摘要：Wolfville is a small town in Nova Scotia, known for its picturesque Victorian houses and as home to Acadia University. Acadia University is the prime economic driver, with students almost doubling the town’s population when classes are in session. The large student population translates into student housing being an important land use in Wolfville, with several neighbourhoods well described as ‘student ghettos’. Rental income from students is an important income source for many property owners, while the challenges of living near student housing are also well known. Student housing ranges from rooms and small apartments in single family homes to large converted homes with multiple units, and town zoning largely determines and/or reflects the location of these different land uses. The town lies on a north facing hill, with an important provincial highway marking the southern boundary of the town. Provincial plans include twinning the highway, which would likely increase traffic volumes and speeds, and increase noise levels in the town. While business and property owners are generally in favour of upgrading the highway, doing so does carry a negative external cost which should be considered in assessing the full costs and benefits of twinning the highway. This research project aims to quantify this negative externality and thereby contribute to identifying the best approach to this highway expansion. Twenty-four hour noise level measurements were made at 28 different sites throughout the town. A quadratic spatial regression was used to interpolate sound levels for each of 146 property transactions in Wolfville between 1998 and 2003. Listings data were combined with from the street observations to build a table of property characteristics. These were included in a square root regression to predict property prices. Common dependent variables generated the expected signs. Average sound level did not enter significantly, but peak sound level did. Since the background noise level is relatively low, the infrequent peak events are a more appropriate measure of the noise that people are adverse to. A one decibel increase in peak sound level reduces the average property price by about $2,700, suggesting that for the town as a whole, twinning the highway would generate a significant negative externality that offsets some of the expected benefits. Zoning classification explained the largest share of property price variation, likely capturing the negative externality generated by student housing. Thus, while the income opportunity generated by offering rental accommodation is important in the town, Wolfville home buyers are willing to pay a substantial premium to not live in neighbourhoods dominated by student housing. While these results largely confirm previous work, whether student tenant welfare is increased by such segregation remains to be addressed.
