Are Housing Prices Pulled Down or Pushed Up by Fracked Oil and Gas Wells? A Hedonic Price Analysis of Housing Values in Weld County, Colorado

As fracking moved into neighborhoods it has created concerns by homeowners about environmental effects and reduced property values. However, the increase in drilling activity results in gains in employment and increased the demand for housing. We apply the hedonic price method to a heavily fracked county in Colorado to test for the net effects of these two factors on house prices. Results across 12 different models shows that in seven of these the count of wells being fracked within a half-mile of a house has a small (−1% per well being drilled) but significant effect on house prices in the in Weld County and Greeley but not in rural areas. In models without year fixed effects, employment in the oil and gas sector has a relatively small but significant positive effect on house prices in the whole county and urban area model specifications, but not in the rural model specifications.