The Cost of Convenience: Estimating the Impact of Communication Antennas on Residential Property Values

This paper applies hedonic and quasiexperimental methods to measure the disamenity value of communication antennas. We take advantage of a rich dataset of residential housing sales from central Kentucky that contains an extensive set of structural housing characteristics and precise location information. This allows us to overcome endogeneity issues caused by unobservable characteristics correlated with antenna location. The best estimate of the impact is that a property with a visible antenna located 1,000 feet away sells for 1.82% ($3,342) less than a similar property located 4,500 feet away. The aggregate impact is $10.0 million for properties located within 1,000 feet.