Affordable housing developers have often faced claims that their developments will reduce the value of nearby homes.
It’s a common NIMBY argument made when a new affordable housing community is proposed. Developers have long felt that these fears are unfounded, and now there’s new research that supports their beliefs.
Trulia, an online real estate resource, examined changes in nearby home values before and after a low-income housing tax project is completed and found there’s no significant effect on home values.
The study looked at 3,083 affordable housing properties from 1996 to 2006 in the nation’s 20 least affordable markets.
“There is no statistically significant difference in price per square foot when comparing properties near a low-income housing project and those farther away when examining projects across all 20 metros,” says the report.
“Likewise, at the metro level, the majority of markets yield no significant difference in prices between the inner and outer ring after a project is completed.”
Out of the metros studied, only two, Boston and Cambridge, Mass., showed a negative effect on nearby home prices, suggesting a region-specific market effect. Of the markets examine, Denver was the only metro area where homes located near low-income housing projects registered a positive effect in terms of price per square foot after a project was completed.
Read There Doesn’t Go the Neighborhood: Low-Income Housing Has No Impact on Nearby Home Values.
