Academic Government Other

Summary

These findings were produced by leading government authorities based upon research conducted for and financed by government health authorities.

(See above links for more information)

Impact of EMF on Property Values

Cultural

A new television program premiered on the Fox network on March 30, 2003.  Fox describes the program as follows:

In the coming year, 306 people will be hit by lightning, 511 people will be carjacked and 217 people will be attacked by sharks. But only four people will endure them all, and much more… Meet THE PITTS, the unluckiest family in the world.

The Pitts have another unlucky factor influencing their lives: they live under a transmission power line, as shown in the screen shot.
 

Academic:

A new study conducted at St. Cloud University demonstrates that overhead power lines reduce property values.  A similar reduction has been found in the UK, which does not permit the construction of overhead power lines without a special authorization from the UK Secretary of State.

Here is May/June 2001 article in the Assessment Journal that reviews the literature and concludes the impact of power lines on residential property values may result in a 10% reduction

An article in the journal, Urban Lawyer concludes power lines reduce property values by up to 14%, and buttresses it with legal cases.

Government:

The Wisconsin Environmental Impact Statement suggests that the value of property near power lines will decline by between 0% and 14%.

The California EMF Program in its draft report saw a 5 to 6% reduction in property values:

"Most high-quality property values studies show some depreciation of properties near transmission lines, though much less is known about distribution lines. As a benchmark, the high-quality property values studies suggest that there is a property value reduction of around 5-6% for properties near transmission lines, mostly due to the visual impacts. It is impossible to determine how much of the property value loss is due to EMF. By making assumptions about housing density near transmission lines and about average property values, we calculated property values impacts to be between $250,000 and $2,000,000 per mile."  However, this language does not seem to appear in the final report.

HUD will not issue FHA insured mortgages for houses near transmission power lines.

Other:

More information on the adverse impact of transmission lines on property values was provided at the Steering Committee's information meeting.

In the SE Metro Steering Committee meeting, Xcel's consultant, CAI, developed data suggesting that a new power line would have only a minor impact upon property values.  he data upon which it relied was drawn from a database maintained by Capital Appraisals, who maintain that their data was misinterpreted.

Sunfish Lake concluded in its Findings of Fact that the proposed power lines would aversely effect property values. 

Real Estate Agents agree on decline in property values.