Residential Selling Price Performance In and Next to Historic Districts: A Case Study of Savannah, Georgia
Authors
Serge Atherwood
Pennsylvania State University
Rebecca J. Walter
Florida Atlantic University
Russell Ivy
Florida Atlantic University
Keywords:
price per square foot, historic district, adjacent neighborhood
Abstract
As a community and economic development tool, the historic designation of districts can bring multiple benefits, including a premium to the selling price of homes in designated districts. This study examines fluctuations in property values in seven historic districts and 12 adjacent non-historic neighborhoods in Savannah, Georgia, across a nine-year period (2002-2010) that includes the mid-2000s bubble in real estate prices and the late-2000s financial crisis. We investigate a geographic perspective to residential selling price performance, using a comparison of historic and non-historic districts, and reveal that residential properties in designated historic districts resisted price depreciation better than properties in non-historic neighborhoods.
