MODELLING THE EFFECTS OF AIRPORT NOISE ON RESIDENTIAL HOUSING MARKETS: A CASE STUDY OF WINNIPEG INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT.

Decomposition of residential property prices by regression is a well-established practice to estimate the effects of aircraft noise on housing markets near airports. Samples of property transactions are drawn from neighbourhoods exposed to varying amounts of noise. Each transaction is represented by a list of physical characteristics such as the size of the house, and location features, including its exposure to airport noise. The latter is typically represented by a single index such as the Noise Exposure Forecast (NEF). When the closing prices of transactions are regressed on these characteristics the technique is called hedonic price estimation. The regression coefficient of the noise characteristic measures the economic impact of noise on property markets. By measuring noise with cumulative energy measures like the Noise Exposure Forecast, analysts forgo the opportunity to distinguish the relative importance of sound pressure levels, frequencies of overflights, and the variability of the noise as factors influencing residential property prices. This study considers separating these effects by representing noise conditions at each location as a vector of characteristics. It tests the resulting model against one based on the more typical Noise Exposure Forecast.