CONTACT: Barry Wanger, +1-617-965-6469, Barry@wangerassociates.com Wind Wise - Massachusetts www.windwisema.org
Land-based wind turbines can cause property values within two miles of the 30 to 50 story high structures to plummet by 15 percent to 40 percent, according to comprehensive appraisal studies.
The individual real estate impact reports covered the towns of Falmouth, Nantucket, Shelburne, Dennis, and Brewster and are emblematic of similar studies in other states, according to Michael McCann, president of McCann Appraisals of Chicago.
“The wind turbines near residential areas are devastating to home values,” McCann said. His firm has conducted more than 20 appraisals of homes near existing or proposed land-based wind turbines in more than two dozen communities across the country.
The studies were credited by Wind Wise-Massachusetts (WWMA) as a significant contributing factor, along with negative health impacts, in the withdrawing of 43 wind turbine projects in the Commonwealth during the past eight years.
Wind Wise-Massachusetts (www.windwisema.org) is a statewide alliance of environmentally active grassroots organizations and individuals who are concerned about the negative health, environmental, and economic impacts of poorly-sited wind turbines. The organization has supporters in more than 200 cities and towns.
In Nantucket, a property value impact study for a proposed 325 foot wind turbine at the Town’s Landfill found that the turbine could dramatically alter vistas and sight lines and raise noise and health concerns.
The study said the home values for over 600 residential properties within a two-mile range of the wind turbines could be reduced by 10 per cent to 25 per cent and, in some cases, 40 percent. The appraised value for the homes in the area was $1.1 billion.
A town meeting in Nantucket overwhelmingly defeated the proposal last March. A plan for a smaller wind turbine was defeated last October.
In Shelburne, 770 homes within two miles of a proposed industrial wind turbine installation could have seen their total value decrease by $27.3 million to $72.8 million, based on another McCann Appraisals study.
The proposed project was withdrawn and the town voted to ban all industrial wind turbines in Shelburne at a town meeting last year.
In Falmouth, property values near existing wind turbines decreased by an average of 27 percent according to a paired sales appraisal analysis.