A new study suggests that the value of a home increases a few percent if it is located within a half-mile of a Walmart:

It turns out, according to their recently published research, that values increase an average of 2 to 3 percent for homes within half a mile of a Wal-Mart store and 1 to 2 percent when the home is a half mile to 1 mile from a store…

The duo studied more than 1 million home sales between January 1998 and January 2008 near 159 Wal-Marts that were built between July 2000 and January 2006. They compared the prices of homes within four miles of a store that sold up to 21/2 years before an opening or 21/2 years afterward. The long time frame was picked on purpose, after the researchers discovered that the median number of days between when Wal-Mart announced a new store and when it opened was 516 days.

The study also noted that Wal-Mart’s entry into a market often acts as a beacon, generating other economic development nearby…

“On average, the benefits to quick and easy access to the lower retail prices offered by Wal-Mart and shopping at these other stores appear to matter more to households than any increase in crime, traffic and congestion, noise and light pollution or other negative externalities that would be capitalized into housing prices,” the professors wrote.

One interpretation of these findings: people are willing to pay a little more to be located near some commercial development. They may not want to live right next to it evidenced by the fact that most municipalities have some strong guidelines about how commercial areas to demarcate the space between development and residential areas, often with some combination of a berm, a fence, and trees/bushes. But, being a few moments away from a place where you can quickly buy groceries (and Walmart is the country’s biggest grocery store) and other goods is a plus.

One thing that is likely ironic about this data is that while homes close to the Walmart are a little higher, it is unlikely that residents walk to Walmart even though they could. You could interpret this data as evidence people want to live closer to some denser commercial development but having a Walmart nearby is probably not about walkability.

I wonder if these researchers could also tell how much development Walmarts tend to attract. Do they tend to act as anchors for one corner of a busy intersection? Is it enough for development on multiple corners? How many square feet of retail space, on average, can be successfully operated once a Walmart moves in?

I’m now going to look for real estate ads that mention the proximity of a Walmart…I’m not holding my breath.