Study: Strip clubs don’t depress nearby home prices

Strip clubs have no impact on the market value of nearby homes, according to a study by university economists.

The findings of the study undercut claims by local governments that they should restrict the presence of strip clubs because of such “secondary effects” as reduced property values in their neighborhoods.

The authors of the study are Taggert Brooks of the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse and Brad Humphreys and Adam Nowak of West Virginia University.

They surveyed about 317,000 home sales in Seattle, Washington, from 2000 through 2013 and uncovered little evidence that strip clubs have any influence on prices of nearby homes. Seattle had a moratorium on  new strip clubs from 1998 to 2005, when a federal judge found the moratorium unconstitutional. New strip clubs started opening in Seattle in 2008.

The study focused on variation in home resale prices based on proximity to strip clubs, home-price changes after a nearby club opened or closed, and the impact of specific strip clubs on the housing market in their neighborhoods.

Most of those measurements provided no link between home prices and strip clubs that was statistically significant.

“There was nothing we picked up that was really significant in any way, shape, or form,” Nowak told the Journal. [Wall Street Journal] — Mike Seemuth