Dissertations and Theses @ UNI

Availability

Open Access Thesis

Keywords

Housing--Prices--Iowa--Waterloo Region; Housing--Prices;

Abstract

This study explores the relationship between high-capacity urban roadways and housing value. The traffic on high-capacity urban roadways is expected to generate negative externalities, depressing the value of nearby housing. These same roads also provide accessibility, which is expected to capitalize into housing value as a bonus. The hypothesis underlying this research is that houses near high-traffic, high-speed roads suffer a penalty to their value as the negative externalities generated by the road are capitalized. However, as distance from these roads increases and the presence of negative externalities decreases, houses will capitalize a net benefit due to the accessibility gained by proximity to these roads. To test this hypothesis, a hedonic housing price model was constructed for the Waterloo/Cedar Falls metropolitan area. The dependent variable for the model was the sale price of the house, while the independent variables described the house's structure and location. In a linear multiple regression, the parameters can be read as the change in the sale price of the house per unit change in the corresponding independent variable. This study coupled statistical software packages with the descriptive and analytical power of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to construct, test, calibrate, and analyze the model. This integrated approach created a hedonic price model that was sensitive to spatial contextual influence. This research found that high-capacity urban roads have a noticeable effect on the sale price of surrounding housing. While the expected penalty to nearby houses was observed, the bonus expected as a result of increased accessibility was not. The model yielded other interesting results. The size of the house was the dominant feature in determining its price, followed by age, condition, and neighborhood. Houses in Waterloo were worth less than comparable houses in Cedar Falls. All else being equal, two-story houses were worth less than onestory homes. A very surprising find was that houses between zero and nine years of age incurred a penalty of roughly $40,000. The cause of this "new house penalty" remains unclear. The hedonic price model is a very powerful tool, and it offered a great deal of insight into the dynamic structure of the Cedar Falls/Waterloo housing market. It is hoped that this research demonstrates the ability of the largely aspatial hedonic price model to be calibrated and applied to answer spatial questions.

Year of Submission

2002

Degree Name

Master of Arts

Department

Department of Geography

First Advisor

C. Murray Austin

Second Advisor

Thomas Fogarty

Third Advisor

Timothy Strauss

Comments

If you are the rightful copyright holder of this thesis and wish to have it removed from the Open Access Collection, please submit a request to scholarworks@uni.edu and include clear identification of the work, preferably with URL.

Date Original

2002

Object Description

1 PDF file (98 leaves)

Language

en

File Format

application/pdf

Included in

Geography Commons

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