| Summary: | Although recent brownfields redevelopment research using theories of real estate
valuation and neighborhood change have indicated negative effects on surrounding
residential housing, little evidence exists to show price impacts and sociodemographic
change after remediation. This study examines the extent and size of the economic
impact of Superfund sites on surrounding single-family residential properties before and
after remediation in Miami-Dade County and examines trends for contemporaneous
sociodemographic changes. The study combines the economic impact from changes in
environmental quality with contemporaneous sociodemographic changes within the
purview of environmental and social justice. This study uses spatial hedonic price
modeling on a comprehensive dataset of property-level data, with corresponding sales
prices of housing transactions while controlling for other structural, neighborhood, and
submarkets characteristics for assessing economic impact.
Findings revealed that housing sales prices for single-family residential
properties significantly increases as distance to the nearest contaminated Superfund increases. Following remediation, this negative impact declined and housing values
increased significantly in neighborhoods with remedied Superfund sites albeit more so in
low housing submarkets than premium submarkets. Spatial hedonic models
outperformed traditional OLS models in presenting unbiased efficient parameter
estimates, correcting for spatial dependence. Although no evidence for gentrification
was observed, there existed significant differences between certain sociodemographic
characteristics of neighborhoods around contaminated Superfund sites and those of
properties located elsewhere leading to concerns of environmental and social justice.
Findings suggest that low-income minority populations are more likely to be living in
neighborhoods around contaminated Superfund sites and experience a greater negative
effect on housing sales prices; these sites are also less likely to be remedied as compared
to sites located elsewhere.
The findings highlight not only the revealed preferences of homeowners with
respect to environmental disamenities, but also help inform policymakers and
researchers of the impact of brownfields redevelopment on economic and
sociodemographic characteristics of a growing urban region with evolving cultural and
social diversity. Incorporating influences of housing submarkets, neighborhood
amenities, and spatial dependence help provide a holistic and comprehensive model for
examining environmental disamenities and provide a better understanding for
neighborhood change.
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