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When Walmart comes to town: Always low housing prices? Always?

2014; Elsevier BV; Volume: 87; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.jue.2014.10.004

1095-9068

Devin G. Pope, Jaren C. Pope,

Financial Literacy, Pension, Retirement Analysis

Walmart often faces strong local opposition when trying to build a new store. One common complaint is that Walmart lowers nearby housing prices. In this study we use over one million housing transactions located near 159 Walmarts that opened between 2000 and 2006 to test if the opening of a Walmart lowers housing prices. Using a difference-in-differences specification, our estimates suggest that a new Walmart store actually increases housing prices by between 2% and 3% for houses located within 0.5 miles of the store and by 1–2% for houses located between 0.5 and 1 mile.