J. Atack et Ra. Margo, LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION - THE PRICE GRADIENT FOR VACANT URBAN LAND - NEW-YORK, 1835 TO 1900, Journal of real estate finance and economics, 16(2), 1998, pp. 151-172
We preview new archival evidence on the price of vacant land in New Yo
rk City between 1835 and 1900. Before the Civil War, the price of land
per square foot fell steeply with distance from New York's City Hall
located in the central business district (CBD). After the Civil War, t
he distance gradient flattened and the fit of a simple regression of t
he log of land price per square foot on distance from the CBD declined
markedly. Our most remarkable finding is that average nominal land pr
ices at the CBD increased at an average annual rate of over 3% per yea
r between 1835 and 1895, growing particularly rapidly around the time
of the Civil War before declining as the century came to an end.