Behavioral Economics Commons^™

Does A Property‐Specific Environmental Health Risk Create A “Neighborhood” Housing Price Stigma? Arsenic In Private Well Water, Kevin Boyle, Nicolai Kuminoff, Congwen Zhang, Michael Devanney, Kathleen Bell

Publications

This paper examines the impact of arsenic contamination of groundwater on sale prices of residential properties and bare land transactions in two Maine towns, Buxton and Hollis, that rely on private wells to supply their drinking water. Prompted by tests of well water by the state of Maine, media attention focused on the communities in 1993 and 1994 when 14% of private wells were found to have arsenic concentrations exceeding the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency standard of 0.05 mg/L. Households could mitigate the serious health risks associated with arsenic ingestion by purchasing bottled water or by installing a reverse osmosis …