Property Values Not Impacted by Wind Turbines

As Falmouth’s citizens continue to be bombarded with unsubstantiated accusations criticizing the location of our municipal wind turbines, the Falmouth Enterprise turns a blind eye to a January 9 report, “Relationship between Wind Turbines and Property Values in Massachusetts.”  The study included analysis of residential property values in the vicinity of the wind turbines at the Town’s wastewater treatment facility here in Falmouth.

That peer-reviewed research report describes a comprehensive evaluation and finds there is no impact on the value of residential properties in the vicinity of wind turbines in Massachusetts.  See http://tinyurl.com/mass-wind-value for the report.

The study was conducted by the University of Connecticut and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LNBL) and was sponsored by the state’s Clean Energy Center.  The researchers reviewed over 122,000 actual residential property sales (not appraisal estimates) in Massachusetts and compared home sales without impacts with those in the vicinity of wind turbines and other factors, including landfills (the worst), electricity transmission lines, highways, prisons, major roads, open space, beaches, and beach front. 

The Massachusetts study also concurs with decisions on tax abatement requests by home owners due to turbine location and impacts.  Those requests were denied by Falmouth’s Office of Assessing as was an appeal to the state’s Tax Abatement Board.  See http://tinyurl.com/abatedenied.

Although the Massachusetts’ study does not focus on all the alleged health, nuisance and other claimed impacts caused by wind turbines, property values such as those analyzed in this study can be considered a valid indicator that the purported adverse impacts of wind turbines are negligible.  However, what is clear is that the nocebo effect, derived mainly from fear mongering causing expectations and belief in faux anxieties, is likely the most significant and valid impact, the flames of which are fanned by anti-wind organizations such as Windwise, whose representatives have even testified in Falmouth and actually had meetings with neighbors to the wind turbines in advance or near to the time they started operating.  See http://tinyurl.com/wind-nocebo.

In addition, the findings of this Massachusetts’ study are also consistent with another 2013 peer-reviewed, statistically valid analysis conducted by the LBNL that examined 50,000 home sales in 27 counties of nine states, including neighboring New York, and arrived at the same conclusion: wind turbines do not impact property values, including properties within a half mile.  See http://tinyurl.com/windvalue.

This Massachusetts residential property value analysis further complements all other quantitative, statistically valid research results on wind turbines and their impacts on health.  None has found any adverse effects due to sound and infrasound emissions from wind turbines.  The only verified impacts concern psychological perceptions of problems again due to the nocebo effect.

This blog was first published as a letter-to-the-editor of the Falmouth Enterprise on January 28, 2014