The Influence of Riparian Protection Measures on Residential Property Values: The Case of the Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds

The Oregon Plan for Salmon and Watersheds encourages residential property owners to plant riparian buffers in an effort to reduce stream temperature and thus improve fish habitat. This study estimates the change in the value of streamside residential properties in response to planting a treed riparian buffer. A hedonic pricing analysis suggests that treed riparian buffers reduce the market value of stream-front residential property in the study area.     

Buyer-Type Effects in Conservation and Preservation Property Values

Properties can be bought by government agencies, land trusts, or private entities for conservation and preservation purposes, such as farmland preservation, wildlife refuges, other conservation, and cultural and historical preservation. There is variation in the dollars paid per acre across properties and across buyer type. An option value model based on future potential land uses is used to explain much of this variation. The data used in our analysis is sales transactions data for conservation and preservation purposes from throughout the United States. We find that much of the value of conservation properties is derived from future potential land uses, including housing, timber, recreation, and conservation. We confirm that public versus private buyers value options differently, which makes sense from a public good point of view, if markets are thin.     

The Impact of Small Brownfields and Greenspaces on Residential Property Values

Using a hedonic pricing model, this paper investigates the responsiveness of residential property values in a well-defined inner-city neighborhood of Kenosha, Wisconsin, to the presence of two small former industrial sites contaminated by various environmental pollutants, or brownfields, and a local neighborhood park, or greenspace. Using readily available data on sales and assessments for residential property in close proximity to the brownfields and the greenspace, we estimate well-behaved and statistically significant property value gradients with respect to the park, the environmental amenity, and the brownfields, the environmental disamenities. These functions are then used to estimate the possible impact that brownfield remediation may have on total property value. We estimate that remediation and redevelopment of the brownfields into greenspaces would increase property values for the 890 neighborhood residences between $2.40 and $7.01 million. These results suggest that small brownfields have a measurable impact on property values and that readily accessible data can be used to help local policymakers make decisions on remediation issues.     

Transportation Improvements and Land Values in the Antebellum United States: A Hedonic Approach

We offer county-level estimates of the effect of water and rail access on the value of antebellum farms. Employing a hedonic model, we find that in 1850 average farm values in counties with access to a canal or navigable river were $2.68 per acre greater than counties without such access and $1.80 greater with rail access. In 1860 the figures were $3.75 for a canal or river access and $1.35 for rail. With average farm size around 200 acres and per capita national income roughly $150 during the decade, we conclude that on average transportation access yielded substantial economic gains.     

The Internal and External Impact of Historical Designation on Property Values

Designation of historic properties and historic districts is increasingly used as a means to revive central-city neighborhoods and to promote urban economic development. While preservation activities are thought to generate positive externalities for surrounding neighborhoods, these external effects have been difficult to quantify. Using a database of tax-appraisal records for residential properties in Abilene, Texas, this study demonstrates that there are significant, positive externalities associated with historic designation. We perform simple cost-benefit calculations and find that the internal and external benefits more than outweigh the (nonzero) costs associated with historical designation. Moreover, from the city of Abilene's perspective the property-tax incentives provided to historic reinvestment are outweighed by the added property-tax revenue created by the increased value.     

Valuing Open Space and Land-Use Patterns in Urban Watersheds

This article presents the results of a hedonic property value analysis for an urban watershed in New Haven County, Connecticut. We use spatially referenced housing and land-use data to capture the effect of environmental variables around the house location. We calculate and incorporate data on open space, land-use diversity, and other environmental variables to capture spatial variation in environmental quality around each house location. We are ultimately interested in determining whether variables that are reflective of spatial diversity do a better job of describing human preferences for housing choice than broad categories of rural versus urban areas. Using a rich data set of over 4,000 houses, we study these effects within a watershed that includes areas of high environmental quality and low environmental quality as well as varying patterns of socioeconomic conditions. Our results suggest that, in addition to structural characteristics, variables describing neighborhood socioeconomic characteristics and variables describing land use and environmental quality are influential in determining human values. We also find that the scale at which we measure these spatially defined environmental variables is important.     

Bargaining Strength and Property Class in Office Markets

This paper examines the influence of bargaining power and property class on the prices of heterogeneous goods. Specifically, it explores the impact of buyer and seller characteristics on the transaction prices of office properties. The empirical model is based on the work of Harding, Rosenthal, and Sirmans (2003), which developed a method to distinguish between the impact of buyer and seller attributes on bargaining power and the choice of otherwise unidentified price effects (i.e., property class) in the context of hedonic price models. The data set contains information on transaction prices of office properties in Cook, DuPage, and Lake Counties, Illinois from 1995 to 1997. The results reveal systematic differences in bargaining power and property class for certain groups of buyers and sellers contained within the sample.     

Residential Land Values and the Decentralization of Jobs

The land-value surface in suburban Washington, D.C., changed dramatically over the decade of the 1980s. This article explains these changes in terms of the decentralization of jobs versus socioeconomic trends. Contemporaneous correlation among selected variables needs to be controlled with reduced forms and SES techniques. But all explanatory variables except distance from some unchanged point are determined simultaneously. Predetermined variables control for this double-endogeneity issue.Land values in 1990 have a U-shape with respect to distance from the U.S. Capitol Building after controlling for other variables. The data indicate that this is the result of demographic changes rather than the development of suburban employment nodes: polycentric SUE theory is rejected. Land values are an increasing function of lagged land values, a decreasing function of work at home. Moreover, work at home is attracted by low structural density and high socioeconomic status as well as low land values. This supports the argument that demographics and technological innovations have shaped the land-value surface; baby boomers are seeking low-density housing for work and family life.     

The Impact of Railway Stations on Residential and Commercial Property Value: A Meta-analysis

Railway stations function as nodes in transport networks and places in an urban environment. They have accessibility and environmental impacts, which contribute to property value. The literature on the effects of railway stations on property value is mixed in its finding in respect to the impact magnitude and direction, ranging from a negative to an insignificant or a positive impact. This paper attempts to explain the variation in the findings by meta-analytical procedures. Generally the variations are attributed to the nature of data, particular spatial characteristics, temporal effects and methodology. Railway station proximity is addressed from two spatial considerations: a local station effect measuring the effect for properties with in 1/4 mile range and a global station effect measuring the effect of coming 250 m closer to the station. We find that the effect of railway stations on commercial property value mainly takes place at short distances. Commercial properties within 1/4 mile rang are 12.2% more expensive than residential properties. Where the price gap between the railway station zone and the rest is about 4.2% for the average residence, it is about 16.4% for the average commercial property. At longer distances the effect on residential property values dominate. We find that for every 250 m a residence is located closer to a station its price is 2.3% higher than commercial properties. Commuter railway stations have a consistently higher positive impact on the property value compared to light and heavy railway/Metro stations. The inclusion of other accessibility variables (such as highways) in the models reduces the level of reported railway station impact.

The Construction of Residential Housing Price Indices: A Comparison of Repeat-Sales,Hedonic-Regression,and Hybrid Approaches

This article examines a number of hypotheses that underpin the repeat-sales and hedonic approaches to the construction of housing price indices, as well as the practical problems associated with the implementation of either approach. We also examine a hybrid procedure that combines elements of both the repeat-sales and hedonic-regression techniques. For our sample of individual home sales in Oakland and Fremont California over an 18-year period, repeat-sales methods are subject to sample selection bias; the maintained assumption of time constancy of implicit prices of housing attributes is violated; the repeat-sales estimator is extremely sensitive to influential observations; and the usual method used to correct for heteroskedasticity in repeat-sale housing returns is inappropriate in our sample. Hedonic techniques are better suited to contend with index number problems per se, as they can accommodate changing attribute prices over time. They also appear to give rise to more reliable estimates of price indices, as unusual observations have less effect on estimated price indices. Drawbacks of the hedonic approach include the usual concern with omitted attributes, and their effect on the estimated price index.     

The Property Tax as a Tax on Value: Deadweight Loss

Consider an atomistic developer who decides when and at what density to develop his land, under a property value tax system characterized by three time-invariant tax rates: τ_V, the tax rate on pre-development land value; τ_S, the tax rate on post-development residual site value; and τ_K, the tax rate on structure value. Arnott (2005) identified the subset of property value tax systems that are neutral. This paper investigates the relative efficiency of four idealized, non-neutral property value tax systems [(i) “Canadian' property tax system: τ_V = 0, τ _S = τ_K; (ii) simple property tax system: τ_V = τ _S = τ_K; (iii) residual site value tax system: τ_K = 0,τ _V = τ_S; (iv) two-rate property tax system: τ_V = τ _S > τ_K > 0] under the assumption of a constant rental growth rate. JEL Code: H2     

Property Company Stock Price and Net Asset Value: A Mean Reversion Perspective

This study investigates the relationship between property company stock prices (P) and their net asset values (NAV) from a mean reversion perspective. In contrast to U.K. evidence, we find that there is absence of a long-term stable relationship between the two series. However, the variance ratio tests and multi-period regressions suggest that both P and NAV series have exhibited transitory components. In addition, there is some evidence of mean reversion behavior of Singapore property stock prices toward the property companies' NAVs over the past 15 years from 1985 to 1999, both at individual company level and in the sector as a whole. The results also reveal that NAV, as a traditional proxy to fundamental value, is significant in capturing the dynamics of the changes in property stock prices. Hence NAV is relevant in property company valuation. However the extent of mean reversion between the property stock prices and NAVs is slow and deviations between the two markets' valuation could therefore be prolonged.     

保险公司保障属性的衡量与影响因素分析

本文聚焦保险保障功能,提出保障属性的概念,并运用熵值法构建衡量保险公司保障属性的多指标综合评价模型,计算了保险公司的保障属性指数,并衡量了财险业、寿险业及保险业的保障属性,分析了导致保险公司保障属性差异的影响因素。研究表明,构建的保障属性综合评价模型具有一定的有效性。财险公司保障属性集中在高水平,外资和小型财险公司的保障属性明显较高。寿险公司间保障属性差异明显,外资和小型寿险公司的保障属性明显较高。保险行业的保障属性整体上在样本年显著增强。财险公司和寿险公司的保障属性受不同因素影响。整体上,公司年龄、学历结构、国有股份比例、董事长学历及是否兼任总经理等因素对两者有着共同的影响。     

Urban Sprawl and the Property Tax

This paper explores the connection between the property tax and urban sprawl. While the tax's depressing effect on improvements reduces population density, spurring the spatial expansion of cities, a countervailing effect from lower dwelling sizes may dominate, raising densities and making cities smaller. The analysis shows that this latter outcome is guaranteed under CES preferences when the elasticity of substitution is high. But numerical results for the Leontief case (where is zero) suggest that the property tax encourages urban sprawl when substitution between housing and other goods is low. Thus, the distortions generated by the property tax may include inefficient spatial expansion of cities, suggesting the tax may belong on the list of causal factors identified by critics of urban sprawl.     

Development Involvement and Property Share Performance: International Evidence

This paper concerns the dilemma whether regulators should preclude tax-exempt property investment companies from engaging in property development activities. We analyze the economic effects of combinations of property investment and property development by looking at the performance of an international set of property investment companies with varying degrees of involvement in property development. We study the five most important listed property markets in the world: the United States, Hong Kong, Australia, the United Kingdom and France. We examine the extent to which property investment companies participate in development projects by dividing the book value of their development projects by total assets. These development ratios yield remarkable differences both within and across national samples, with national averages varying between 2.23 percent for the United States and 21.34 percent for our Hong Kong sample. Analysis of property share performance yields results that consistently indicate that the cluster of property companies most involved in development projects is associated with both the highest total return and the highest systematic risk. We also find a weak positive link between development involvement and the Jensen alpha of property shares. The statistical significance of this link varies by country, with strong results for Hong Kong and Australia and less compelling results for the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Besides analyzing the stock performance of the companies in our samples we also focus on their operational profitability. Again, we consistently find both the highest and most volatile performance for companies actively participating in property development projects.     

Property Investment and Property Development Firm Performance Around Initial Public Offerings and Rights Offerings: U.K. Evidence

In contrast to the well-documented underperformance of equity issuers, property investment firms undertaking initial public offerings and rights issues have performed indistinguishably from similar nonissuing firms. Property development companies that issued equity over the same period performed significantly worse than nonissuing firms. The major difference between property development and property investment firms is that property investment firms hold portfolios of real estate assets and thus have more certain prices. The lower pricing uncertainty of property investment firms results in normal long-run performance. Tests of the cognitive bias hypothesis provide only weak support of this explanation, while size and book-market effects are unable to account for the performance of property investment and development companies. The findings of underperformance for rights issues suggest that timing equity issues to take advantage of new shareholders may not be linked to the existence of cognitive bias. An important finding for the international growth in securitized real estate markets is that no evidence is found suggesting equity issues of securitized real estate firms should be avoided.     

The Trade-off Between the Selling Price of Residential Properties and Time-on-the-Market: The Impact of Price Setting

When a house is placed on the market, the seller must choose the initial offer price. Setting the price too high or too low affects the marketability of the property. While there is near universal agreement that the seller faces a trade-off between selling at a higher price and selling in less time, there is less agreement about how to measure this trade-off. This paper offers a framework for analysis and shows that an increase in the list price increases expected time-on-the-market (TOM). Because house buyers must solve a type of signal extraction problem, the effect of a higher list price is magnified for houses in a market segment having a low predicted variance of the list price. This paper also shows that the list price of houses which are withdrawn before sale has a higher mean and variance, and that the possibility of withdrawal censors information about the time-on-the-market.     

Time-Limited Property Rights and Investment Incentives

Although it is axiomatic that property rights of infinite duration are necessary for owners to make efficient long term investments in their property, time limits on property rights are pervasive in the law. This paper provides an economic justification for such limits by arguing that they actually enhance property values in the presence of imperfect information. In so doing, the analysis offers a coherent approach for understanding what otherwise appear to be unrelated doctrines in the law.     

Land Values, Land Use, and the First Chicago Zoning Ordinance

This article examines whether the pattern of urban land use should have been regulated by local government in the 1920s, the decade in which many cities adopted their first zoning ordinances. The study is based on the assumption that land values are influenced by the mix of land use on the block. Conditions for land-value maximization are derived, and the circumstances under which land-use zoning can increase land values are discussed. Empirical land-value and land-use functions are estimated for Chicago in 1921, two years before the first Chicago zoning ordinance was adopted. The empirical results for land values imply that the land-use zoning system adopted in 1923 could not have brought about a general increase in land values. The empirical results for land use document the regularities in the use of land prior to the introduction of zoning.