The Economic Geography of Churches: Housing Market Effects in Stockholm

Churches are visible both in the city and in the countryside, and throughout history, the church has been central to both religious and administrative life. However, the role of the church has changed over time. We examine whether churches influence the housing market beyond their religious functions. Three questions are in focus: how churches are geographically distributed, whether proximity to a church affects housing prices, and whether this is linked to social cohesion, such as voter turnout. The study is based on more than 33,000 housing sales in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2023, and uses a combination of hedonic pricing, geographically weighted regression, and propensity score matching. Data on church locations are obtained from OpenStreetMap and the Swedish National Heritage Board. The results show that proximity to a church is generally associated with higher housing prices (around 2-12%), especially within 250 metres. Proximity to cemeteries has a slightly higher impact on prices (around 10-13%). Hence, it suggests that churches and cemeteries are regarded as amenities or positive externalities. Overall, the results show that even in secularised societies, culturally charged places such as churches can have tangible economic value in the urban landscape.