Environmental Hazards Are Not Curbing Homebuyer Desire

Home value appreciation rose 7.4 percent in the highest risk areas for man-made hazards like air pollution from the previous year, according to a new report from Attom Data Solutions.

"Market forces of low supply and high demand [have] trumped the concerns of environmental hazards in many cases," says Attom senior vice president Daren Blomquist. Realtor.com says that home prices in hazardous areas grew 57.1 percent from 2012, compared with 51.1 percent national growth. The report showed that the ZIP codes with the highest environmental hazard risks were located in Denver; San Bernardino, CA; Sheridan, OR; St. Louis; Haw River, NC; Riverside, CA; Santa Fe Springs, CA; Tulsa, OK; and Houston.

The report analyzed the price of homes in 8,665 U.S. ZIP codes that pertained to four environmental hazards: 1) Superfund sites on the National Priorities List (areas contaminated by hazardous waste that the government has prioritized cleaning up); 2) brownfields (potentially contaminated sites); 3) polluters (industrial facilities that manufacture, process, or use high levels of certain chemicals); and 4) poor air quality.

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