Special Series
This Land: Measure 37's Impact on Oregon
In a Series
The Real Cost of Property Regulation
Update 6/5/07: A couple of changes made to the orginal post.
When Measure 37 was up for a vote in 2004, supporters claimed that Oregon's planning laws were so draconian that they reduced property values by $5.4 billion per year. That eye-popping figure may be one of the central reasons why voters were inclined to support the measure. (Voter support has since severely evaporated.) As it turns out, however, that $5.4 billion cost to Oregon's property owners was a chimera.
To unveil the $5.4 billion illusion, Georgetown University's Law Center just published a rigorous empirical study of trends in Oregon property values and found that all those land-use regulations have cost, well, not much at all. In fact, they may have added value, at least on average.
I won't walk blog readers through the whole study, but the Georgetown report should be required reading for those following the issue closely: it represents by far the best-researched examination of the question to date.
Perhaps the most damning finding is one of the simplest: a comparison between property values in Oregon and other states from 1965 to 2005. As it turns out, Oregon's highly-regulated property slightly outperformed values in neighboring California and Washington, though it lagged Idaho by a little. Oregon also outperformed the national average.
