Quick detour from baby news to highlight what I've been working on for the last several months for my master's program. I studied the effect that MetroLink rail stations have on residential property values. Studies in other cities have found 5-20% boost in value from living within a short distance (1/4 mile or 5-minute walk) from a station. Other studies have found houses decrease in value because not many people use mass transit and because of noise and traffic. I wanted to see what the deal was along the new MetroLink extension. To keep things manageable, I looked at the two stations in Maplewood, Sunnen and Maplewood-Manchester. Thanks to the St. Louis County Planning Department for the data.
It's more complicated than it sounds because I had to play around with the data alot. It's difficult to compare different neighborhoods directly, especially since Maplewood has older, smaller, and cheaper houses than the surrounding areas of Brentwood and Webster Groves. Basically what I found was that once you control for the school district, there is a 6.3% increase (per square foot) in value for single-family homes, excluding rentals. This works out to approximately $9,000 in extra value for each house located within 1/4 mile of the station.
This project is just a start, I hope to expand it to all stations, get more updated data, and tweak my model for my thesis sometime next year. If you want all the gory geospatial details, or are looking for some delightful bedtime reading material, I will happily send you my full paper.
You can click on the map at the top to see in more detail.
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