Do house prices rise or fall when a train station is located nearby?

Question

Is there any evidence or studies on the long term effects on residential property prices when a new commuter trainline & /station is built within 1/2 a mile of your house? Links to specific evidence and/or relevant articles more likely to result in your answer being selected as the best.

Answer 1

Apartments, condos, town homes and medium value home will definitely go up in value. However if there's a train line running thru a luxury homes neighbourhood, I think it may have the opposite effect.

Answer 2

British Rail (in the days of nationalisation) sponsored research into the effects of the electrification of services hitherto operated by diesel or steam locomotives.

The research showed that, in general, house prices rose as the area became more attractive for commuting, leading to cumalative increases in patronage. This became known as the "Sparks Effect" and it has been used to help justify a number of electrification schemes.

For example, when the West Coast Main Line was electrified from Carlisle to Glasgow in 1972-4, the "Sparks Effect" was a significant element in extending the electrification to the Hamilton Circle services in Strathclyde. A later [unpublished] study by the Greater Glasgow Passenger Transport Executive demonstrated that the "Sparks Effect" was greater than anticipated.

Answer 3

Are you kidding? When they installed the San Francisco BART system in the 70s, it cost $1.2B.  That could have been paid several times over by the increase in real estate value BART caused.  

BART was an unbelievable windfall for property owners, and they didn't even have to pay for it.

Answer 4

Both.  

House prices rise when businesses move nearby.  This will happen as transportation to and from business is greater.  As a city gets a bus station, a train station, an airport, and/or seaport, the value of the city increases dramatically.  Can you imagine a major city without all these types of access?

House prices of the homes closest to the train station are typically less than those further away.  Obviously, people pay for peace and quite.  Kind of like a home next to a busy street is about 5% less valuable than a neighbor home that isn't backed up to the major street.

To you personally, if you use the commuter rail service, then it's of great value.  You can walk to the station.  You might even be able to get rid of an extra car.  That's fantastic value!  If you don't use it, then I think the noise could be burdensome.

Answer 5

I have seen studies and I would say house prices rise even more when they are close to the station.  Sometimes considerably.

An example of the effect of a commuter rail line on house prices is what has happened in Southeast Massachusetts since the rail lines came.  Prices have gone through the roof and the area has really been transformed.

I think it depends some on many factors.  A house from which you can walk to the train station (ie, less than 1/2 a mile) will be very desirable.  If the metrapolitan area as a whole is booming (as Boston has been) and there is pent up demand, prices will rise more, while if it is Cleveland or something, I'm not sure it would have such an effect.  In general commuter trains haul a middle-class demographic, so yes uber-luxury houses wouldn't be as affected and cheap starter homes would start being knocked down and replaced by more upmarket homes (that's especially happening in Chicago).

Answer 6

Indeed, I believe zeltar01 nailed this one although like an above poster stated, I am unaware of any actual studies (although I am sure a number have been done, somewhere).  Having studied the rail industry for several years, a case where the value will likely always go down is a freight-only rail line (i.e., non-commuter/light rail line) where the heavier trains and noise almost always negatively impact someone's desire to live nearby.

Answer 7

It depends on how close.  Half a mile, the prices should go up, but any closer and the prices will fall.  No studies that I know of.