Same-Sex Couples May Lift Property Values In Neighborhoods: Study

There goes the gayborhood.

As Bloomberg is reporting, a new study has revealed an economic benefit to those who support gay marriage and other lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community causes, as the presence of same-sex couples may actually lift property values in neighborhoods.

Although this may come to no surprise to those in larger cities, where LGBT people have long been known to help gentrify neighborhoods, a "finer distinction" was explored in the survey, which appears in the Journal of Urban Economics and was conducted by professors David Christafore of Konkuk University in Seoul and Susane Leguizamon of Tulane University in New Orleans:

The economics professors, who studied home values in 2000 in and around Columbus, Ohio, concluded that an increase in the number of same-sex couples by one in 1,000 households is associated with a 1.1 percent price premium in enclaves that backed gay marriage. The same influx in areas that didn’t support same-sex marriage was linked to a 1 percent discount.

Leguizamon and Christafore used voting data from the U.S. Defense of Marriage Act, or DOMA, along with census information to determine the number of LGBT couples in the area, the National Post notes. "Gays and lesbians feel that they’re not welcome in certain areas," Leguizamon is quoted as saying. "This study suggests it's not just a feeling; people are responding to the presence of gays and lesbians in the ways we'd expect."

Authors reportedly used home prices from 2000 in an effort to avoid the complications of the housing bust, which started in 2006, causing some demographers to consider whether or not the results would have been different if more current values were used.

Comments

[sf1000000]

08:34 AM on 11/10/2011

Every developer or Realtor knows this fact..( I am an agent) I had a developer hire me to sell his condo units because, " Gay people raise property values " and I did and THE VALUES rose !!
Gay couples and single gay people are too...I took my GOOD BONES home and redid it and the next thing the neighbors are "Keeping up with the gay guy"..

[Razorback Guy]

05:00 AM on 11/10/2011

When I lived in Little Rock, AR, my friend bought a house that had been on the market for a year. We updated the interior and worked hard on the front yard to give our home great street appeal. When it was time to sell the home, it was snapped up within a month of going on the market. Bet the neighbors were glad it didn't sit there empty for another year!

[jimstoic]

07:37 PM on 11/09/2011

The house is in the photo is GORGEOUS!

My partner and I have been keeping the economy afloat by rennovating our house. Maybe the neighbors should pay us a little something when they get around to selling their homes.

[RCnDC]

06:01 PM on 11/08/2011

LOL... Funny, once people start seeing that they can make some bank off the LGBT community, equality then becomes perfectly fine with them... Little do people know that smart businesses have been marketing to LGBT for years and LGBT people have responded in kind... It's about time..

[StevenWells]

03:08 PM on 11/08/2011

I'd never be so presumptuous as to say that my partner of 30 years and I raised any property values when we relocated from our native L.A. to eastern Washington, but I will note that this predominately conservative area - we're 20 minutes from the Idaho border and our district keeps reelecting Cathy McMorris Rodgers - not only welcomed us with open arms, we've never been met with the tiniest hint of anything inhospitable in our four years here. And anyone who sees us can readily figure us out: two guys in their 50's walking the dog or sharing one shopping cart... the math is easy.

After we'd been here a couple years, our next-door neighbor - and best friend in town - told us that when our just-renovated 1908 foursquare went on the market, she remarked to her husband that she hoped "a nice gay couple" would buy it.

On the surface, our neighborhood is as Norman Rockwell-esque as you can get, but it represents a pretty good cross section of society: renters and owners; "traditional" nuclear families; single parents; retirees; young childless couples; various races, ethnicities and income levels. But we all rake the same leaves, shovel the same snow, visit on our big front porches or over the backyard fence, and nobody stresses over who's different from anyone else, or how.

We all just try to be good neighbors, and otherwise live and let live. A good model for any community to emulate.

[RCnDC]

06:04 PM on 11/08/2011

Nice.... Refreshing to hear... Congrats on your 30 years together, Kim Kardashian should take serious note..

[StevenWells]

06:58 PM on 11/08/2011

Many thanks for your kind words - and for wading through my verbose comments.

[UserNameJane]

04:18 PM on 11/09/2011

Very nice post Steven.

[jc082387]

12:39 PM on 11/08/2011

Who did the study gay scientists!

[pinkrocks817]

12:25 PM on 11/08/2011

Duh.

[FormerlyTCnSRQ]

11:25 AM on 11/08/2011

this is a very bad article. Unfortunately this study finds that gays buying in a conservative neighborhood lowers values while gay purchasers in liberal communities increases the property value....one more example of bigotry and misinformation reflecting negatively.

[Ed Baker]

11:19 AM on 11/08/2011

A little tidiness and an eye for color and form.... :)

[mira chancleta]

09:30 AM on 11/08/2011

Just think of it this way...
It's like having a never-ending episode of HGTV right on your cul-de-sac...
And you get extra points if the couple is inter-racial and has an adopted greyhound named "Che"

[David N Taiwan]

08:45 AM on 11/08/2011

In 1982 my architect husband and I found a slightly run-down house in north Dallas. In order to save on expenses all around, one of our close friends moved in with us. With three guys working in the yard and with improvements quickly showing up, it didn’t take long for the neighbors to notice 1 + 1 + 1 = an odd number. One day while I was out in the yard mowing the grass, a little old lady tottered up to me and introduced herself as a home owner in the next block to the east. Shaking her finger under my nose she said, “We want you boys to know how much we all appreciate what you’ve done to this place.” She paused briefly just before saying the word “boys” in order to emphasize the word in a way to make clear to me she and everyone else knew what kind of “boys” we were – and we were definitely welcome, definitely an improvement over the previous straight owners.

[Cacey]

10:42 AM on 11/08/2011

Having lived in Dallas for most of the 80s I have to laugh. "Boys" is such a code word throughout the South for multiple gay men while at the same time "boy" being very much a racial slur for Black and Hispanic men.

[ItAintNoRocketScience]

02:57 PM on 11/08/2011

What a great story!!!!

[gaydood]

05:53 AM on 11/08/2011

we bring color and good taste where every we go !

[playflute2]

11:39 AM on 11/08/2011

Yes, indeed.

[WiltonDiary]

02:17 AM on 11/08/2011

WE all know how well that worked in Key West. Thanks for making us all rich from transforming a clap trap island into a millionaires paradise.

[Mikeygr]

10:25 AM on 11/08/2011

And now that we are done doing that......they want to go straight. Go figure!

[demcratville]

11:39 PM on 11/07/2011

The gay mafia is much nicer.

[Gay Iberian]

11:39 PM on 11/07/2011

We beautify the Earth with our presence!