# RECORD 56494cbdae8af81697e839076186a1ac0cd07374 # TITLE: The impact of crimes on house prices in LA County # YEAR: 2022.0 VENUE: Journal of European Real Estate Research DOI: 10.1108/jerer-01-2021-0002 # AUTHORS: Paloma Taltavull de La Paz; J. Berry; David McIlhatton; David Chapman; Katja Bergonzoli # PAGES: 30 CANDIDATE TABLE PAGES (1-based): [] # ABSTRACT: PurposeThis paper focusses on analysing the impact of crime on the housing market in Los Angeles (LA) County. By looking at different types of crime instead of general crime measures and controlling by spatial dimension of prices and crime as well as endogeneity, a model is developed that allows for the understanding of how a specific crime impacts the housing market transaction price. To perform the analysis, the paper merges different data sets (crime, housing transaction and census data) and then computes the distances to crucial transport modes to control the accessibility features affecting housing prices. The latter allows estimating the association of housing prices and crime in the distance and estimating the impact on housing depending on it.Design/methodology/approachThis paper focusses on the following crimes: aggravated assault, burglary (property crime), narcotics, non-aggravated assault and vandalism. The paper shows firstly how incidents of reported crime are distributed across space and how they are related to each other – thus highlighting crime models with spatial influences. Secondly, the research utilises instrumental variables within the methodology to estimate house prices using spatial analysis techniques while controlling for endogeneity. Thirdly, it estimates the direct impact of crime on house prices and explores the impact of housing and neighbourhood features.FindingsResults suggest that house transaction prices and crime are closely correlated in two senses. Housing prices are endogenously negatively associated with the levels of narcotics and aggravated assaults. For narcotics, the impact of distance is shorter (1,000 m). However, for burglary, vandalism and non-aggravated assaults, the price reaction suggests a positive association: the further away the crime occurs, the higher the prices. The paper also shows the large spatial association of different crimes suggesting that they occur together and that their accumulation would make negative externalities appear affecting the whole neighbourhood.Research limitations/implicationsThe use of a huge database allows interesting findings, but one limitation can be to not have longer time observations to identify the crime evolution and its impact on housing prices.Practical implicationsLarge implications as the relationship identified in this paper allow defining precise policies to avoid crime in different areas in LA. In addition, crime has significant but quantitative small effe ===== PAGE 1 (score 4, numeric-paren 0, table-words 0, var-words 4) ===== The impact of crimes on house prices in LA County de La Paz, P. T., Berry, J., McIlhatton, D., Chapman, D. & Bergonzoli, K. Author post-print (accepted) deposited by Coventry University’s Repository Original citation & hyperlink: de La Paz, PT, Berry, J, McIlhatton, D, Chapman, D & Bergonzoli, K 2022, 'The impact of crimes on house prices in LA County', Journal of European Real Estate Research, vol. 15, no. 1, pp. 88-111. https://dx.doi.org/10.1108/jerer-01-2021-0002 DOI 10.1108/jerer-01-2021-0002 ISSN 1753-9269 Publisher: Emerald Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. This document is the author’s post-print version, incorporating any revisions agreed during the peer-review process. Some differences between the published version and this version may remain and you are advised to consult the published version if you wish to cite from it.