There have been numerous papers written recently concerning the question of whether property values are affected by nearby wind farms. It's not a great leap of faith to realize that major structures close to residences like electrical transmission towers, highways, train tracks and wind turbines all affect the market value of our homes.

PROPERTY VALUES: Local opponents say wind farms harmful
By NANCY MADSEN, TIMES STAFF WRITER
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 27, 2009
Opponents of wind farm development in Jefferson County have touted property value decline as a possible harm.
But that argument, or any counterclaim, is getting little support from experts. Two studies on property values around wind farms were released in 2009, but had very different results.

The Impact of Wind Power Projects on Residential Property Values in the United States:  A Multi-Site Hedonic Analysis
by: Ben Hoen, Ryan Wiser, Peter Cappers, Mark Thayer, and Gautam Sethi

December 9, 2009

The work described in this report was funded by the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (Wind & Hydropower Technologies Program) of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH1123.

Abstract

With wind energy expanding rapidly in the U.S. and abroad, and with an increasing number of communities considering wind power development nearby, there is an urgent need to empirically investigate common community concerns about wind project development.  The concern that property values will be adversely affected by wind energy facilities is commonly put forth by stakeholders.  Although this concern is not unreasonable, given property value impacts that have
been found near high voltage transmission lines and other electric generation facilities, the impacts of wind energy facilities on residential property values had not previously been investigated thoroughly.  The present research collected data on almost 7,500 sales of single-family homes situated within 10 miles of 24 existing wind facilities in nine different U.S. states.

The conclusions of the study are drawn from eight different hedonic pricing models, as well as both repeat sales and sales volume models.  The various analyses are strongly consistent in that none of the models uncovers conclusive evidence of the existence of any widespread property value impacts that might be present in communities surrounding wind energy facilities. Specifically, neither the view of the wind facilities nor the distance of the home to those facilities
is found to have any consistent, measurable, and statistically significant effect on home sales prices.  Although the analysis cannot dismiss the possibility that individual homes or small numbers of homes have been or could be negatively impacted, it finds that if these impacts do exist, they are either too small and/or too infrequent to result in any widespread, statistically observable impact.

Attachments:

File
The Impact of Wind Power Projects on Residential Property Values in the United S

Letter from:

ERNEST ORLANDO LAWRENCE BERKELEY
NATIONAL LABORATORY
Environmental Energy Technologies Division
1 Cyclotron Rd., MS 90-4000, Berkeley, CA 94720

Response to Industrial Wind Action Group Critiques
Ryan Wiser, Ben Hoen, Peter Cappers, Mark Thayer, Gautam Sethi
December 2, 2009

Introduction

On November 20, 2009, the Industrial Wind Action Group (IWAG) posted an editorial that, in part, lists a number of concerns about Berkeley Lab’s efforts to investigate the presence of residential property value impacts associated with U.S. wind power facilities.1  That editorial follows from more-extensive review comments provided on September 11, 2009 by the Industrial Wind Action Group.(2)  The more extensive comments were provided during the external review of the draft Berkeley Lab report, and were one of roughly 20 sets of external review comments received by stakeholders and experts at that time.  All of these comments were considered during revisions to the draft report, culminating in the final analysis and report issued on December 2, 2009.   

Though the final Berkeley Lab study largely speaks for itself, this memorandum offers a brief response to the specific comments enumerated in the September 11th review letter by the IWAG, some of which were also mentioned in the November 20th letter.(3)  Before responding to the specific comments offered in either critique, however, one important observation should be made: the Berkeley Lab report does not offer definitive proof that wind projects, under all circumstances, will never impact residential property values. Therefore, as the IWAG correctly claims, the results of this work should not be summarized as such.  Rather, the Berkeley Lab work, as discussed extensively in the final report, finds no persuasive evidence of any consistent, measurable, and statistically significant effect given the sample of home sales transactions evaluated. As noted on several occasions in the report, although the analysis cannot dismiss the possibility that individual homes or small numbers of homes have been or could be negatively impacted, the extensive research finds that, if these impacts do exist, they are either too small and/or too infrequent to result in any widespread, statistically observable impact within the sample of nearly 7,500 home sales transactions evaluated.

Attachments:

File
Berkeley Labs Response to Reviewer Comments.pdf

McCann review of DRAFT Hoen Study Regarding Wind Farm Impact on Property Values

According to Clif Schneider, this may represent the best critique of Hoen's work currently available.

Attachments:

File
McCann review of DRAFT Hoen Study

Wind energy proponents insist industrial scale wind turbines have no diminishing effect on nearby residential property values. They point to several analyses prepared in the last six years (including REPP1, Hoen2, and Hoen/Wiser3) as evidence of their claims. These reports conclude that there is no significant relationship between distance from, or visibility of the windfarm on the sale prices of houses. However, as we've reported before, there is good reason not to place substantial weight on the findings.

Impacts of Windmill Visibility on Property Values in Madison County, New York.

Note: This Study has been the subject of controversy and several articles including the three shown in Land Values Section of this website.

Attachments:

File
2006 Hoen Study (Masters Thesis) Impacts of Windmill Visibility on Property Valu

How Industrial Wind Projects Affect Property Values

A comparison of studies available

by Charles Ebbing

Those property owners who have leases and wind turbines on their property are affected differently than those who do not. Participating land owners have a cash flow to offset reductions (if any) in the economic value of their property due to close presence or wind turbines. This is not the case for non-participating property owners. Until now the Wind Industry claims that there is no economic impact on land owners near Wind Farms.

Attached are 4 pdf reports associated with the effect of home values near wind farms.  The links to download them at located at the end of this article.

Attachments:

File
Canastota Property Value Documents
2006 Impacts of Windmill Visibility on Property Values
2003 The Effect of Wind Turbines on Property Value
2009 Wisconsin Wind Turbine Impact Study on Home Values