The Effect of Noise Barriers on the Market Value of Adjacent Residential Properties

Abstract

This paper provides the first study on the impact of noise barriers on the price of adjacent houses based on a repeat sale analysis (RSA). RSA allows us to empirically examine the differential between the prices of houses sold before and after an event that may have affected their value, and after other relevant variables such as the evolution of the real estate market and major renovations performed on the house are controlled. This paper focuses on the neighborhood of Laval, a suburb of Montreal, where a large noise barrier was built in 1990 along a highway. The data set contains transaction information on 134 houses that were sold at least twice from 1980–2000. The empirical result will show that the noise barrier induced a decrease of 6% in the house prices in our sample in the short run, while it had a stronger negative impact of 11% in the long run.