The Impact of Urban Universities on Neighborhood Housing Markets: University Decisions and Non-Decisions

Author: Alvaro Cortes

Dissertation School: Wayne State University

Pages: 215

Publication Date: January 2002

Availability:
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Access Number: 10745

Abstract:

Proximity to major urban institutions presumably generates positive and negative externalities that can contribute to, or detract from, a neighborhood's residential appeal. Unfortunately, limited qualitative work, and even less quantitative work, has addressed the impact of major urban institutions on nearby neighborhoods. This thesis will begin to address this void. This study will investigate the impact that universities in urban areas have on local neighborhood housing markets. The study will answer three central questions.

• Does proximity to a university in an urban area produce systematic, significant impacts on neighborhood housing markets, in terms of the following: median owner-occupied property value; total number of new, residential units constructed; rental-occupancy rate; average rental monthly payments; and resident tenure.
• How do differences within university decision-making structures reveal themselves as impacts within the surrounding neighborhood housing markets?
• Do public and private universities in urban areas have different impacts on local neighborhood housing markets?

These questions will be investigated through quantitative and qualitative methods. The study will purposively draw from the "Urban 13" a sample of five public universities with espoused "urban missions" and pair each selection with a private university in the same city. The empirical work will proceed in two stages. Stage one will utilize four ordinary least squares multiple regression models to evaluate the significance of urban university impacts on a variety of housing market indicators measured at the census tract level. Selected census tracts will comprise a series of dummy variable specifications that will vary in geographic scale and proximity to a university (or set of universities). Thus, the first model will measure general university impact, as a whole, on the housing market indicators. The second model will reveal the potential differential impacts separately caused by public and private universities. The third model will examine interesting cross-city differences in university impacts. The final and most specified model will reveal both cross-city and cross-university type differences. Stage two will employ Pearson's correlation analysis to ascertain the extent to which measured impacts in stage one have any association with quantifiable university characteristics.

The qualitative investigation will purposively select two universities that, after completing stage one, demonstrate substantially different impacts on neighborhood housing markets. The case studies will identify and explain the structural or philosophical differences within the decision-making processes that resulted in substantially different neighborhood housing market impacts. Three key university policies will be critically examined: master plan policies, student enrollment policies and diversification strategies. These policy areas fundamentally shape a university's expansion, demographic profile, and other unique university features that potentially impact the supply and demand functions of a proximate neighborhood housing market. The study's findings will clearly have federal and local policy implications.

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