Thursday, September 4, 2008

Rising Property Values

The issue of rising property values is a blessing and a curse at the same time around new transit lines. On one hand, rising property values show improvement and that the line is making the area more desirable. On the other hand, rising property values show improvement and make an area so desirable that current residents get pushed out.

But it can help both if planned appropriately. If you know what happened in previous situations, you can plan for accommodating all parties. The value captured due to the infrastructure investment could pay for the transit, or even new affordable housing offsets. This is the possibility in Calgary, where property values rose 628%. That is double what housing prices rose in general. Amazing.

H/T to PC

2 comments:

Chris Bradford said...

That's the hard thing about urban economic policy in general. It's hard to do anything that, in the long run, benefits anyone other than property owners.

Anonymous said...

Actually, they rose 628% for the Expo 86 line in Vancouver...not Calgary.