The windy city: Property value impacts of wind turbines in an urban setting

- Difference-in-differences model used to estimate property value impacts of wind turbines.
- Data include 48,000 transactions, 3200 within 1 mile of a turbine site, and over 1300 property visits to assess viewshed.
- Results demonstrate no statistically significant negative impacts.

This paper examines the impact of wind turbines on house values in Rhode Island. In contrast to wind farms surrounded by sparse development, in Rhode Island single turbines have been built in relatively high population dense areas. As a result, we observe 48,554 single-family, owner-occupied transactions within five miles of a turbine site, including 3254 within one mile, which is far more than most related studies. We estimate hedonic difference-in-differences models that allow for impacts of wind turbines by proximity, viewshed, and contrast with surrounding development. Across a wide variety of specifications, the results suggest that wind turbines have no statistically significant negative impacts on house prices, in either the post public announcement phase or post construction phase. Further, the lower bound of statistically possible impacts is still outweighed by the positive externalities generated from CO2 mitigation.