"Location, Location, Location!" the Market for Vacant Urban Land: New York 1835-1900

Abstract

We present new archival evidence on the price of vacant land in New York City between 1835 and 1900. Before the Civil War, the price of land per square foot fell steeply with distance from New York's City Hall located in the central business district. After the Civil War, the distance gradient flattened and the fit of a simple regression of land price on distance from the CBD declined markedly. Average nominal land prices at the CBD increased at an average annual rate of over 3 percent per year between 1835 and 1895 before declining as the century came to an end.