Philadelphia Inquirer columnist, Alan J. Heavens, in the article, On the House: SEPTA Rail Lines Boost Suburban Home Prices, Study Finds, quoted ESI President and Prinicpal Dick Voith in response to ESI’s recent report, The Impacts of SEPTA Regional Rail Service on Suburban House Prices. The article discussed the current report, but also spoke of Voith’s history of studying the economic impact of public transportation.
Econsult Solutions examined single-family house transactions from 2005 to 2012 and the average property-value premium resulting from being close to a regional rail station.
The closer you are to the station and the more parking available, the higher the premium – we’re talking about $31,000 to $37,000 a house.
This is not Voith’s first study of property values and public transportation. The previous ones – in 1991 and 2000, when he was senior economist at the Philadelphia Fed – told the same story for a wider suburban swath, since those studies included the PATCO line in South Jersey, which Voith said he would like to look at again.