Changing Neighborhood Determinants of Housing Price Trends in Southern California, 1960–2009

Research has generally failed to explore whether the effect of neighborhood characteristics on home values has changed over time. We take a long‐range view and study decadal changing home values in the southern California region over a 50‐year period, from 1960 to 2009. We focus on the effects of racial composition and measures associated with the New Urbanism on changing home values. We find that whereas neighborhoods with more racial/ethnic minorities and racial mixing experienced relative decreases in home values in the earlier decades, this effect has effectively disappeared in the most recent decade and actually became positive for some measures. We also found that certain characteristics associated with the New Urbanism—population density, older homes, a lack of concentration of single family units—show stronger positive effects on home values in the most recent decades.