# RECORD b6d65672ab5e20c98ea3cedb5a3c5bfd6fbff306
# TITLE: Transportation Accessibility, Housing Investments, and Housing Prices: Application of Hedonic Price Model in Des Moines, Iowa
# YEAR: 2019.0  VENUE: nan  DOI: 10.31235/osf.io/ghdx4
# AUTHORS: R. Ahasan
# PAGES: 2  CANDIDATE TABLE PAGES (1-based): []
# ABSTRACT: Affordable housing provision has been a challenge in the United States over the past years. As housing prices increase, a high number of people cannot afford to have their housing, and most residents can only afford to live in apartments in rental areas. This problem becomes more substantial for low-income people, who cannot afford to live near their workplace. Due to this spatial mismatch, these low-income people are forced to commute longer to reach their workplaces every morning in the city of Des Moines. This highlights the importance of proximity and access to the public transport system in the city. This study examined the relationship between investments in affordable housing by a non-profit organization, proximity to public transit, and housing prices in the City of Des Moines, in 2000 and 2018.


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Transportation Accessibility, Housing Investments, and Housing Prices:  Application of Hedonic 
Price Model in Des Moines, Iowa 
Rakibul Ahasan1 
Keywords: Affordable housing; housing investment; hedonic price model 
Affordable housing provision has been a challenge in the United States over the past years.  As 
housing prices increase, a high number of people cannot afford to have their housing, and most 
residents can only afford to live in apartments in rental areas.  The percentage of Americans who 
rent their houses was 31.2% in 2006, which increased to 36.6% in 2016 (U.S. Census Bureau, 
2017). This problem becomes more substantial for low-income people, who cannot afford to live 
near their workplace. Due to this spatial mismatch, these low-income people are forced to 
commute longer to reach their workplaces every morning in the city of Des Moines. This 
highlights the importance of proximity and access to the public transport system in the city.   
To help mitigate the housing demand, several non-profit organizations are working to provide 
affordable housing and keep the prices affordable for the people in need. Previous studies 
indicate that housing investments have a positive impact on nearby housing prices (Ding, Simons 
& Baku, 2000; De Sousa, Wu, & Westphal, 2009). This study examined the relationship between 
the investments by a non-profit organization in housing and housing price in Des Moines, Iowa. 
The hypotheses for this study were prepared to support these issues. The first hypothesis is that 
the relationship between the investment and housing price of the adjacent units is positive and 
geographically limited. The second hypothesis is that the proximity to public transport increases 
the housing prices. 
There have been studies on the relationship between housing investment, transportation, and 
housing prices and they showed mixed results (Ding, Simons & Baku, 2000; De Sousa, Wu, & 
Westphal, 2009; Mulley et al., 2016). There is evidence of both positive and negative relationship 
between housing investment and housing prices. However, very few studies were found to 
incorporate housing investment, transportation and housing price in the same method. From the 
literature, the hedonic price model found to be the most suitable method to use to achieve the 
objective of this study. The housing sales price reported by the Polk County Assessor’s Office was 
collected and used as the dependent variable for the model. The investment information and 
public transit information were used as independent variables. A buffer distance around the 
housing sales location was created, and the presence of investment and transit stops within that 
location was computed. However, housing price also depends on structural characteristics such 
as building age, number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and neighborhood characteristics such as 
 
1 Department of Community and Regional Planning, Iowa State University, Ames, IA 5011.  
Email: rahasan@iastate.edu