A statistical analysis of real estate values in suburban Denver area applying the hedonic price model is presented. The objective of the study is to discover impacts of toxic waste contamination on real estate values. In order to evaluate influences of locational attributes on real estate values, a large database of locational attributes for the study area was assembled from many data sources. Innovative and powerful Geographic Informatio Systems (GIS) computer techniques have been applied in the study to spatially overlay environmental, land-use, demographic, socio-economic, and political data, and to perform sophisticated spatial analyses on these data in order to model topographic and locational processes that affect real estate values. Empirical results of the study show the fruitfulness of the GIS-based approach. The article concludes by calling for more empirical research to build up knowledge of this and related fields in order to take advantage of the full power of new information technologies.
Gordon Ye
Department of City and Regional Planning
College of Environmental Design
University of California, Berkeley
Berkeley, CA 94720
Telephone: 510-642-8641
Fax: 510-643-6166
Email: gordonye@ced.berkeley.edu