The Secrets of Street Names and Home Values

In the past, the main thoroughfare through town was meant only for business. With the advent of malls, whether open or enclosed, that slowly changed. As Makenzie Kelly - Grandpa 27 wrote, Rail Roads had a huge part in deciding the value of land. If you were a business it was where you wanted to be, if you were a family it was the last place you wanted to be. Then there were Continental and Grey Hound Bus stations. Same thing, no body wanted to live next to them while businesses did.

The ownership of the individual car had a major role in moving people away from the center of towns and cities in the west. But we tend to forget that buses and train stations still played a major role because those women who did work often did not have a personal car and the ones who didn't still had to shop.

Maybe next you should study the colors of the houses to see if the color sets the value. Is it larger front yards or back yards that determine the value? This study is flawed. You can crunch data for anything. Example: did you know that more deaths occur during National Holidays and that is world wide. If you wanted to, you could blame it on family togetherness, holes in the roads, short sighted people, wild children running around... As long as you never refer to an population surge suddenly using an inadequate infrastructure for travel you could probably even find something like a elevated sale of chocolate always preceded the higher incidents of deaths.

At the risk of perpetuating coastal stereotypes about the Midwest and South....there's a Bubba Lane in the state capital of Missouri. I am not sure that anyone lives there, but the state lottery has a Bubba Lane address. The lottery commission--and the city mothers and fathers--want to change it, but evidently a family sold the land on which the building was erected and the family's patriarch was named Bubba and his descendants are adamant that it bear his name. (Why they can't use his surname, whatever that may be, I don't know.)

I must live amongst the dregs, because I put in two relatively common street names from my home address and my parent's home address, and none of them work with this application!

Some of my childhood acquaintences lived on "Pleasant Street." Back then, the quiet little thoroughfare was tree lined, with well shaded sidewalks, lush and neatly manicured lawns, and white picket fences in front of some of the houses -- the idyllic American Dream of the post-WW II era, a scene that could have inspired a Norman Rockwell painting. I don't recall, now, if the siblings were named "Dick," "Jane," and "Sally," but they definitely had a cat named "Puff."

I can't give much credence to this article, given its pronouncements for my street. It states, ridiculously, that houses on streets with my street name are valued at 41% less than other houses in the US. First of all, that's huge for a simple poetic synonym for America -- what would it be for a street called Dirtbag Row or something? (And I see in a comment below that in fact Dump Road comes with a penalty of only 35%!)

Second, the median house in my town is valued at roughly 10 times the US median house. The algorithm does not work in my town at all.

Third, it suggests that the same name with "Road" would result in 48% more for a house! Also ridiculous because there is one of those around, and it is not in a high-values area -- nothing on it would even come close to its Street counterparts, let alone be worth 48% more. But, as it is not in my town, perhaps that makes it ineligible.

Finally, when I plug in the state and county, it says that houses on my street are valued at 23% less than the average house in the state. Though housing values are higher in my state than in the US in general, values on my street are still 2-3 times the state average.

I think that "Maine Street" is much more popular in the state of Maine. I live on one. You have to wonder if the algorithm used to find these names picked up those streets as well. I don't think that Maine has an inordinate number of Main Streets.

The implicit audience in this article is the upper middle class. "If you’re looking for a higher-value home...you’re much more likely to find it on a 'way' or a 'place'... You should also look at streets with uncommon names." If it'd been written for the 99%, it would have been rephrased, "If you're looking for a more affordable home...you're much more likely to find it on a 'street'...You should also look at streets with common names."

I can't help but wonder what the value of homes on Poor House Road and Poor Farm Road are worth. I also spend too much time worrying about what the real estate will be worth as the GOP demands that the the poor houses and poor farms be reopened. If the poor farm was located on Sunset View Summit would the real estate have more value?

Our neck of the woods includes a Lower Pig Pen Road and an Upper Windswept Drive. Fortunately, they don't intersect.

'...Homes on streets named Lexington Avenue are worth 19% less...'

Except in Manhattan, but then street names have no relation to the value of real estate in this city, just location.

How about English-sounding names for high priced suburban neighborhoods: Coventry, Devonshire, Hampshire ... I rarely find those names in depressed areas, or names ending in -haven (e.g., Cresthaven), -dale (e.g. Cloverdale) or -view, even if there is no view at all (e.g., Manorview). Or how about the suffixes Terrace, Lane or Oval? On the other hand numbered Streets or Avenues can be tricky: East 74th Street in Manhattan is no piker. High numbered Streets or Avenues, e.g. 273rd Avenue -- sounds like it's in a secluded neighborhood way north of the grimy downtown of a city.

not only street names, but city names. e.g., Shaker Heights, University Heights, Lakewood, South Collinwood, Brooklyn... but never Cleveland.

This can get out of hand. In our small community there are 15 courts, 7 drives, 2 avenues, no "streets", and 49 Ways; including "1 Summit Way" which has, you guessed, it one house on it.

Not to be out done another family chose "Le sommet du monde", for their singular address, and keep in mind our "hill" is only 600 ft high.

The only things built on the actual summit are a municipal water tank and a half dozen cell towers. Perhaps, said family, briefly toyed with "Avaunt le Cell".

There's something pretentious about court, place, way, circle...
I've lived on a Circle, and then a Court. Now I live on a street, and I'm much happier. Those other names embarrassed me.
Give me a street, road, avenue or lane anytime.

I don't know about your town, but here where I live, "Main Street" has the priciest homes in the town outside of those that are of the McMansion type that that have frontage on the water.

There is a simple explanation for much of this: white flight and the hollowing out of central cities. That's why it's less pronounced in the younger parts of the country less affected by Frost Belt ills.
While we're on names, here's a fun little anecdote thanks to the Car Talk guys, the spelling of whose names I won't attempt: What is the most common street name in the U.S.? You might think it's Main, but it's Second Street. Makes sense when you stop to think: some cities have a Main Street; others have a First. But practically all have a Second Street. And I'd bet that it's below the median in housing values as well.

Forever we lived on East Shore Route then the county changed our addresses to the name of the state highway with a number for GPS purposes. I don't know if it effects our home value but oh how I hate it.

I question the algorithm used to determine housing values.
Tulip avenue in Montgomery County Md. has houses that regularly sell for 750k, which is according to the algorithm 37% less than the average price of a house in Md.
check out the for sale and sold values on zillow.

1600 Pennsylvania Ave sounds to me like it's in the middle of a very busy area. Anyone there surely lacks privacy and may even have folks hopping fences to get in. 10 Downing Street, by contrast, sounds like it's out of the way. Anyone living there may be content to march in step with someone busier so he can spend more time at home, sipping scotch in front of the fireplace.

I want to live on "On Orbit Drive" on one of the hills of Saratoga, CA. Unfortunately the astronomical $2 million plus cost of the houses is a little out of my price range.

Jane Jacobs observed that real estate developers tend to name their streets after the things they destroy in the process of construction. Pinetree Lane, Meadow Avenue, Fox Hill, and so on.

You are too young, Rail Roads played a part in determining neighborhoods. Living on the wrong side of the tracks was bad.

None of this really works in Salt Lake City proper. The street naming system in the downtown area, devised by Brigham Young, works on a grid based on where the street is in relation to the temple. So there is 200 South, 200 East, 200 West, and 200 North. Where I live, still in the city proper, the east-west streets are ordinal numbered avenues (First, Second, etc.) and the north-south orientation roads are alphabetically designated (A, B, up to U) streets. My own neighborhood is considered expensive by most Utahns even with the plain jane names.

The funniest Utah street name story is the city of Lehi changing the name of Morning Glory Road because some people thought it had too much sexual connotation.

One of my favorite street naming conventions occurs in an inner ring western suburb of Minneapolis. All of the streets are named in alphabetical order from East to West thus combining the advantage of using numerical streets and avenues with the cache of names. Of course 26 streets were not enough so being placed in the "second alphabet" also had a impact on perceived value.
The article didn't bring up the other component of home/property value: the number of digits in the address: Is "6" a more valuable property than "60" or "10793"?

New Orleans has the nation's best, absolutely fabulous, romantic street names, including those of the muses - Calliope, Clio, Euterpe, Melpomene, Terpsichore, Thalia. Urania, Polyhymnia, Erato - and others like Felicity and Carondolet with such beautiful cadence. Chicago has a few moving, unusually named streets - Waveland, Bittersweet and the stretch of Michigan Ave colloquially referred to as Magnificent Mile, come most immediately to mind. Most street names (e.g. Broadway, Harrison) are just (yawn) boring. The classics of our bland subdivisions, names like Lilac Court or Cherry Hill are just frankly insincere; there're no lilacs and the hill is landfill. And some names (like Dibble Street in Detroit) are just plain unfortunate. This article makes a subtle but so important point - names are part, however small, of what shapes us, propels our fantasies, sends messages to ourselves and others about who we are, our worth, what we can be. We wouldn't fix our ills overnight by just replacing street signs but approaching the task of naming our spaces with poetic imagination would add a measure of charm to our world.

These surveys work in older cities but they do not really work in newer cities. As far as I can tell, it is pretty random whether ST, DR, LN, PL, CT is used (BLVD, PKWY are reserved mainly for main thoroughfares). They are all usually applied in random fashion throughout a single neighborhood that was built around the same time.

That is because NOTHING in my neighborhood is older than 23 years. And, unlike older suburban neighborhoods on the coasts, the school system is still highly regarded and the neighborhoods are still well maintained and near jobs and retail and restaurants despite the influx of a new generation immigrants. I have been here through two periods of population transition and two recessions.

Here in Warren Vt, Dump Road is a high-end address. The op-chart tells me the value of homes on Dump Roads are worth 35% less. Guess we're just a perverse community...

My theory about names is that the best ones like Smith, Jones, White and Wilson make it difficult for the government and credit card companies to find you.

According to Dr. Wikipedia, 93 million people named Wang live in China (2007 survey).
Imagine trying to locate one of them whose books were overdue at the library.

If the name of every street in America was changed into Elm Street tomorrow, it would go
a long way toward restoring a sense of privacy and well-being to America.

When I typed in the name of my street I was told houses with that street name were worth 47% less than other street names. There are so many variables to location I don't know how they come up with these answers. In the coastal town where I live, my street extends from the beach and runs for a couple of miles through the picturesque downtown section of town. People know that it is "downtown," which is considered the favored area. We can walk almost anywhere and it's bicycle friendly.

Of course, this argument is logical and persuasive: Names have more allure than numbers. But for my hometown, there are too many exceptions to the rule where the location and quality of the home determine desirability and status.
East Sacramento and Curtis Park are two of the most desirable choices of residence for the well-to-do and the up-and-coming. The former neighborhood is widely known for its ' fabulous forties'( i.e. numbered streets )with some of the most elegant and expensive houses in the area; the latter, Curtis Park, has similar quality homes with addresses that bear a majority of mostly single digit numbered avenues. ( Both neighborhoods have named streets mixed in with numbered ones)
As with the numbered streets, not all the so-named avenues reflect wealth, prestige and desirable location. The rule proposed here may still hold true in the larger picture of cities, but I'm not sure that any of us Sacramentans would be terribly impressed by such an address as Grandiose Oak Lane. A new subdivision with nary a tree we know could be so-named.

Here in the UK it is easy to get obsessed with street names. Not only do they reveal real estate prices. But also the social/economic changes that have taken place over time.

My special favourites are those named after Crimean battles - Alma, inkerman, Sebastopol. In London especially these mostly started as humble dwelling places but are now often expensive and sought after.

On the other hand one would not rush to invest in any street or building named after Nelson Mandela

Here's one for Austen fans: the street naming convention of Pemberley, a newish development, tends toward character surnames from Pride and Prejudice. All other things equal, would you be willing to pay more to live on Darcy Court or Bennet Way? If so, would Bingley Circle be worth more, as well? Would you avoid Wickham Lane? How about Collins Street or de Bourgh Avenue? Opinions in my household varied with knowledge of these characters' virtues and flaws.

Okay, so far, so good. I wonder whether the data show marginal increases in value based upon thematic naming schemes within specific localities or subdivisions. For example, in the subdivision where I live in Davis, California, the streets are named after artists, some modern (like my street), renaissance, or romantic era. In some neighborhoods, streets are named after trees. In others, the street names echo other university towns, such as Colgate or Radcliffe.

I've never heard of anything resembling street naming as a matter of code requirement, but there seems to be an unwritten rule that any street name must be under ten characters in length, easily spelled, and easily pronounced by English speakers. In California, English and Spanish street names are equally acceptable, and German or Scandinavian names are common where they refer to actual persons having a historical relationship to the locale. Polish or Czech names, none that I can recall. For similar reasons, many immigrants changed their family names or spellings to make themselves more marketable as laborers or businessmen, and as a way of acquiring new identities as Americans once the arrived here. It makes sense then that proper European spellings and pronunciations were abandoned wholesale, and places named after those people retained their altered spellings. It's as American as apple pie.

I am addicted to a local real estate show on TV here every week, featuring about 50 houses currently for sale in the area. Occasionally, a lovely--and quite pricey--home comes up for sale on Cheese Factory Road. The real estate agent who gets that listing must cringe.

While I don't think I would buy or reject a house solely on the basis of its street name, it would probably be a factor. The funny thing is that, when our township decided that every private road had to have a name instead of just a rural route address and let the residents choose the names, we selected one that -- according to this article -- suggests that our house is worth 328% more than the average American home. I only wish it were! As the article makes clear, it's not the name that implies the value. Thanks for an entertaining, interactive presentation. Data doesn't have to be dull.