Do Stormwater Basins Generate co-Benefits? Evidence from Baltimore County, Maryland

An often-cited advantage of green infrastructure projects is the potential for "co-benefits" generated from its natural features, which depend on the generation of positive house price capitalization. Using housing transactions data and exploiting variation in placement and design, we examine the capitalization of stormwater retention basins, a common green infrastructure project in suburban housing developments. Results show adjacency causes decreases in housing prices between 13 and 14% for the average home. Additionally this negative effect exacerbates with basin age. Rather than providing co-benefits, we find that stormwater basins generate a cost for proximate households. (C) 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.