Residential property value impacts of floodplain buyouts in Charlotte, North Carolina

Floodplain buyouts are an increasingly common policy for mitigating flood risk. Recent research has explored the costs of buyouts and their impacts on municipal finance and tax base. However, little work has explored the effects of buyouts on surrounding residential land values, an aspect that could contribute to the extensive literature on the land value impacts of urban land uses, including open space and ecological restoration. This study evaluates the residential land value impacts of buyouts in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina (USA), an area with extensive, municipally- and federally-funded buyouts (n = 348). Using a quasi-experimental research design that matches treatment parcels (near buyouts) to control parcels to isolate the causal impacts of buyouts, we find that buyouts are responsible for weak increases (p<0.1) in the area-normalized sales values ($/ft(2)) of neighboring (within 0.15 km) single-family residential properties. We additionally find positive - but also weak - sales value relationships with (1) buyouts that have programmed post-buyout land uses, such as parks or other recreation areas (USD$25.46/ft(2) [$274.05/m(2)] when 0.15-0.2 km from buyout; p<0.05), and (2) the average age of proximal buyouts ($0.34/ft(2) [$3.66/m(2)] within 0.1-0.15 km; $0.30/ft(2) [$3.23/m(2)] within 0.15-0.20 km; both p<0.01). Our results suggest that post-buyout land uses may have impacts on local tax base and should play a larger part in municipal buyout decisions.