Praise: Gay Neighbors

A new study, There Goes the Neighborhood: How and Why the Bohemians, Artists and Gays Effect Regional Housing Values, finds that it is good for the price of one's house to have such neighbors.  Prof. Richard Florida, of George Mason University, and Charlotta Mellander, a doctoral student at Jönköping International Business School, created a Bohemian-Gay Index to explore the impact on housing values.

The findings indicate that the Bohemian-Gay Index has substantial effects on housing values across all permutations of the model and across all region sizes. It remains positive and significant alongside variables for regional income, wages, technology and human capital.

A BusinessWeek article discussed how this can have a real difference on housing values based on the attitudes of those in a particular market.

Gay couples may lift real estate prices by enhancing cultural amenities, housing stock and the vibrancy of neighborhoods, according to a 2010 study by Richard Florida, director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the University of Toronto, and Charlotta Mellander of Jonkoping International Business School in Jonkoping, Sweden.

Perhaps the anti-gay hate groups should reconsider the cost of eradicating those they so fear from their neighborhoods.

Thanks to Care2 for the heads up.