Mixed-Use, Mixed Impact

Recent trends in planning, public policy, and real estate development have favored dense mixed use development clusters in suburban communities. This thesis examines the relationship between such activity zones and adjacent residential property values. Regression analyses were used to determine the significance and direction of this relationship in seven study districts in Miami-Dade County, Florida, with the results analyzed in accordance with each district’s unique physical and contextual features. Although proximity to mixed-use districts was found to be relatively insignificant when compared with other property-oriented variables, its impact on property values was often sizeable, generally positive, and varied substantially in strength depending upon scale and location. This indicates that mixed-use districts are associated with net benefits for adjacent residential properties, and also highlights the importance of design and local context in planning for these developments. In addition, proximity to mixed-use districts was found to have a consistently stronger impact on multi-family residential property values than on those of single-family residential properties.