Question

1. Are homeowners better citizens?
2. Do households value school quality and how is this measured?
3. Are cities greener? (and/or Can we make cities greener?)

Answer 1

1. Homeowners are more interested and motivated to do so by a desire to protect what is their biggest financial resource for many..Although homeownership increases the involvement of residents, the benefits are only nominal compared to the amount of taxpayer money invested in homeownership the results provided in this analysis are not readily qualified for normative conclusions on homeownership, civic participation and community life. Recognizing the importance of their financial investments, it is possible— even likely— that homeowners are more actively involved in achieving a set of benefits that are narrowly advantageous to their self-interest, rather than helping the wider community.

2. Households which value most of the package of attributes in a property would give the property's highest value. The location is one of those attributes. Using this rationale, households that most value the quality of education will continue to cluster and live in places with better quality of school. In recent years, despite increasing emphasis on school quality, we have seen the fixed spreads in home values in most markets being consistent over time.

Although this relationship is strong, house prices are not clarified by high math scores alone. Of example, nature of the property and other location attributes such as views of the coastline and access all can have a major impact on house value. There is an increasing awareness in academic literature that while there is consensus on a 1-3 percent capitalization rate (for a one-standard improvement in school quality deviation), there are circumstances that could push the capitalization rate up to or even down to zero.

3. The climate also benefits from size and density. Larger, denser cities are cleaner and more efficient in terms of energy than smaller towns, suburbs and even small towns. Ecologists have found that human encroachment on natural habitats is minimized by concentrating their populations in smaller areas, cities and metros. Denser construction patterns result in energy savings; for example, apartment buildings are more heating and cooling efficient than detached suburban houses.

While it makes sense that larger and denser cities and metro areas might be energy-efficient, the notion that their emissions would actually be lower than smaller cities seems like a stretch 1 percent increase in population produces a slightly smaller increase in pollution (between 0.8 and 0.9 percent). When metros grow larger, emissions are reduced. In other words, declining emissions are correlated with rising metropolitan production.