From molecule to market: probing the influence of PFAS on property values in the American real estate landscape the American real estate landscape: a case study in New Hampshire
Date
2024
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Publisher
University of Delaware
Abstract
The increasing usage of per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in many sectors since the late 1930s has prompted concerns about their possible health effects and persistence as environmental pollutants. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has suggested drinking water restrictions on just a subset of PFAS forms, even though PFAS detection in environmental samples increased in the early 2000s. This research explores PFAS and its effects on New Hampshire's real estate market. The study examines the consequences of timely disclosure of PFAS contamination on housing prices and the larger social environment, focusing on the social discovery of PFAS contamination, specifically in the town of Merrimack, located in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire. Based on property-level home sales data from CoreLogic and PFAS data from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services, the study assesses economic implications using a hedonic property value estimation using a difference-in-differences framework with monthly, yearly, quarterly, block group and block fixed effects. According to our study, houses that rely on PFAS-contaminated well water suffer greatly, and the average price of homes using well water in the Saint Gobain Consent Decree region has significantly decreased by 6.4% to 7.4% since 2016 relative to control properties. The results highlight the financial costs associated with PFAS pollution and the necessity of more research into how uncontrolled contaminants affect local populations and real estate markets. This study advances our understanding of environmental quality, regulatory policy, and the media’s role in disseminating information on pollution that threatens public health.
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Keywords
Environmental Protection Agency, Regulatory policy, Real estate markets, Drinking water restrictions