Estimating the Value of the Honolulu Rail Transit Project: A Semiparametric Analysis of Property Values on Oahu, HI

This study assesses the impact of proximity to the Honolulu Rail Transit (HRT) on the single-family and condo values on Oahu, Hawaii. The data includes more than 32,000 single family homes and 47,000 condos between 2006 and 2015. In this paper, when semiparametric model using too large bandwidth, the results are not as rigorous as the fixed effects model with 130 controlled groups. The results indicate that after the ground-breaking event for HRT, the island-wide single family housing prices increase by 4%, but the condo values decrease by 4%; there are very slight positive distance spillover effects for single family housing market: houses located one mile closer to the HRT areas, the housing prices increase by 0.6%, however, this slight positive impact is at the costs of local housing values: for homes located within a 0.5 mile radius of the future HRT line, their values drop by 7.1%, for homes located between a 0.5 and 1 mile radius of the future HRT line, their values drop by 4.1%, and for homes located between a 1 and 2 mile radius of the future HRT line, their values drop by 2.1%. These negative local effects disappear after the 2 mile radius distance.