The impact of oil and natural gas facilities on rural residential property values

The purpose of this study is to contribute towards correcting this deficiency by studying the effects of the presence of sour gas and other oil and gas facilities on the values of rural residential properties in the vicinity of the City of Calgary, Alberta. [...] The rapid expansion of the oil and gas sector (both primary and downstream processing and manufacturing), the expanding urban regions, and the importance of agriculture to the provincial economy has set the stage for conflict between the oil and gas industry and rural residents. [...] A key element in this approach is the determination of the “spatial weighting matrix” which involves selecting the properties within a certain range or distance of the given property and determining the relative weight of each on the property of interest. [...] Due to the number of variables assessed in this study, and that the parameters of the property characteristics are of secondary interest and are not sensitive to the inclusion of the facility variables, we present the parameters for the property characteristics and facility variables separately for ease of presentation. [...] The characteristics having significant coefficients are AGE, AREA, the number of bedrooms (BEDRM), the number of bathrooms (BATH), the presence of a deck (DECK), the number of garage spaces (NGARAGE), the size of the property (ACRES), a view of the mountains (VMTN), distance from the City of Calgary (CALGARY), the inflation adjusted monthly average price of residential property in Calgary (RAVP) a