The value of views and open space: Estimates from a hedonic pricing model for Ramsey County, Minnesota, USA

Abstract

We examined how environmental amenities, particularly views and open space access, impact residential home sales prices in Ramsey County, MN using a hedonic pricing model. Home sale prices increase with closer proximity to parks, trails, lakes, and streams. Proximity to lakes produced the greatest impact on home sale value of these distance variables, followed by parks, trails, and streams. Increasing view areal extents as well as increasing the amount of water and grassy land covers in views also resulted in increased sale prices. Increased view richness in terms of the number of different land cover types in a view reduced home sale prices. These results illustrate the importance of these environmental amenities to single-family homeowners and can be used to inform land use planning and policy decisions aimed at their preservation. © 2008 Elsevier Ltd.