Size and proximity effects of primary schools on surrounding house values

This paper deals with measuring the effect of both size and proximity of primary schools on surrounding residential values, using hedonics for that purpose. The data bank consists of a subset of some 4300 single-detached, owner-occupied housing units transacted all over the Quebec Urban Community territory between January 1990 and December 1991. Several functional forms are tested and up to 42 descriptors are used. Some 116 primary schools are considered in the analysis, with size ranging from 52 to 840 students. Findings tend to confirm the non-monotonicity of both the price--distance and price--size relationships with respect to primary schools. In that respect, performing a gamma transformation on either size and distance variables provides consistent estimates of critical school size and optimal distance to nearest school. The value-minimizing size is in the 300--450 pupil range while the optimal, or value-maximizing, distance is between 300 and 500 metres from the nearest school, that is, roughly, a 9--15-minute walk from home.