The Effect Of Sprawl Controls On Home Prices, House Size

This study at California State University, Sacramento, will be published in a forthcoming "Journal of Policy Analysis and Management". It will be used to measure the effects of a "smart growth" public policy on growth management, i.e. placing the greatest concentration of growth in the central, urban core of metropolitan areas, as opposed to the fringes.

"The researchers found that increasing population in the center of an area by 10 percent reduced median housing prices by 2.7 percent. They concluded that measures to reduce sprawl and concentrate growth in the urban core tends to make fewer large homes on big lots available, pushing buyers to smaller homes on smaller lots."

"Wassmer and Baass looked at U.S. Census data for more than 450 urbanized areas to study the relationship between concentration of population in the urban center and housing prices. "Our evidence shows that greater centralization in an urban area results in a reduced proportion of upper-priced homes in that urban area and a lower median priced house for the entire area," Wassmer said."