The Impact of Historic District Designation on Property Values

Among the first things that people think about when considering ramifications of living within an Historic District or individually designated home is… how is this going to impact my property values.

A frequent misconception is that…

…designation as part of a historic district lowers their property values because of the additional regulations that they must contend with.

If it is true that home owners have this perception then this is a serious and legitimate concern. If true, certainly no one would want to be a willing participant in such a hardship and who could blame them.

Rockford IL which has four historic districts completed a study in only five months ago in Dec. 08′ to study just this question. Their study here.

They took the range of home values from each of the historic districts as indicated in 1977 and found comparables in either an adjacent or nearby neighborhood. They then took a look at these homes 2007 values, looking at both assessed values as well as sale prices.

Overall, our findings show that local historic districts not only provide protection for Rockford’s historic resources, they protect and enhance their owners’ financial resources as well. This also translates into protecting the City of Rockford’s financial resources by protecting a part of its property tax base.

For the full report see Rockford’s Study on “The Impact of Historic District Designation on Property Values.”

These sorts of studies are not uncommon. It’s just handy to have one so close by and recent for reference. The fact that Historic Districts out perform surrounding neighborhoods is typically the norm. But beyond that it’s not uncommon for an emerging Historic District to out perform the broader community in terms of rate of rising property values during that period of emergence.

The reasons for this are many, some more obvious then others. The Rockford study though goes on to explore the impact of the significant federal tax credit program available to home owners through the National Register.

This added incentive, which is a significant financial one, was the driving force behind creation of the two newest districts.

In June Joe DeRosa from the Wisconsin Historic Preservation Offices will be joining us to discuss this program among other things. Mark your calendar for this gathering Sunday June 22nd.

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