, targeted support for low-income renters.

Mortgage loans and home values ​​in the Lima real estate market

The research aimed to determine the relationship between placed mortgage loans and the value of houses in Lima’s property market in the period of 2005-2014. The method with quantitative approach was basic and deductive, the type and level was descriptive correlational and the design was non-experimental cross. The tools and techniques used are summarized through regression models of Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). The econometric program Eviews version 8 was used, developing line graphs and scatter plots. The finding was significant and positive relationship between the placed mortgage loans and the value of homes in Lima’s housing market.

An L.A. story: The impact of housing costs on commuting

The empirical impact of housing costs on commuting is still relatively poorly understood. This impact is especially salient in California given the state's notoriously high housing costs, which have forced many lower- and middle-class households to move inland in search of affordable housing at the cost of longer commutes. To investigate this linkage, we relied on Generalized Structural Equation Modeling and analyzed 2012 CHTS data for Los Angeles County – the most populous county in the U.S. Our model, which jointly explains commuting distance and time, accounts for residential self-selection and car use endogeneity, while controlling for household characteristics and land use around residences and workplaces. We find that households who can afford more expensive neighborhoods have shorter commute distances (−2.3% and − 3.1% per additional $100 k to median home values around workplaces and residences respectively). Job density, distance to the CBD, and land-use diversity around workplaces have a relatively greater impact on commuting than the corresponding variables around commuters' residences. Compared to non-Hispanics, Hispanic workers commute longer distances (+3.5%), and so do African American (+5.1%) and Asian (+2.0%) workers compared to Caucasians, while college educated workers have shorter (−2.6% to −3.6%) commutes. Furthermore, commuters in the top income brackets tend to have faster commutes than lower income workers. Finally, women's commutes are ~41% shorter than men's, possibly because they are balancing work with domestic responsibilities. Better understanding the determinants of commuting is critical to inform housing and transportation policy, improve the health of commuters, reduce air pollution, and achieve climate goals.

Heterogeneous Foreclosure Discounts of Homes

When the foreclosure crisis hit the U.S. housing market, there was little consensus on which homeowners were affected the most by home value impairment. The goal of this study is to flexibly estimate house-specific foreclosure discounts and to explore the merits of heterogeneous foreclosure discounts across market segments. I use a comprehensive dataset that encompasses home transactions from 2000 to 2020 in Florida and Indiana. Summary statistics show that foreclosures are realized across the entire home value and home size distributions. I estimate a structural model that builds on Rosen (1974) and Bajari and Kahn (2005) and estimates a price function using a weighted least least-squares regression approach. The estimation results show that foreclosure discounts in Indiana are higher than in Florida. In Indiana, foreclosed homes lost the most value at the lower part of the house value distribution. Moreover, owners of foreclosed large houses experienced immense value losses, and this applies to every city. In Indiana, houses at the lower part of the house size distribution also suffered from large foreclosure discounts, while Floridian houses lost significantly less value in this market segment. I also found that homes in neighborhoods with higher mortgages, urbanization, median incomes, and education rates realize higher foreclosure discounts. Neighborhoods with smaller Asian, Black, and Hispanic populations experienced higher foreclosure discounts.

The politics of Zestimate: Merging technology and real estate industries

This update centers the role of Zillow, an American real estate platform, and its home valuation tool, Zestimate, in the commodification of housing in the last decades. The massive amounts of data collected since 2006 has enabled Zillow to train its predictive algorithms that determine Zestimates and enter the real estate market as a house-flipper. Today, the company purchases homes in high-demand neighborhoods of 25 cities, carries out minor remodeling, and sells them within 90 days. In this update, I aim to illustrate the radical changes brought by the digitization of the housing marketplace and how they facilitate the transformation of homes into investment vehicles.

Correlates of flood hazard adjustment adoption in four coastal communities

This study examines the prediction of three types of household flood hazard adjustment (emergency preparedness, structural mitigation, and nonstructural mitigation) by a comprehensive set of risk perception variables (expected personal consequences, affective response, hazard intrusive thoughts, and hazard intrusive discussions). These risk perception variables were supplemented by six contextual variables (flood information sources, perceived personal protection responsibility, hazard experience, hazard proximity, Community Rating Service (CRS) rating, and demographic characteristics). The data reveal that the risk perception scales measure psychometrically distinct constructs that are only significantly correlated with nonstructural mitigation. Moreover, contextual factors such as hazard information, hazard experience, hazard proximity, age, and home value have significant, but differing effects on the adoption of the three types of hazard adjustments. These results suggest that tailored outreach and information is needed to motivate the adoption of different types of flood hazard adjustments. This is especially important because increasing changes in the global climatic system are expected to produce flood threats of greater frequency and intensity.

From Audits to Projects: Evaluating New York State Policy to Encourage Home Retrofit Projects

This research explores socio-spatial characteristics of home retrofit projects in New York State and their association with the state’s free home energy audit program. Prior work by the authors found that zip codes with more elder individuals and higher levels of education are more likely to undertake an energy audit; it was also found that higher incomes may be negatively correlated with audit decisions. Less understood is the follow-up decision after an audit to undertake a retrofit. From a policy and climate perspective, the actionable retrofit decision is far more impactful than the informational audit, making it an important area of further research. This work examines this understudied area using a combination of datasets, including census data, American Community Survey (ACS) data, and retrofits data provided by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). Findings indicate that many of the same socioeconomic characteristics that predict audits are influential in retrofit projects as well (age, education, higher home values). A strong statistical relationship was found between audits per capita and subsequent retrofit projects, which is to be expected, as NYSERDA requires audits of residents desiring efficiency retrofits. However, this also indicates that the role of the audit in information transfers may be highly influential in encouraging home energy efficiency projects. This finding underscores the policy importance of offering low- or no-cost energy audit incentives to encourage greater participation in home retrofit programs.

How do single-family homeowners value residential and commercial density? It depends

This paper develops estimates of the relationship between local density and single-family home values using 2017 transactions for five U.S. metropolitan regions: Chicago, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Seattle. Proposals to build new commercial and residential development projects that would increase local density commonly face opposition from local homeowners. Academic literature links the response from homeowners to concerns that higher density is associated with lower property values but there is limited empirical evidence establishing this relationship at the local level. We find a positive and significant relationship between density and house value in the core area of the five metropolitan regions we analyze. Within 7.5 miles of the center of these metropolitan regions, a 10% increase in surrounding built area density is associated with a 1.1–1.9% increase in house prices per square foot. For outlying areas, the estimates are smaller and even negative in several cases. We instrument density based on topographic and soil characteristics and find similar results. These findings point to the need for a more nuanced discussion of the relationship between local density and housing values.

Investigating the demands for mobile internet-based home nursing services for the elderly

The great value of home nursing services in the treatment of ailments in elderly patients has attracted increasing attention. This study describes a new mobile internet-based home nursing service system...

Estimating the impact of energy efficiency on housing prices in Germany: Does regional disparity matter?

The German government is aiming for a climate-neutral building stock before 2050 to meet the defined goals of the Climate Action Plan 2050. Increasing the building stock's energy efficiency is therefore a high priority, and investments by private homeowners will greatly influence this, as around 46.5% of German homes are owner-occupied. To identify the possible monetary benefits of investments in energy retrofits, we investigate whether energy efficiency is reflected in the property values of German single-family homes. Therefore, we examine potential heterogeneous effects across regions. With 422,242 individual observations on a 1 km2-grid level from 2014 to 2018, this study adds to the extant literature by 1) examining the energy efficiency effect on housing values for the entire country and specifically investigating regional disparities in this context, and 2) estimating an energy efficiency value-to-cost ratio to compare housing values' increase with initial investment costs and future energy cost savings. Applying hedonic analysis, we find a positive relationship between energy efficiency and asking prices. If energy efficiency increases by 100 kWh/m2a, prices increase by 6.9% on average. We also find evidence for regional disparities. The effects are significantly weaker in large cities than in other urban areas, whereas the impact in rural regions is much stronger. According to this, housing shortage and higher purchasing power per capita were identified as drivers for low energy efficiency premiums. Finally, there is evidence that about 98% of future energy cost savings are already reflected in a higher housing value under myopic expectations regarding future energy prices.

Inflated lives and a clean tech privilege in Washington State: Policy amidst spatialized affluence

In this study, we analyze policy and the socio-spatial distribution of clean technology privilege—electric vehicles (EVs)—in Washington State. We examine EV penetration in relation to zip code variables like social demographics and population density. Data was acquired from the US Census and Washington State’s vehicle registry (N = 576). After regression and geographic analyses, we find that median income, an Inflated Life Proxy (ILP), and education have the highest associations with EV concentrations. The ILP was constructed by dividing zip code median home values by median incomes. We also find associations between EV penetration and the distribution of broadband internet. As the highest EV adoption shares are found in areas of the highly educated and affluent—a clean tech privilege—we argue that, despite years of state and federal incentives, EV diffusion in Washington State has not progressed beyond early adoption. As the association between greater household income and greenhouse gas emissions is well established, we urge decision makers toward more progressive economic policies—consumption, wealth, and income taxes—in order to direct civil society towards greater economic moderation and equality, generally. If only consumers with a clean tech privilege are adopting EVs, then current emission reduction strategies may be annulled by the otherwise high carbon lifestyles of the affluent.

COVID-19 and Second Home Prices in Switzerland: An Empirical Insight

Abstract During the COVID-19 pandemic, second home ownership created several owner benefits. This paper analyses price changes of second homes during the pandemic. It derives propositions for the impact of the pandemic on the value of second homes for its owners. The contribution draws on panel data of transaction prices for second homes from Switzerland, a country with traditionally strong second home ownership, provided by Wüest Partner. The results show that there is a significant price increase for second homes – especially compared to apartments – after the start of the COVID-19 crisis. They also show that prices even in certain second-class destinations have risen significantly during the pandemic. Different research propositions are derived like that buyers might look for less crowded places in the pandemic, and the reduced benefits of intensive infrastructures during a pandemic.

Abstract 13925: Non-Linear Modelling of Social Determinants of Health to Predict Cardiovascular Mortality Risk

Introduction: Community-level social determinants of health (SDOH) can facilitate the identification of vulnerable populations with poor health outcomes. Hypothesis: We assess whether machine learning methods utilizing area-level SDOH indicators can identify populations at higher risk for CV mortality. Methods: 144 SDOHs were extracted from the SDOH database compiled, at a county level, by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality between 2009-2018. The Person’s correlation coefficient between SDOH with CV mortality was used to select 12 key SDOH (p < 0.05) and linear and nonlinear models were tested to build a predictive model for CVD mortality rates per 100,000 people for each county from SDOH. Datasets were randomly split in 80/20 for training and validation, and the accuracy of the models was compared in terms of mean relative error (MRE). Results: SDOH related to income (median household income), poverty (fraction population with a poverty ratio more than 2.00), and educational attainment (high school, BSc, MSc, doctorate) were the principal factors affecting CV mortality. Factors related to race/ethnicity, living conditions (children living with grandparents), and physical infrastructure (median household value and fraction of mobile homes) were also included in the model. The most performant regression method is the Bayesian optimized artificial neural network (Figure). The performance of linear models (linear elastic-networks, MRE = 17.6%; linear regression, MRE = 38.8%) was inferior to nonlinear models. Among nonlinear models, optimized Bayesian feedforward neural networks OBFNN presented the best performance (MRE = 9.7%). Conclusions: We developed a county-level risk score for cardiovascular mortality using 12 SDOH including demographics, income and poverty, education, and physical infrastructure. Future work should look at extending beyond CVD mortality and combining this SDOH-based score for patient-level cardiovascular risk.

Perception vs. reality: The aviation noise complaint effect on home prices

Intercity air transportation has grown rapidly in recent decades and creates significant noise pollution that affects health. Previous research quantifies the losses that are capitalized into home values. Much research relies heavily on spatially restrictive noise contour plots to identify the house price discounts and determine economic damages. We break new ground by investigating whether residential noise complaints can offer insights on aircraft noise pollution and housing price impacts experienced by residents near Minneapolis-Saint-Paul International Airport outside of contour boundaries. Our findings indicate noise complaints are a reliable measure of residential noise annoyance and have a significant adverse effect on home prices extending nearly twice as far (10 km) as contours. Reevaluating economic damages based on our results indicates contour-based calculations severely underestimate aircraft-noise-pollution-induced losses incurred by homeowners and suggests $154 million of $167 million in post-abatement damages are borne by residents located outside the regulated Minneapolis contour area.

Review: Right to Harm, a film by Matt Wechsler and Annie Speicher

Book Review| November 01 2021 Review: Right to Harm, a film by Matt Wechsler and Annie Speicher Right to Harm, Matt Wechsler and Annie Speicher, directors Hourglass Films Collective Eye Films, 2019 75 mins. DVD; digital Allison Gray Allison Gray Western University Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Gastronomica (2021) 21 (4): 93–95. https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2021.21.4.93a Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Allison Gray; Review: Right to Harm, a film by Matt Wechsler and Annie Speicher. Gastronomica 1 November 2021; 21 (4): 93–95. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/gfc.2021.21.4.93a Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentGastronomica Search Right to Harm conveys rural American citizens’ experiences when concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) have moved into their towns, from the 1980s onward. Naming CAFOs “bad neighbors,” the film engages human, environmental, economic, and social themes by showing how the presence of CAFOs have threatened the health of communities. By generating and exacerbating human health concerns (e.g., breathing and skin diseases); polluting local air, land, and waterways; severely diminishing home and property values; and fundamentally altering quality of life and threatening sense of community, CAFOs are well known in the academic world (e.g., Kirby 2010; West et al. 2011; Hendrickson et al. 2020). Presenting these issues through the eyes and voices of individuals gives viewers an opportunity to empathize with local experiences of an increasingly global industry. We hear a man describe how he is perpetually... © 2021 by The Regents of the University of California2021 You do not currently have access to this content.

Context matters: Neighborhood disadvantage is associated with increased disordered eating and earlier activation of genetic influences in girls.

Emerging evidence suggests socioeconomic disadvantage may increase risk for eating disorders (EDs). However, there are very few studies on the association between disadvantage and EDs, and all have focused on individual-level risk factors (e.g., family income). Neighborhood disadvantage (i.e., elevated poverty and reduced resources in one's neighborhood) is associated with increased risk for anxiety/depression and poor physical health. To date, no studies have examined phenotypic associations between neighborhood disadvantage and disordered eating, or how any form of disadvantage may interact with genetic individual differences in risk for EDs. We examined phenotypic and etiologic associations between neighborhood disadvantage and disordered eating in 2,922 girls ages 8-17 from same-sex twin pairs recruited through the Michigan State University Twin Registry. Parents rated the twins on nine items assessing core disordered eating symptoms (e.g., weight preoccupation, binge eating), and neighborhood disadvantage was calculated from 17 indicators of contextual disadvantage (e.g., median home value, neighborhood unemployment). Puberty was measured using the Pubertal Development Scale to examine whether associations were consistent across development. At a phenotypic level, greater neighborhood disadvantage was associated with significantly greater disordered eating symptoms in girls at all stages of puberty (β = .07). Moreover, Genotype × Environment models showed that girls living in more disadvantaged neighborhoods exhibited stronger and earlier (i.e., during pre/early puberty) activation of genetic influences on disordered eating. Results highlight the critical importance of considering contextual disadvantage in research on etiology and risk for disordered eating, and the need for increased screening and treatment for EDs in disadvantaged youth. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).