Does Walkability Influence Housing Prices? Evidence from Miami

Abstract

Objective: We examine the effects of neighborhood walkability on house values. Recent research claims that walkability makes homes more valuable, ceteris paribus. We contend that some studies report a spurious effect of walkability because of differences between areas with high and low walkability.

Methods: We replicate the positive effect of walkability on prices for single family homes and condominiums in Miami, Florida, using a unique dataset of house values and characteristics. We employ a fixed effects regression model instead of a traditional ordinary least-squares (OLS) regression model to account for the unobserved heterogeneity of neighborhoods.

Results: We find that walkability’s impact on housing value becomes statistically insignificant at the margin after controlling for heteroskedasticity and neighborhood fixed effects.

Conclusions: The significant impact of the fixed effects suggests that something other than walkability is affecting prices and that better specified models are needed to discern the real price effects of walkability.

Keywords: Walkability, Housing Price

JEL Classification: R10, R21, R40