IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/growch/v46y2015i1p114-132.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are Homes Near Water Bodies and Wetlands Worth More or Less? An Analysis of Housing Prices in One Connecticut Town

Author

Listed:
  • Jeffrey P. Cohen
  • Robert G. Cromley
  • Kevin T. Banach

Abstract

Proximity to wetlands and water bodies can be considered an amenity (for open space and recreation value), as well as a possible nuisance (with the potential for flooding or development restrictions), although the overall effect may be different depending on location. Studies of the impacts of wetlands and water on housing prices can also be prone to spatial autocorrelation problems arising from omitted unobservables. McMillen and Redfearn explain that locally weighted regressions (LWRs) can address spatial autocorrelation. In addition to ordinary least squares (OLS), we use LWR to control for spatial effects and analyze how proximity to water bodies and wetland areas impact real sales prices of homes in one Connecticut town in 2000–2009. With OLS regressions, proximity to wetland areas and water bodies are insignificant determinants of the real sale price of homes. When we control for spatial effects with a nonparametric (i.e., LWR) approach, the significance of the water variable is different than from OLS—while greater distance from wetlands leads to an insignificant relationship with housing price, the water distance effect becomes negative and significant. These results imply that incorporating potential spatial heterogeneity in the data is crucial for accurately estimating the direction, magnitudes, and statistical significance of the relationships between environmental variables and housing prices.

Suggested Citation

  • Jeffrey P. Cohen & Robert G. Cromley & Kevin T. Banach, 2015. "Are Homes Near Water Bodies and Wetlands Worth More or Less? An Analysis of Housing Prices in One Connecticut Town," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(1), pages 114-132, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:growch:v:46:y:2015:i:1:p:114-132
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/grow.12073
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Patrick J. Walsh & J. Walter Milon & David O. Scrogin, 2011. "The Spatial Extent of Water Quality Benefits in Urban Housing Markets," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 87(4), pages 628-644.
    2. John I. Carruthers & David E. Clark, 2010. "Valuing Environmental Quality: A Space‐Based Strategy," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(4), pages 801-832, October.
    3. Bin, Okmyung & Polasky, Stephen, 2005. "Evidence on the Amenity Value of Wetlands in a Rural Setting," Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 37(3), pages 589-602, December.
    4. Daniel P. McMillen & Christian L. Redfearn, 2010. "Estimation And Hypothesis Testing For Nonparametric Hedonic House Price Functions," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 50(3), pages 712-733, August.
    5. Sorada Tapsuwan & Gordon Ingram & Michael Burton & Donna Brennan, 2009. "Capitalized amenity value of urban wetlands: a hedonic property price approach to urban wetlands in Perth, Western Australia ," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 53(4), pages 527-545, October.
    6. Jeffrey E. Zabel & Katherine A. Kiel, 2000. "Estimating the Demand for Air Quality in Four U.S. Cities," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 76(2), pages 174-194.
    7. Katherine Kiel & Jeffrey Zabel, 2000. "Estimating the Demand for Air Quality in Four U.S. Cities," Working Papers 0009, College of the Holy Cross, Department of Economics.
    8. Rosen, Sherwin, 1974. "Hedonic Prices and Implicit Markets: Product Differentiation in Pure Competition," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 82(1), pages 34-55, Jan.-Feb..
    9. Cho, Seong-Hoon & Bowker, James Michael & Park, William M., 2006. "Measuring the Contribution of Water and Green Space Amenities to Housing Values: An Application and Comparison of Spatially Weighted Hedonic Models," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 31(3), pages 1-23, December.
    10. Jeffrey P. Cohen & Cletus C. Coughlin, 2008. "Spatial Hedonic Models Of Airport Noise, Proximity, And Housing Prices," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(5), pages 859-878, December.
    11. Barr, Jason & Cohen, Jeffrey P., 2014. "The floor area ratio gradient: New York City, 1890–2009," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 110-119.
    12. Ioannides, Yannis M. & Zabel, Jeffrey E., 2008. "Interactions, neighborhood selection and housing demand," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 229-252, January.
    13. Brent L. Mahan & BStephen Polasky & Richard M. Adams, 2000. "Valuing Urban Wetlands: A Property Price Approach," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 76(1), pages 100-113.
    14. Myrick Freeman, A. III, 1974. "On estimating air pollution control benefits from land value studies," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 1(1), pages 74-83, May.
    15. Lansford, Notie H., Jr. & Jones, Lonnie L., 1995. "Recreational And Aesthetic Value Of Water Using Hedonic Price Analysis," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 20(2), pages 1-15, December.
    16. Won Kim, Chong & Phipps, Tim T. & Anselin, Luc, 2003. "Measuring the benefits of air quality improvement: a spatial hedonic approach," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 45(1), pages 24-39, January.
    17. Doss, Cheryl R. & Taff, Steven J., 1996. "The Influence Of Wetland Type And Wetland Proximity On Residential Property Values," Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 21(1), pages 1-10, July.
    18. Thorsnes, Paul & McMillen, Daniel P, 1998. "Land Value and Parcel Size: A Semiparametric Analysis," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 17(3), pages 233-244, November.
    19. Michael T. Bond & Vicky L. Seiler & Michael J. Seiler, 2002. "Residential Real Estate Prices: A Room with a View," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 23(1/2), pages 129-138.
    20. Arthur H. Darling, 1973. "Measuring Benefits Generated by Urban Water Parks," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 49(1), pages 23-34.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Cohen, Jeffrey P. & Danko, Joseph J. & Yang, Ke, 2019. "Proximity to a water supply reservoir and dams: Is there spatial heterogeneity in the effects on housing prices?," Journal of Housing Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(C), pages 14-22.
    2. Andres Jauregui & Qin Fan & Jacquelin Curry, 2023. "House Price Capitalization of Stormwater Retention Basins: Evidence from Fresno-Clovis Metropolitan Area in California," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 67(4), pages 606-626, November.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Tapsuwan, Sorada & Polyakov, Maksym & Bark, Rosalind & Nolan, Martin, 2015. "Valuing the Barmah–Millewa Forest and in stream river flows: A spatial heteroskedasticity and autocorrelation consistent (SHAC) approach," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 110(C), pages 98-105.
    2. Anthony Good & Emily Pindilli, 2022. "Estimating the Effect of Tidal Marsh Restoration on Housing Prices: A Hedonic Analysis in the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, Washington, USA," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(9), pages 1-12, August.
    3. Sanglim Yoo & John E. Wagner, 2016. "A review of the hedonic literatures in environmental amenities from open space: a traditional econometric vs. spatial econometric model," International Journal of Urban Sciences, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 141-166, March.
    4. Yoo, James & Simonit, Silvio & Connors, John P. & Maliszewski, Paul J. & Kinzig, Ann P. & Perrings, Charles, 2013. "The value of agricultural water rights in agricultural properties in the path of development," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 57-68.
    5. Seong-Hoon Cho & Dayton Lambert & Seung Kim & Roland Roberts & William Park, 2011. "Relationship between value of open space and distance from housing locations within a community," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 13(4), pages 393-414, December.
    6. Carriazo, Fernando & Ready, Richard & Shortle, James, 2013. "Using stochastic frontier models to mitigate omitted variable bias in hedonic pricing models: A case study for air quality in Bogotá, Colombia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 91(C), pages 80-88.
    7. Masha Maslianskaia-Pautrel & Catherine Baumont pba148, 2016. "The nature and impacts of environmental spillovers on housing prices: A spatial hedonic analysis," Working Papers 2016.04, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    8. Anping Chen & Marlon Boarnet & Mark Partridge & Wenjie Wu & Guanpeng Dong, 2014. "Valuing The “Green” Amenities In A Spatial Context," Journal of Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 54(4), pages 569-585, September.
    9. Waltert, Fabian & Schläpfer, Felix, 2010. "Landscape amenities and local development: A review of migration, regional economic and hedonic pricing studies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 70(2), pages 141-152, December.
    10. Myung-Jin Jun, 2018. "Quantifying Welfare Impacts of Air Pollution in Seoul: A Two-Stage Hedonic Price Approach," Journal of Environmental Assessment Policy and Management (JEAPM), World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd., vol. 20(02), pages 1-25, June.
    11. O. Ashton Morgan & Stuart E. Hamilton, 2009. "Disentangling Access and View Amenities in Access-restricted Coastal Residential Communities," Working Papers 09-10, Department of Economics, Appalachian State University.
    12. Jan Rouwendal & Ramona van Marwijk & Or Levkovich, 2014. "The Value of Proximity to Water in Residential Areas," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 14-047/VIII, Tinbergen Institute.
    13. Yusuf, Arief Anshory & Resosudarmo, Budy P., 2009. "Does clean air matter in developing countries' megacities? A hedonic price analysis of the Jakarta housing market, Indonesia," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(5), pages 1398-1407, March.
    14. Liu, Sezhu & Hite, Diane, 2013. "Measuring the Effect of Green Space on Property Value: An Application of the Hedonic Spatial Quantile Regression," 2013 Annual Meeting, February 2-5, 2013, Orlando, Florida 143045, Southern Agricultural Economics Association.
    15. James R. Meldrum, 2016. "Floodplain Price Impacts by Property Type in Boulder County, Colorado: Condominiums Versus Standalone Properties," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 64(4), pages 725-750, August.
    16. Kahn, Matthew E. & Walsh, Randall, 2015. "Cities and the Environment," Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, in: Gilles Duranton & J. V. Henderson & William C. Strange (ed.), Handbook of Regional and Urban Economics, edition 1, volume 5, chapter 0, pages 405-465, Elsevier.
    17. Gonzalez, Fidel & Leipnik, Mark & Mazumder, Diya, 2013. "How much are urban residents in Mexico willing to pay for cleaner air?," Environment and Development Economics, Cambridge University Press, vol. 18(3), pages 354-379, June.
    18. Dupraz, P. & Osseni, A. & Bareille, F., 2018. "Assessing the direct and indirect impacts of breeding activities on residential values: a spatial hedonic approach in Brittany," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 276994, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    19. Paul Maliszewski & Elisabeth Larson & Charles Perrings, 2013. "Valuing the Reliability of the Electrical Power Infrastructure: A Two-stage Hedonic Approach," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 50(1), pages 72-87, January.
    20. Wolf, David & Klaiber, H. Allen & Gopalakrishnan, Sathya, 2022. "Beyond marginal: Estimating the demand for water quality," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:growch:v:46:y:2015:i:1:p:114-132. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0017-4815 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.