National Association of REALTORS® and the American Public Transit Association Study Impact of Transit on Property Values
NAR has twice partnered with the American Public Transit Association (APTA) to study the value of property in relationship to its proximity to transit. Links to both studies can be found on this page.
The first, published in 2013, looked at five cities with rail transit during the period 2006 to 2011. This was the period during which the Great Recession arrived and then started to ebb. The summary graph below shows the remarkable resiliency of residential sales price performance during that period for properties located near a transit station compared with properties in the same region that are farther away from transit.
FIGURE SUMMARY 1: Percent change in average residential sales prices relative to the region, 2006-11
In 2019, NAR and APTA released an update to the 2013 study covering the years 2012 to 2016. The new study looked at seven cities with a variety of types of rail transit as well as Bus Rapid Transit. The results, though less dramatic because the country was in full recovery mode from the Great Recession, showed that value of sales of residential properties near transit continued to outpace properties in the same regions that are not near transit. The 2019 report also contains analysis of residential rents as well as commercial rents and sales for the study regions where data was available.
FIGURE 2: Change in Residential Sales Value, 2012 & 2016
For questions, please contact:
Hugh Morris
Manager, Smart Growth Programs
202-383-1278 / hmorris@nar.realtor
