According to the National Association of Realtors, “Although research remains scant, wind farms appear to have a minimal or at most transitory impact on real estate. A three years study by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory concludes ‘neither the view of wind energy facilities nor the distance of the home to those facilities was found to have any consistent, measurable, and significant effect on the selling prices of nearby homes. No matter how we looked at the data, the same result kept coming back – no evidence of widespread impacts.’
A study conducted on behalf of the Department of Energy was released in December 2009. The study can be viewed at:
The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory study “The Impact of Wind Power Projects on Residential Property Values in the United States: A Multi-Site Hedonic Analysis” by ben Hoen, Ryan Wiser, Peter Cappers, Mark Thayer, and Gautam Sethi. December 2009 (revision #1) Funded by the US Dept. of Energy
An additional study was released in May 2010 reflecting research done on real estate values. The study is entitled,
The study summarizes its research with, “Wind farm anticipation stigma is likely due to the impact associated with a fear of the unknown, a general uncertainty surrounding a proposed wind farm project regarding the aesthetic impacts on the landscape, the actual noise impacts from the wind turbines, and just how disruptive the wind farm will be. However, during the operational stage of the wind farm project, as surrounding property owners living close to the wind turbines acquired additional information on the aesthetic impacts on the landscape and actual noise impacts of the wind turbines to see if any of their concerns materialized, property values rebounded and soared higher in real terms than they were prior to wind farm approval.”