Spatial analysis of the relationship between housing values and investments in transportation infrastructure

Abstract

The relationship between residential location, location value and accessibility has been of long interest to regional scientists. Studies investigating the relationship between house price and changes in accessibility, however, have been fewer in number, and predominantly have centered upon the house price impact of fixed rail investments. Neglected have been the impacts of smaller road investments made on a regular basis by municipalities and state departments of transportation. This research therefore reports on the spatial relationship between house price and investment in road-based transportation infrastructure by combining two spatial databases, both centered on Columbus, OH. The first contains information on all single-family detached houses sold in 1990. The second contains detailed spatial and temporal information on all accessibility-changing road investments in the same area, since 1978. Results indicate that while moderate, past, current and approved (but not begun) road investments have distinct and significant impacts on house price. Copyright Springer-Verlag 2004R31, H54,

Nonlinear Spatial and Temporal Effects of Highway Construction on House Prices

“…McMillen and McDonald (2004) found similar positive anticipation effects for the Midway rail line in Chicago. Conversely Mikelbank (2004) found negative anticipation effects. Smersh and Smith (2000) found mixed effects that were consistent both before and after the opening of the bridge in their study.…”

“…A number of studies incorporate spatial statistics or spatial interactions in the estimation of models (Mikelbank 2004;Fik et al 2003;Can and Megbolugbe 1997;Can 1992). By contrast, Bourassa et al (2007) find that spatial econometrics do not improve the estimation of house prices in their sample.…”

“…Mikelbank (2004) speculates that this is because of the more generally large, discrete and separable nature of major rail infrastructure investments, which makes it easier to analyze their net effects than those of road building. Kilpatrick et al (2007) emphasize the negative impact on house prices of nearby superhighways and tunnels when access points are more distant.…”

“…Kilpatrick et al (2007) emphasize the negative impact on house prices of nearby superhighways and tunnels when access points are more distant. Mikelbank (2004Mikelbank ( , 2005 examines the effects of smaller, more numerous road infrastructure investments in Ohio with mixed results. Smersh and Smith (2000) find construction of a new bridge impacts positively on peripheral areas that subsequently enjoy greater access but negatively on more central areas that experience greater congestion.…”

Toll roads and economic development: exploring effects on property values

“…Variograms are spatial correlation functions linking the degree of covariation of a variable with itself to the distance separation between those points and have been used as part of diagnostics procedure, but they have also been used to develop weight matrices(Mikelbank 2004). The distance threshold where the covariation of sales prices is observed to level off or stabilize has been used to develop weight matrices.…”