Living with hogs in Iowa: The impact of livestock facilities on rural residential property values

We estimated a hedonic model to explain variations in residential sales price with standard house attributes, such as number of bedrooms and square feet of living space, as well as the effects of distance and density of livestock feeding operations. We find that livestock operations have an overall statistically significant effect on property values. Predicted negative effects are largest for properties that are downwind and close to livestock operations. In addition, feeding operations that are moderate in size have more impact than do large-scale operations, most likely reflecting age, type, and management practices of the moderate-sized operations.