Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Homophobia in Suburbia

The article entitled "Gay Neighbors Impact Property Values," evaluated the potential relationship between same-sex couples and housing prices. Researchers used 2000 census data from Ohio and compared the number of same-sex, unmarried partner houses with the percentage of people who voted for the "Defense of Marriage Act" in 2004, which stated that a marriage could only consist of one man and one woman. As expected, results revealed that an increase in same-sex households in conservative areas was associated with a one percent decrease in housing prices, and in very liberal areas, an increase in same-sex households was associated with a 1.1 percent increase in home prices. The research also showed that an increase in lesbian households had an "insignificant effect," which reveals that only households headed by gay men have an effect. So maybe intolerance is more costly than people think...

http://www.miller-mccune.com/culture/gay-neighbors-impact-property-values-37507/

1 comment:

  1. This shows clear prejudice towards households run by same-sex partners especially for the conservative neighborhoods. In areas where it is considered "OK" to be gay the housing prices even increase but what is awful to me is that in neighborhoods where is considered "not OK" to be gay the housing prices go down! Influence on the market everywhere especially where it shouldn't be....

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