THE IMPACT ON HOUSING VALUES OF RESTRICTIONS ON RIGHTS OF OWNERSHIP -THE CASE OF AN OCCUPANTS AGE

With the exception of anecdotal information, little is known about the specific effects on the value of a house because its ownership is res tricted to people older than a certain age. This article provides an e mpirically-derived assessment of the impact on the selling price of si ngle-family residences when their ownership is age restricted. To dete rmine the effect on the sales price of age-restricted houses, a standa rd hedonic pricing model is applied to a sample of 371 sales transacti ons drawn from a suburban area of a large city. The results indicate t hat an age restriction placed on houses decreases their value by 6%. T his finding may be of interest to local land-use regulators, developer s who are considering developing age-restricted houses and appraisers who wish to make value adjustments to these homes.