The Impact of Age on the Value of historic homes in a Nationally Recognized Historic District

This paper uses hedonic modeling to test the effects of age, both actual and effective, on the value of historic properties within a nationally recognized historic district. Findings show that there is a critical point where the value of historic properties is affected by actual age and the depreciation schedule turns upward. Effective age is used to develop a variant of Tobin's Q which provides evidence that inter-district price differentials often attributed to historic designation are at least partially a function of investment differentials between districts.