Date of Award

2018

Degree Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy in Urban Studies and Public Affairs

Department

Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs

First Advisor

Keating, Dennis

Subject Headings

Area Planning and Development, Public Policy

Abstract

The land bank is a government entity that focuses on the conversion of vacant, abandoned, and tax-delinquent properties into productive use. The object of the land bank is to gain control over the city’s problem properties to make possible their timely and productive reuse. The land bank has become a popular policy measure to control the distressed properties in the neighborhood following the foreclosure crisis across in the United States. The objective of this study is to evaluate the spillover effect of the land bank on nearby properties. The primary research question is as follows: has the land bank public intervention created a positive spillover effect on nearby home sales in the respective neighborhood in the City of Cleveland, Ohio? This is a case study for one city. This study utilized the spatial hedonic model to measure the impact of a two-year land bank acquisition period on nearby property values within two buffers: 500 feet and 1,000 feet. This study also utilized the Geographically Weighted Regression to evaluate the local variation of the effect over the space. The study period is 24 months from September 2012 to August 2014. This study identifies that two years of land bank acquisitions have had a positive effect within the 500 feet buffer from the sale location. The pure effect of two years of land bank acquisitions results in a positive 1.82% impact by OLS estimation and a positive 1.81% impact by ML, 2SLS, and 2SLS-robust estimations. The mean value of the implicit marginal price is $897 over 24 months of sale data from September 2012 to August 2014. This estimated benefit may not have existed if the land bank did not acquire the abandoned properties. The result of this study will support policymakers and practitioners in their decision to expand land bank programs.

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