Tag Archives: property values wind farms

MPAC report: NO effect on property values from wind turbines

22 Tuesday Apr 2014

Posted by in Renewable energy, Wind power

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Well, what can you say about this. Realtors are telling us that buyers are saying, If I can see a turbine from the house, I’m not buying it. And Ontario-based research has shown significant property value loss for properties neighbouring wind power projects.

But the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation (which reports to the Ontario Minister of Finance) says, No. No effect. No problem. No loss.

No kidding.

Read the report here but be aware it is pretty technical. It has to be, to avoid the obvious.

What MPAC left out is very interesting: they didn’t do the area prior to the Green Energy Act, where property value losses have already occurred and the market was distorted significantly, and they left off vacant lots, where the wind power developers have had to go in and buy houses that were rendered uninhabitable and were then removed. They also studied turbines 1.5 MW and larger, which again, leaves off the older turbines and the areas in Ontario where the impact has already been felt.

A number of people are offering critiques on this but here is an excellent commentary from the website Wind Farm Realities at:

http://windfarmrealities.org/mpacs-2012-study/

The MPAC study is self-serving, misleading, and obscuring of the truth. But it will serve its purpose for this government which is to quash requests for assessment reconsideration, and put a chill on legal actions and request from Assessment Review Board hearings.

Once again, the citizens of Ontario are at a disadvantage against Big Wind.

Property values “plummet” near wind power, says US appraiser

16 Monday Sep 2013

Posted by in Ottawa, Renewable energy, Wind power

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Here from Wind Wise Massachusetts:

Studies Show Land-Based Wind Turbines Cause Property Values to Plummet; Wind Wise Massachusetts Claims Study Showing Otherwise is Misleading

Published Monday, Sep. 16, 2013

 

FALMOUTH, Mass., Sept. 16, 2013 — /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — A national study that claims there is “no statistical evidence” that real estate prices near wind turbines are negatively impacted is misleading because it lumps homes close to the turbines with those miles away, according to Wind Wise Massachusetts (WWMA).

“The report’s own data found that homes located within one mile to the turbines decreased in value by 28 percent compared to homes located within 3 to 10 miles from the turbines,” according to Virginia Irvine, president of WWMA (windwisema.org), a statewide alliance of grassroots environmental groups and individuals.

“The study’s authors are just perpetuating the myth that wind turbines are not responsible for significant property losses,” she said.

“The report is also comparing apples with oranges as less than 2.5 percent of the more than 50,000 home sales analyzed in recently released Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study were within one mile of the turbines and some were as far as 10 miles away,” Irvine said.

In the widely publicized report, the authors stated in the abstract that “…we find no statistical evidence that home values near turbines were affected in the post-construction or post-announcement/pre-construction periods.”

The report -– A Spatial Hedonic Analysis of the Effects of Wind Energy Facilities on Surrounding Property Values in the United States –- was published by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in August.

Irvine said independent, comprehensive appraisals have found that land-based wind turbines can cause property values to plummet within two miles by 15 percent to 40 percent.

“There is a major difference between turbines in a power plant 10 miles from homes in the country to those that are less than one mile from homes in residential communities,” Irvine said.

“But the sad fact is that whether a wind turbine is near a solo home in the country or in a more heavily populated area, the homeowner is going to see a significant loss in the value of his home,” she added.

“Wind turbines near residential areas are devastating to home values,” according to Michael McCann, president of McCann Appraisal of Chicago.

He said his paired study analysis of homes near wind turbines in more than two dozen communities throughout the country “consistently have found homes losing 25 to 40 per cent of their value.

Contact:  Barry Wanger for Wind Wise Massachusetts, Wanger Associates, 617-965-6469, Barry@WangerAssociates.com

SOURCE Wind Wise Massachusetts