Evaluating the Economic Impacts of Light Rail by Measuring Home Appreciation

Economic benefits are sometimes used to justify transport investments. Such was the case with the River Line of southern New Jersey, USA, which broke ground in 2000 and began operating in 2004. Recently, the line has been performing near full capacity and there is evidence that it has spurred development. Disaggregate data on owned-home appreciation are used to investigate the initial economic impacts of the line, looking carefully at non-linearity in the appreciation gradient, differential effects of station ridership and parking, redistribution of property appreciation gains and differences by property and neighbourhood type. At this time, the net impact of the line on the owned housing market is neutral to slightly negative. While lower-income census tracts and smaller houses seem to appreciate near the station, this may be a value transfer from farther-away properties not favoured with access. Few studies have previously looked for such effects.