Do property values rebound from environmental stigmas? Evidence from Dallas

The Dallas area housing market is examined before, during, and after the closure and cleanup of a 50-year-old lead smelter, west of downtown Dallas, using a pooled time series and cross-sectional data set that covered all single-family homes sold through the multiple-listing service from 1979 through 1995-over 200,000 observations. Consistent with the existing literature, property values around the smelter were lower before the cleanup. However, after the cleanup, the prices consistently rebounded across all neighborhood types, although the areas that were nearest and poorest did so more slowly. (JEL Q20).