Poll: Do Community Centers Effect Home Values?

[Michael S]

I've been engaged to do a consulting assignment to determine if the presence of community centers affect nearby home values. These are typically co-located with a neighborhood park and will usually include things like a gym, meeting rooms, computer lab, etc. Some offer daycare services or meals for seniors.

So, in your expert appraiser opinion, in general, would having a community center nearby have a positive, negative, or no effect on home values?

I purposely did not include an "it depends" option. I am conducting other research including polling brokers who have sold homes near community centers and analyzing average/median sale prices in the surrounding areas. This is just to see if there is a strong opinion one way or another among appraisers.

 

[Gobears81]

What are the neighborhood characteristics now?

 

[J Grant]

I voted yes, but why not interview RE agents and brokers in communities who sell and work in areas where community centers exist? Their feedback would be very valuable.

 

[Terrel L. Shields]

I would argue in retirement towns they might as demand for retirement recreational services but in bedroom towns, where commuters are trying to hold cost of living down, they'd prefer lower tax bills over centers. RV parks ditto. Vacationers and snow birds pay premium for amenities. But transient workers (construction, migrant labor, the poor) want the cheapest cost. When I traveled for work, I chose the cheapest RV parks, motels over the amenities every time. You have to identify the demographic being served.

 

[Tom Woolford]

We have two very large subdivisions of smaller (1200-1500 s.f.), average homes one with a fairly new community center and the other well established since the mid 70's. No recreation. There is no discernable difference values in either subdivision.

 

[Vermonter]

Not really enough info considering neighborhoods vary in demographics and "community centers" can vary greatly in their use. It's going to be market specific.

 

[Michael S]

What are the neighborhood characteristics now?

These are all over the city so the surrounding neighborhoods range from homes built in the 1940s and 50s selling around $150k to newer neighborhoods built in the 90s and 2000s that are selling around $300k+. In general just typical residential subdivisions with pretty similar homes.

Basically some realtor complained that a nearby community center (which has been there about 20 years) was hurting the value of his clients home and the city is looking for some market research to show if that's justified, or as the poll is showing so far, it really makes no difference one way or the other. This particular one is located between a so-so neighborhood and a more upper scale one that is mostly separated by a natural terrain feature. I suspect that the realtor represents a homeowner in the nicer subdivisions that's on the far side of the community center/park.

 

[Gobears81]

This particular one is located between a so-so neighborhood and a more upper scale one that is mostly separated by a natural terrain feature. I suspect that the realtor represents a homeowner in the nicer subdivisions that's on the far side of the community center/park.

I was actually thinking before you mentioned this that it would be a minor benefit to some lower-priced neighborhoods, not having a significant effect on median-priced neighborhoods, and a minor detriment to higher-priced neighborhoods. How much it impacts these locations could possibly be related to traffic impact and noise levels, as well as the proximity to such services/ amenities offered by the community center if that center was not actually there. If I read your post correctly, there looks to be a sufficient buffer to the higher-priced subdivision, which sounds like an offset to the detriment for the higher-priced location though.

 

[TRESinc]

I voted yes, but why not interview RE agents and brokers in communities who sell and work in areas where community centers exist? Their feedback would be very valuable.

ummm....

I purposely did not include an "it depends" option. I am conducting other research including polling brokers who have sold homes near community centers and analyzing average/median sale prices in the surrounding areas.

 

[Michael S]

Just bumping this thread to see if anyone else wants to vote. Seems like a pretty clear trend thus far.