Something in the Water? Testing for Groundwater Quality Information in the Housing Market

Abstract:     
I test the level of information regarding possible groundwater contamination present in the residential real estate market in Washington County, Minnesota, where an approximately seven square-mile trichloroethylene plume has affected hundreds of households’ water supplies since at least 1988. I find that the market was variously well informed and partially informed about the location of the plume. A disclosure law passed in 2003 may have added new, low-cost, and imperfect information to the market that could explain the change in how informed the market was.

Number of Pages in PDF File: 42

Keywords: Hedonic, Real Estate, Information in Markets, Risk Information, Groundwater

JEL Classification: D80, K20

working papers series