The Impact of the Little Miami Scenic Trail on Single Family Residential Property Values

Across the United States, many conversions of abandoned railroad rights-of-ways into trails have faced opposition from surrounding property owners. Much of the opposition derives from the fear that developing trails would cause a decrease in property values because of loss of privacy, increase in noise, traffic, litter and crime. The objective of this study is to assess the impact of the Little Miami Scenic Trail on property values. To accomplish this task, the hedonic pricing technique was employed to measure the impact of the trail on single-family residential property values in southwest Ohio. Several of the variables used in this model were measured using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software. The analysis suggests that, each foot increase in distance to the trail decreases the sale price of a sample property by $7.05. In other words, being closer to the Little Miami Scenic Trail adds value to the single family residential properties.

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