Chapter 8: The Effects of Public Elementary Schools Closures on Neighborhood Housing Values in U.S. Metropolitan Areas, 2000–2010

Public school closures have become increasingly common in the United States, particularly in urban areas. Public reaction to the recent rash of school closures has been contentious and largely negative. A key component to the argument against school closures is that they negatively affect the economic health and well-being of local neighborhoods, which they might do in a number of ways including signaling neighborhood disinvestment and introducing physical blight when school buildings remain vacant. Combining 2000–2010 school-level data from the National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data with neighborhood-level data from the Census, the current study examines the effects of public elementary school closures in metropolitan areas on an important indicator of neighborhood economic health—housing values. I found a statistically significant negative association between the neighborhood elementary school closure rate and median housing values. This negative impact is greater in neighborhoods with larger proportions of African-Americans. However, I found no moderating effect for neighborhood percent Hispanic, and a positive effect for percent White. I found that elementary school open rates were positively associated with housing values, indicating a possible counterbalancing or replacement effect to a school closure.