Citation

Posey J, Rogers WH. Public Works Manag. Policy 2010; 15(2): 81-90.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1087724X10380275

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Floodplains in the United States are designated by the federal government as special flood hazard areas (SFHA). There is a dearth of published work on the effect of SFHA designation on property values in noncoastal areas. This research note addresses this lacuna by analyzing home sales prices in St. Louis County, Missouri. A hedonic model with correction for spatial autocorrelation indicates that being located in a SFHA reduces the value of a property by about 8.6%, including both direct and indirect effects. This information is relevant to ongoing policy discussions regarding weakened levee systems in the United States.