Does Easy Accessibility to Urban Parks Always Raise Home Values?

Abstract

This paper employs a boundary discontinuity design to separate the cost of easy access (EA) to urban parks from the combined effects of proximity.¹ On average, houses with EA to urban parks experience a significant price reduction of 2.0%. This reduction equals approximately $7,986 per house in 2018 dollars, all else being equal. The average negative effect originates from EA to city parks. Mechanism analysis using novel cellphone data reveals that frequent visits to areas with EA to urban parks can lead to congestion disamenities that have a negative effect on the prices of EA houses.