Do Landfills Always Depress Nearby Property Values?

Abstract

All available hedonic pricing estimates of the impact of landfills on nearby property values are assembled, including original estimates for three landfills in Pennsylvania. A meta-analysis shows landfills that accept high volumes of waste (500 tons per day or more) decrease adjacent residential property values by 13.7%, on average. This impact diminishes with distance at a gradient of 5.9% per mile. Lower-volume landfills decrease adjacent property values by 2.7%, on average, with a gradient of 1.3% per mile. While essentially all high-volume landfills negatively impact nearby property values, 20%–26% of low-volume landfills do not impact nearby property values.