The value of urban tree cover: A hedonic property price model in Ramsey and Dakota Counties, Minnesota, USA

Heather Sander, Stephen Polasky and Robert G. Haight

Ecological Economics, 2010, vol. 69, issue 8, 1646-1656

Abstract: Urban tree cover benefits communities. These benefits' economic values, however, are poorly recognized and often ignored by landowners and planners. We use hedonic property price modeling to estimate urban tree cover's value in Dakota and Ramsey Counties, MN, USA, predicting housing value as a function of structural, neighborhood, and environmental variables, including tree cover, using a spatial simultaneous autoregressive (SAR) error model. We measure tree cover as percent tree cover on parcels, and within 100, 250, 500, 750, and 1000Â m. Results show that tree cover within 100 and 250Â m is positive and statistically significant. A 10% increase in tree cover within 100Â m increases average home sale price by $1371 (0.48%) and within 250Â m increases sale price by $836 (0.29%). In a model including both linear and squared tree cover terms, tree cover within 100 and 250Â m increases sale price to 40-60% tree cover. Beyond this point increased tree cover contributes to lower price. Tree cover beyond 250Â m did not contribute significantly to sale price. These results suggest significant positive effects for neighborhood tree cover, for instance, for the shading and aesthetic quality of tree-lined streets, indicating that tree cover provides positive neighborhood externalities.

Keywords: Hedonic; pricing; Urban; forestry; Tree; cover (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (79)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0921-8009(10)00107-2
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecolec:v:69:y:2010:i:8:p:1646-1656

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Economics is currently edited by C. J. Cleveland

More articles in Ecological Economics from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().