THE MARKET FOR RESIDENTIAL ARCHITECTURE - 19TH-CENTURY ROW HOUSES IN BOSTON SOUTH END

This study explores the market response to a major 19th century Americ an urban architectural form, the row house. The paper presents an hedo nic price index for a set of housing characteristics including lot and house size, location amenities within the neighborhood, construction materials, architectural style, and detailed architectural features. T he homogeneity in form and layout of the row houses coupled with the v ariety of architectural styles and detailed features provides an unusu al opportunity to test the effect of architecture on market value. The housing-characteristics included in the study account for 88% of the price variance across the sampled row houses. The evidence marshalled here suggests that residential architecture matters in the marketplace and that specific architectural features are more highly valued when they differentiate one row house from its immediate neighbors. (C) 199 4 Academic Press, Inc.