The effect of property taxes on urban areas

The effects of property taxes on urban areas are studied relative to a local wage tax. The changes in urban population and in the consumption and price of housing are determined in cities with various types of production sectors. Distortions in the composition of housing and residential density patterns are also reported. Examples are constructed to quantify the size of the changes and test whether property taxes are capitalized into land values.     

The elasticity of substitution for land: The effects of measurement errors

The explanatory variable used in most previous studies of land-nonland substitution, assessed or appraised land value, is subject to considerable measurement error. There is evidence that this biases the substitution elasticity from a true value of unity to a measured value in the 0.5 to 0.8 range. An hedonic method of measuring land value is proposed and applied to the Chicago residential sales data developed by Berry and Bednarz. Substitution elasticities are estimated within a CES framework from the two measures of land value; after correction for a vintage effect, appraised land value indicates that the elasticity is 0.57 whereas the hedonic measure of land values supports a unitary substitution elasticity. Therefore, the errors-in-variables hypothesis is confirmed and the use of a Cobb- Douglas production function is suggested.     

Property taxes and the timing of urban land development

This paper develops an optimal timing model which extends our understanding of the effects which property taxes have on the timing of land development. Comparative static effects of changes in property tax rates are investigated and policy rules are developed for the use of differential pre- and post-development tax rates to affect the timing of development. Changes in the property tax rate are found to be non-neutral with respect to the timing of development in most cases, accelerating or delaying development depending upon specific market conditions.     

The effect of property taxes on vacation home growth rates: Evidence from Michigan

The Tiebout model assumes that individuals sort to the jurisdiction which best matches their fiscal preferences. However, there is a paucity of reliable estimates for the impact of tax changes on household mobility. We utilize a state mandated school finance reform and temporal differences in vacation home densities to provide a unique test of this fundamental Tiebout assumption. The results show that changes in property taxes explain a significant amount of the variation in vacation home growth; a 3–4 mil decrease in property tax rates is associated with an increase of approximately one vacation home per square kilometer.     

State and local tax competition in a spatial model with sales taxes and residential property taxes

This paper presents a theoretical model with a uniformly populated line that is divided into local jurisdictions (and/or states). If one level of government imposes sales and residential property taxes, and if the spatial extent of each taxing jurisdiction is positive and finite, then (in Nash equilibrium) the sales tax rate is less than residential property tax rate, housing consumption is suboptimal, and the public good is underprovided in each jurisdiction. If a very large state (or country) is divided into local jurisdictions, and if both levels of government choose tax rates endogenously, then under some assumptions there is an efficient outcome.     

The determinants of nonresidential urban land values

This paper presents the results of an empirical study of nonresidential urban land values in the Dallas metropolitan area. The data base consists of 467 vacant land transactions from 1978 to 1982. By concentrating on sales prices of vacant land rather than improved property, problems normally encountered from use of appraised values or improved properties are eliminated. Separate models are developed for industrial, commercial, and office land. The study focuses on the tendency toward agglomeration for consumers of each land use as measured by the impact on land values in the central business district, suburban nodes, and other employment concentrations. The results provide insight into a number of influences on urban land value and offer evidence that office land derives greater benefit from agglomeration than does commercial or industrial land.     

北京：后奥运时代的供地版图

又一个金秋时节。北京地产界素有“金九银十”之说，那主要是指楼市房源的集中放量。然而今年九月、十月份京城的地产市场，却显得并不似往年那段热闹，据业内人士统计，“金九”入市新盘仅50余个、放量明显不如去年。倒是北京市国土资源局在此时推出的土地供应计划，给略显平淡的北京房地产市场增添了些许亮色.     

Large lot zoning, property taxes, and metropolitan area

The paper is a study in positive economics. Two- and three-sector models are used to determine the effects on urban land and housing markets of land use controls such as minimum lot size, maximum density, and maximum bulk requirements. The effects of these controls on rural-urban land conversion and on the effects of property taxes on urban land markets are also investigated. The land use requirements are found to accelerate rural-urban land conversion in some cases and affect the impact of property taxes on urban land and housing markets.     

The price elasticity of the supply of single-family detached urban housing

Past attempts to estimate the price elasticity of the supply of housing have erred by using aggregate data. Many houses are built in areas where the volume of residential construction is low. Consequently, the influence of observations from higher-volume areas where costs may be higher is diminished. This problem is eliminated by using cross-sectional data from 61 different American urban areas, for a total of 223 observations from 1976 to 1981, to estimate a translog cost function for housing. The supply elasticity is found to be infinite.     

Winning pays: High school football championships and property values

A large literature explores the effect of schooling characteristics on property values, but touches little on non-academic attributes of schools. This study demonstrates the capitalization of high school football championships into school district property values using a model that controls for a series of fixed effects. Winning a state football championship increases property values by 1.65% in the year following the championship, exerting its strongest effect immediately after the championship is won. The effect is biggest in the AA division; the largest and most competitive division.     

Nonparametric estimation of the impact of taxes on female labor supply

This paper proposes a simple extension of nonparametric estimation methods for nonlinear budget‐set models derived in Blomquist and Newey ( 2002 ) to censored dependent variables. The nonparametric method is applied to estimate female labor supply elasticities using data on married women from the 1985 and 1989 waves of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, exploiting the substantial variation in budget sets caused by the Tax Reform Act of 1986 as a source of identification. The estimated wage elasticities from this new method are 0.56 overall and 0.27 on the intensive margin. The income elasticity estimates are close to ? 0.67 overall and ? 0.13 on the intensive margin. Compared with the linear labor supply model, the estimated elasticities are usually larger for the nonparametric specifications that account for nonlinear budget sets. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Changes in urban land values: 1836–1970

A model is developed for measuring the return to holding land and those returns are examined using a random coefficient estimation procedure for specific periods from 1836 to 1970. This statistical model provides a mean rate of return for land and a predictor for each time period. The results suggest that the long-term return to holding land is no higher than the rate of return to holding high-grade bonds. For shorter holding periods, the returns vary significantly.     

Topographical constraints and urban land supply indexes

This paper develops and applies a method for measuring the extent to which large bodies of water restrict urban land supply. The amount of land available for urban use is the sum of weighted annular areas, net of water, around the urban center. The weights exponentially decrease toward zero with distance from the center at a rate determined by the population density gradient. The method of measurement and the weights are derived from the theory of a monocentric city with a perfectly competitive land market. The method is applied to calculate land supply indexes for the 40 most populous U.S. urban areas in 1980, and indexes over time for two land-filled urban areas. Such indexes can be constructed to account for restrictions imposed by mountains and by zoning. They are useful in empirical studies of land, housing, transportation, and population density.     

The effect of voluntary brownfields programs on nearby property values: Evidence from Illinois

Brownfields are properties whose redevelopment is hampered by known or suspected contamination and by concerns about associated liability. Because failing to redevelop brownfields may negatively affect welfare and the environment, a number of states have created voluntary programs to reduce liability risks and encourage redevelopment of brownfields. For clean or remediated properties, the state certifies that owners of such sites are not subject to federal or state liability under certain conditions. Certification could increase nearby property values because of decreased contamination risk and amenities associated with redeveloping the brownfield. This paper focuses on the Site Remediation Program in Illinois, and estimates the effect of brownfields certification on nearby property values. Employing several strategies to account for unobserved and time-varying variables that may be correlated with certification, I find that the entry and certification of a brownfield 0.25 miles away raises the value of a property by about 1% compared to an otherwise identical property.     

Airport expansions and property values: the case of Chicago O'Hare Airport

The paper adds to the empirical literature by providing up-to-date estimates of the effect of airport noise on property values around one of the world's busiest airports, Chicago O'Hare. The results indicate that home values were about 9% lower within a 65 dB noise contour band of O'Hare in 1997. Opponents of airport expansions argue that increased noise will reduce property values and lower tax bases. The results of this paper suggest that aircraft are becoming so much quieter that the airport can be expanded without causing a drop in local property values or tax bases. Estimates suggest that house prices may rise by as much as $284.6 million in the densely populated area around O'Hare after a new runway is added to the airport.