IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/urbstu/v44y2007i5-6p1041-1068.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Impact of Proximity to Light Rail Rapid Transit on Station-area Property Values in Buffalo, New York

Author

Listed:
  • Daniel Baldwin Hess

    (Department of Urban and Regional Planning, University at Buffalo, State University of New York, 3435 Main Street, 116 Hayes Hall, Buffalo, New York 14217-3087, USA, dbhe.r.r@ap.buffalo.edu)

  • Tangerine Maria Almeida

    (LSC Transportation Consultants, Inc., 516 North Tejon Street, Colarado Springs, Colorado 80903, USA, talmeida@lsccs.com)

Abstract

This study assesses the impact of proximity to light rail transit stations on residential property values in Buffalo, New York, where light rail has been in service for 20 years, but population is declining and ridership is decreasing. Hedonic models are constructed of assessed value for residential properties within half a mile of 14 light rail stations and independent variables are included that describe property characteristics, neighbourhood characteristics and locational amenities. The model suggests that, for homes located in the study area, every foot closer to a light rail station increases average property values by $2.31 (using geographical straight-line distance) and $0.99 (using network distance). Consequently, a home located within one-quarter of a mile radius of a light rail station can earn a premium of $1300-3000, or 2-5 per cent of the city's median home value. Model results further suggest that three independent variables-the number of bathrooms, size of the parcel and location on the East side or West side of Buffalo-are more influential than rail proximity in predicting property values. Individual regression models for each of the light rail system's 14 stations suggest that effects are not felt evenly throughout the system. Proximity effects are positive in high-income station areas and negative in low-income station areas. An analysis of the actual walking distance to stations (along the street network) versus the perceived proximity to stations (measured by straight-line distance) reveals that the results are statistically more significant in the network distance than the straight-line distance model, but the effects are greater in the straight-line distance model, which suggests that apparent proximity to rail stations is an added locational advantage compared with physical walking distance to the station.

Suggested Citation

  • Daniel Baldwin Hess & Tangerine Maria Almeida, 2007. "Impact of Proximity to Light Rail Rapid Transit on Station-area Property Values in Buffalo, New York," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 44(5-6), pages 1041-1068, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:44:y:2007:i:5-6:p:1041-1068
    DOI: 10.1080/00420980701256005
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1080/00420980701256005
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00420980701256005?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Michael J. Potepan, 1996. "Explaining Intermetropolitan Variation in Housing Prices, Rents and Land Prices," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 24(2), pages 219-245.
    2. Voith Richard, 1993. "Changing Capitalization of CBD-Oriented Transportation Systems: Evidence from Philadelphia, 1970-1988," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 361-376, May.
    3. Ghebreegziabiher Debrezion & Eric Pels & Piet Rietveld, 2006. "The Impact of Rail Transport on Real Estate Prices: An Empirical Analysis of the Dutch Housing Market," Tinbergen Institute Discussion Papers 06-031/3, Tinbergen Institute.
    4. McDonald, John F. & Osuji, Clifford I., 1995. "The effect of anticipated transportation improvement on residential land values," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 261-278, June.
    5. Grether, D. M. & Mieszkowski, Peter, 1974. "Determinants of real estate values," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 1(2), pages 127-145, April.
    6. Ihlanfeldt, Keith & Boehm, Thomas P., 1987. "Government intervention in the housing market: An empirical test of the externalities rationale," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 22(3), pages 276-290, November.
    7. Liggett, Robin & Loukaitou-Sideris, Anastasia & Iseki, Hiroyuki, 2003. "Journeys to Crime: Assessing the Effects of a Light Rail Line on Crime in the Neighborhoods," University of California Transportation Center, Working Papers qt2tq8b34w, University of California Transportation Center.
    8. Bollinger, Christopher R. & Ihlanfeldt, Keith R., 1997. "The Impact of Rapid Rail Transit on Economic Development: The Case of Atlanta's MARTA," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(2), pages 179-204, September.
    9. Follain, James R. & Jimenez, Emmanuel, 1985. "Estimating the demand for housing characteristics: A survey and critique," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 77-107, February.
    10. William Duncombe, 2002. "Estimating the Cost of an Adequate Education in New York," Center for Policy Research Working Papers 44, Center for Policy Research, Maxwell School, Syracuse University.
    11. Eugene F. Brigham, 1965. "The Determinants of Residential Land Values," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 41(4), pages 325-334.
    12. Palmquist, Raymond B, 1984. "Estimating the Demand for the Characteristics of Housing," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 66(3), pages 394-404, August.
    13. Chengri Ding & Robert Simons & Esmail Baku, 2000. "The Effect of Residential Investment on Nearby Property Values: Evidence from Cleveland, Ohio," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 19(1), pages 23-48.
    14. Herbert Mohring, 1961. "Land Values and the Measurement of Highway Benefits," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 69, pages 236-236.
    15. Dean H. Gatzlaff & Marc T. Smith, 1993. "The Impact of the Miami Metrorail on the Value of Residences near Station Locations," Land Economics, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 69(1), pages 54-66.
    16. Vladimir Bajic, 1985. "Housing‐Market Segmentation and Demand for Housing Attributes: Some Empirical Findings," Real Estate Economics, American Real Estate and Urban Economics Association, vol. 13(1), pages 58-75, March.
    17. Quigley, John M., 1985. "Consumer choice of dwelling, neighborhood and public services," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 15(1), pages 41-63, February.
    18. Bowes, David R. & Ihlanfeldt, Keith R., 2001. "Identifying the Impacts of Rail Transit Stations on Residential Property Values," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 50(1), pages 1-25, July.
    19. Capozza, Dennis R. & Helsley, Robert W., 1989. "The fundamentals of land prices and urban growth," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 295-306, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    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. Ghebreegziabiher Debrezion & Eric Pels & Piet Rietveld, 2007. "The Impact of Railway Stations on Residential and Commercial Property Value: A Meta-analysis," The Journal of Real Estate Finance and Economics, Springer, vol. 35(2), pages 161-180, August.
    2. Yan, Sisi & Delmelle, Eric & Duncan, Michael, 2012. "The impact of a new light rail system on single-family property values in Charlotte, North Carolina," The Journal of Transport and Land Use, Center for Transportation Studies, University of Minnesota, vol. 5(2), pages 60-67.
    3. Sebastian Brandt & Wolfgang Maennig, 2012. "The impact of rail access on condominium prices in Hamburg," Transportation, Springer, vol. 39(5), pages 997-1017, September.
    4. Zhong, Haotian & Li, Wei, 2016. "Rail transit investment and property values: An old tale retold," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 51(C), pages 33-48.
    5. Devaux, Nicolas & Dubé, Jean & Apparicio, Philippe, 2017. "Anticipation and post-construction impact of a metro extension on residential values: The case of Laval (Canada), 1995–2013," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 62(C), pages 8-19.
    6. Ahlfeldt Gabriel M., 2011. "The Train has Left the Station: Do Markets Value Intracity Access to Intercity Rail Connections?," German Economic Review, De Gruyter, vol. 12(3), pages 312-335, August.
    7. Daniel G. Chatman & Nicholas K. Tulach & Kyeongsu Kim, 2012. "Evaluating the Economic Impacts of Light Rail by Measuring Home Appreciation," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 49(3), pages 467-487, February.
    8. John A. Kilpatrick & Ronald C. Throupe & John I. Carruthers & Andrew Krause, 2007. "The Impact of Transit Corridors on Residential Property Values," Journal of Real Estate Research, American Real Estate Society, vol. 29(3), pages 303-320.
    9. Diao, Mi & Li, Qiang & Sing, Tien Foo & Zhan, Changwei, 2023. "Disamenities of living close to transit tracks: Evidence from Singapore's MRT system," Regional Science and Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 100(C).
    10. Xiyan (Jamie) Wang, 2017. "Subway capitalization effect in Beijing: Theory and evidence on the variation of the subway proximity premium," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 96(3), pages 495-518, August.
    11. Ghebreegziabiher Debrezion & Eric Pels & Piet Rietveld, 2005. "Impact of railway station on Dutch residential housing market," ERSA conference papers ersa05p748, European Regional Science Association.
    12. Haizhen Wen & Zaiyuan Gui & Chuanhao Tian & Yue Xiao & Li Fang, 2018. "Subway Opening, Traffic Accessibility, and Housing Prices: A Quantile Hedonic Analysis in Hangzhou, China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 10(7), pages 1-23, June.
    13. Pasha, Obed & Wyczalkowski, Chris & Sohrabian, Dro & Lendel, Iryna, 2020. "Transit effects on poverty, employment, and rent in Cuyahoga County, Ohio," Transport Policy, Elsevier, vol. 88(C), pages 33-41.
    14. Gabriel Ahlfeldt & Wolfgang Maennig, 2010. "Impact of sports arenas on land values: evidence from Berlin," The Annals of Regional Science, Springer;Western Regional Science Association, vol. 44(2), pages 205-227, April.
    15. Kyeongsu Kim & Michael L. Lahr, 2014. "The impact of Hudson-Bergen Light Rail on residential property appreciation," Papers in Regional Science, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 93, pages 79-97, November.
    16. Papon, Francis & Nguyen-Luong, Dany & Boucq, Elise, 2015. "Should any new light rail line provide real estate gains, or not? The case of the T3 line in Paris," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 49(C), pages 43-54.
    17. Ahlfeldt, Gabriel M. & Nitsch, Volker & Wendland, Nicolai, 2019. "Ease vs. noise: Long-run changes in the value of transport (dis)amenities," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 98(C).
    18. Lin, Boqiang & Du, Zhili, 2017. "Can urban rail transit curb automobile energy consumption?," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 105(C), pages 120-127.
    19. He, Sylvia Y., 2020. "Regional impact of rail network accessibility on residential property price: Modelling spatial heterogeneous capitalisation effects in Hong Kong," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 135(C), pages 244-263.
    20. Vifill KARLSSON, 2010. "Modern Industrial Structure and Development of House PriceÂ’s Spatial Disparity: A General Case for Iceland; a Large but Thinly Populated European Country," Regional and Urban Modeling 284100023, EcoMod.

    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:sae:urbstu:v:44:y:2007:i:5-6:p:1041-1068. 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: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.gla.ac.uk/departments/urbanstudiesjournal .

    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.