Abstract
The construction of a public transit system in a large metropolitan area can relieve congestion, enhance mobility, and improve air quality. In a well-functioning housing market, these benefits are reflected in housing prices. In this paper, we analyze transactions for 2007 and 2009 of apartments with elevators from Kaohsiung (Taiwan’s second largest city) using a geographically weighted regression hedonic model to capture the impact of the opening in 2008 of a new mass rapid transit (MRT) system. We find that the opening of the MRT had a statistically significant and positive impact on the value of apartments with elevators that was not yet fully capitalized in 2007 prices.