Home values in NU neighborhoods fared better in recession, but NU features not the cause

Hongwei Dong, "Were Home Prices in New Urbanist Neighborhoods More Resilient in the Recent Housing Downturn?", Journal of Planning Education and Research 35 (2015): 1

The take-away: Regarding Portland, Oregon, neighborhoods with new urbanist features fared better during the recession in terms of home values, but it does not appear that new urbanist features were in themselves the reason for this. Rather, the NU neighborhoods’ outperformance may result from “a revitalized downtown, attractive neighborhoods in the inner-ring suburban areas, high gas prices, and an inelastic housing supply” (16). 

Abstract: This study develops spatial lag models to evaluate the performance of neighborhoods with new urbanist features in the recent housing recession in the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. It found that single-family homes that are closer to the central city held their value better in the recent recession, which might be a sign of recentralization. The effects of new urbanist features on home appreciation rate, however, were moderate and many of them were neutral or even negative. The study revealed that there existed synergistic effects between some dimensions of new urbanist development on appreciation rates of single-family homes in the recession.

Full article (requires access)