Historic Districts Are Good for Your Pocketbook

Historic Districts Are Good for Your Pocketbook: The Impact of Local Historic
Districts on House Prices in South Carolina (Jan. ‘00) - prepared for the South Carolina Department of Archives and History by John Kilpatrick of the University of South Carolina’s College of Business.

“A repeat sales methodology was used to measure the effect of local districts on house prices over time. The results show that local historic district designation had a definite positive impact. House prices increased faster in the protected neighborhoods than in the market as a whole. The annualized rate of return for houses in the two local districts was 7.3%, while for the entire Columbia market it was 5.8%. Therefore, the average homeowner in one of the local historic districts enjoyed a per year gain in house value 26% greater than homeowners outside the
districts.”