Estimating the Effect of Tidal Marsh Restoration on Housing Prices: A Hedonic Analysis in the Nisqually National Wildlife Refuge, Washington, USA
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Good study. Interesting results. Well-situated within literature on the topic(s).
The tables might be clarified and simplified for a more general readership and for a quicker ease of understanding.
Otherwise, I see no issues and think this study is well done.
Author Response
Comment 1: The tables might be clarified and simplified for a more general readership and for a quicker ease of understanding.
Response: While the tables are large, they convey information the reader needs to fully understand the analysis and results. Similar tables can be found in existing hedonic price literature.
Reviewer 2 Report
This study aims to evaluate the policy value of Washington Stat's Nisqually Restoration project (NRP) based on change in housing price. More specifically, exploring the impact of wetland restoration project on housing price is research core. This research has important implications for policy evaluation of wetland restoration projects. To further meet the standard of publication, a few comments remain as follows:
1. Why “house price” can be a variable to measure the ecological and economic performance of wetland restoration projects? What are the policy implications from research results for the formulation of land policies? The discourse on natural resource management and policy decision-making also appears to be insufficient.
2. What is the contribution of this study beyond exploring changes in housing prices? Is it the method, data or research perspective? The authors should further strengthen the discussion of research contributions.
3. Existing research have supported the view on spatial interdependence of house price. As far as I know, some studies have introduced spatial regression methods to explore the impact of wetlands on housing prices. However, this study is still based on the traditional semi-logarithmic regression. Why don't the authors use spatial regression methods?
4. How does the author isolate the impact of different ecological and economic values on housing prices in empirical model? At present, the empirical findings only indicated the pooled impact of wetland restoration on housing prices, but the different impacts of wetland restoration projects (such as aesthetic value, ecological value, etc.) cannot be further determined from empirical evidence.
Author Response
Comment 1: Why “house price” can be a variable to measure the ecological and economic performance of wetland restoration projects?
Response: To clarify, we never state that housing prices measure the performance of wetland restoration projects. We do, however, clearly state in the Introduction that housing prices may capitalize the value homebuyers place on the ecological improvements. Measuring the performance of the wetland restoration project involves a complex analysis of economic, social, and environmental outcomes.
Comment 2: What are the policy implications from research results for the formulation of land policies?
Response: The answer to this question (if I understand it correctly) is tied to the answer to comment 3 and is partially addressed in the Introduction and Conclusion.
Comment 3: The discourse on natural resource management and policy decision-making also appears to be insufficient.
Response: We added to the Introduction and Conclusion to place emphasis on the ability of wetland restoration to improve ecosystem services and mitigate damages from climate change. Formulating a hypothesis on the impact of management/ownership structure/local land policy is beyond the scope of this paper.
Comment 2: What is the contribution of this study beyond exploring changes in housing prices? Is it the method, data or research perspective? The authors should further strengthen the discussion of research contributions.
Response: It’s not just another hedonic price study. This study estimates the effect of the largest wetland restoration project in the Pacific Northwest on housing prices. We attempted to make this contribution clearer in the Introduction.
Comment 3: Existing research have supported the view on spatial interdependence of house price. As far as I know, some studies have introduced spatial regression methods to explore the impact of wetlands on housing prices. However, this study is still based on the traditional semi-logarithmic regression. Why don't the authors use spatial regression methods?
Response: This is a fair question. We did not use a more complex methodology because we did not find a significant impact of spatial dependence in our dataset.
Comment 4:How does the author isolate the impact of different ecological and economic values on housing prices in empirical model? At present, the empirical findings only indicated the pooled impact of wetland restoration on housing prices, but the different impacts of wetland restoration projects (such as aesthetic value, ecological value, etc.) cannot be further determined from empirical evidence.
Response: This is a good observation. Our analysis does not isolate the effect of the restoration project on specific environmental goods and/or services. Are aim is not to isolate specific environmental goods and/or services that were improved by the NRP, and, therefore, we do not determine the ecosystem services benefit each provides individually. The goal of this project was to determine if individuals that lived in the area valued the restoration project through the willingness to spend more on nearby homes. Our results suggest, although not prove, that the NRP improved the supply of ecosystem benefits in the refuge, as shown by the positive change in home prices post-restoration.
Reviewer 3 Report
Very interesting paper. Accept as is. There is real estate research literature on residential property values in flood zones that may interest the authors and that could improve the paper. Additionally, a heavily cited paper on water views and waterfront values in Bellingham, WA may interest the authors.
Author Response
Comment 1: There is real estate research literature on residential property values in flood zones that may interest the authors and that could improve the paper.
Response: We do include a brief discussion of this literature (pp.10-11). We do not go further into detail because the homes in our dataset are largely protected form flooding.
“Properties located in floodplains, all else equal, tend to be less valuable than properties outside of floodplains (Donnelly, 1989; Netusil et al., 2019; Zhang & Leonard, 2018). Homes in the lower Nisqually River Delta experience extreme flooding events (Rosane, 2020), but homes located in the Nisqually River Watershed near the NNWR are protected from severe flooding by water flow restrictions at the LaGrande Dam. Flood risks are unlikely to play a large role in the negative pre-restoration MIPs to live near the refuge, but they may play a role in the average differences between post-restoration MIPs. For example, the value of homes within 1 to 1.5 miles experienced a price premium after the completion of the NRP. The difference in price compared to homes within 1 mile of the refuge may be due to the proximity of the properties to the Nisqually River floodplain. While properties near the NNWR have lower flood risks compared to other properties in the Nisqually River Watershed outside of our study area, they also have limited access to water resources. Nearly 125 beach access points are located in Pierce and Thurston Counties, two of which are stationed on the northwest and southern sides of the refuge. It is plausible that better water access outside of the NNWR is an important factor contributing to the comparatively low WTP to live near the refuge.”
Comment 2: Additionally, a heavily cited paper on water views and waterfront values in Bellingham, WA may interest the authors.
Response: The reviewer did not provide sufficient information for us to know which article they are referring to.
Round 2
Reviewer 2 Report
No comments.
