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This article uses 1991-2000 data on single-family housing sales from King County, WA, to provide new evidence relating to the effects of impact fees on housing prices. The hedonic regression method is used to examine the effects of these fees on existing housing as well as their differential effects on price as determined by housing quality. Impact fees raise existing home prices by about 83 percent of the amount of the fee. The increase is 103 percent for high-quality homes and is not statistically significant for low-quality homes. The owners of high-quality homes realize capital gains from impact fees. However, such fees do not raise the price of low-quality homes. To the extent that low-quality housing is more likely to be owned by low- and moderate-income households, which are often composed of racial and ethnic minorities, this finding has significant policy implications for the supporters of impact fees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides new evidence on the effects of impact fees on housing prices, using an inventory of single-family housing sale transactions in the 38 cities and towns within King County, Washington, for the period 1991-2000. Although the effect of impact fees on housing prices has been examined previously, earlier studies have been limited by methodological deficiencies. This paper examines the effect of impact fees on new housing and their differential effect on housing price based on the quality of housing, and finds that the effect of impact fees on the price of new housing is quite significant and elastic, raising new home prices by about 166 per cent of the amount of the fee. The increase is 358 per cent for the higher-quality homes and is statistically insignificant for the lower-quality homes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]