LAUSR

This study mainly addresses two main questions: (1) whether traffic congestion negatively affects single-family house price by constraining accessibility to jobs; (2) whether congestion effects and accessibility effects vary by income groups within a metropolitan area. This study uses a multilevel hedonic price model to estimate the marginal price of accessibility while controlling for other neighbourhood attributes and the correlation of proximal housing sales. The congestion effects are identified by comparing the implicit price of accessibility between congested-flow and free-flow. The results show that the accessibility measured with congested time yields higher marginal price, suggesting that households are willing to pay more to avoid locations with high congestion delays and accessibility loss. The results also suggest that accessibility effects are more valued by homebuyers in middle-income neighbourhoods, compared with those in the lowest or highest income neighbourhoods.