The Impact of Brownfields on Residential Property Values in Cincinnati, Ohio: A Spatial Hedonic Approach

This paper empirically assesses the impact brownfield sites have on market values of single-family residential properties. Using three different hedonic model specifications, namely Ordinary Least Squares, Spatial Autoregressive, and Spatial Error Model, this study shows that properties located less than 1,000 feet from a brownfield site experience a significant depreciation in property values. As expected, spatial dependence among real estate property values is present meaning that the two spatial hedonic model specifications are superior to the Ordinary Least Squares specification. The study contributes to the relevant real estate and urban economics literature by determining the negative impact brownfield sites have on the value of single-family residential properties in our study region in Cincinnati, by explicitly accounting for the phenomenon of spatial dependence in the dependent variable, and by addressing the declining influence of brownfield sites on property values in a nonlinear relationship.