Blackburn News
A member of the Multi Municipal Wind Turbine working group says an assessment of property values confirmed a 25% property devaluation due to industrial wind turbines.

Dave Hemingway says he had confirmation from the Municipal Property Assessment Corporation of a steep drop in property values. However, Hemingway was told by the assessor that his MPAC boss did not want wind turbines considered in property value.

Hemingway adds he has been having trouble getting any official information released since he started dealing with MPAC on the issue in 2011. He says he has had hearings with 7 different chairs during that time. Read article

Canadian Real Estate Wealth, Jenifer Paterson
A recent study by the University of Guelph, which found wind turbines do not have an impact on nearby property values, might have earned a big sigh of relief from investors – but the study’s results have been strongly criticized by members of the real estate industry.

“I have had several deals fall apart in this area because, in the appraisal report, it has been mentioned that there are windmills visible or adjacent to the property and, once a lender gets wind of that (forgive the pun), they will not fund a mortgage,” said Angela Jenkins, a mortgage agent at Dominion Lending Centres, who lives and works in the Melancthon region, where the study was conducted.

“If a person cannot get financing due to windmills, then how can this be a positive thing?” The study, which was published this month in the Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics, analyzed more than 7,000 home and farm sales in the area, and found that at least 1,000 of these were sold more than once, some several times.

John Leonard Goodwin, who has been a real estate broker for more than 10 years in the Grand Bend, Ont. market, asserted that wind turbines absolutely do affect property values. “Turbines complicate your property enjoyment, period,” he said. “That alone spells depreciated value(s). Read article

CBC Radio
A professor at Queen’s University is raising concerns about a recent study that found that wind farms have a minimal impact on property values.

AIMS Energy
Chad Walker, Jamie Baxter, Sarah Mason, Isaac Luginaah, and Danielle Ouellette
Department of Geography, Western University, London, ON N6A 5C2, Canada Environmental Science Program, Western University

Abstract:
This paper focuses on public concerns about real estate value loss in communities in the vicinity of wind turbines. There are some conflicting results in recent academic and non-academic literatures on the issue of property values in general—yet little has been studied about how residents near turbines view the value of their own properties. Using both face-to-face interviews (n= 26) and community survey results (n= 152) from two adjacent communities, this exploratory mixed-method study contextualizes perceived property value loss. Interview results suggest a potential connection between perceived property value loss and actual property value loss, whereby assumed property degradation from turbines seem to lower both asking and selling prices. This idea is reinforced by regression results which suggest that felt property value loss is predicted by health
concerns, visual annoyances and community-based variables. Overall, the findings point to the need for greater attention to micro-level local, and interconnected impacts of wind energy development. Read article

By Ted Booker, Watertown Daily Times
[Excerpt] Cape Vincent Assessor Denise J. Trudell said the value of high-end waterfront properties on Tibbetts Point Road has gradually slid in recent years because of an undesirable view of Wolfe Island Wind Farm. As an example, she cited a home at 32519 Tibbetts Point Road that was sold for $700,000 in 2007; it sold in March for $510,000.

“Homeowners don’t think their property is worth as much because the view is not as desirable as what it used to be,” Ms. Trudell said. “I would say there has definitely been a decline in people looking for that type of high-end property. It has certainly had an effect on the property values along that area. But it all depends on how you want to look at it. I had a property owner two weeks ago tell me they find (the turbines) enchanting and like the view.”

Lesa M. Plantz, broker for Prudential 1000 Realty of Clayton, said that some buyers are attracted to homes on Tibbetts Point Road because prices have sharply fallen since turbines were erected on Wolfe Island. But until recently, there haven’t been many buyers interested in the waterfront property.

“When the windmills were first out there, absolutely nothing sold,” Mrs. Plantz said. “And with the continuing controversy going on with the windmill issue in the Cape, there was definitely a steady decline in sales. We had property sit for a couple of years that would have normally been sold in a couple of months.” Read article

• MPAC 2014 Report: Wind Turbines
• MPAC 2014 Appendix D2

Notwithstanding an initial review of the MPAC report Abstract and policy support statements, when you look a little deeper and see the sale and assessed values displayed on D2, it appears the raw sale prices for the whole study are about 25% lower values within 1km vs. > 5km. In fact, the graph confirms that impacts are significant out to at least 5km (3 miles).

Based on D2, it would also appear they (MPAC) are in a good position to defend that they have generally not overvalued homes near turbines, since the Current Value Assessments (CVA) are consistent with time adjusted actual sale prices. But their opinion of no (statistically significant) impact near vs. far is at war with the factual sale price proximity trends found in the study.

Further, for environmental impairment analysis, the IAAO Standards discourage regression and instead recommend use of paired sales methodology, with direct, detailed comparisons of individual sale data, near and far from the environmental disamenity in question. They heavily cite the IAAO, as is appropriate, but seemed to have missed that most relevant standard regarding use of regression and limitations for exactly this kind of analysis.

As copied below the D2 bar chart, and found buried way back in Exhibit E, is an important conclusion. MPAC internally, directly contradict the Abstract opinion they have expressed on wind turbine impacts.

Many of the regression studies keep showing roughly 25% lower values near turbines when the raw data is sorted by distance, yet the statistical significance ends up indicating to the authors no impact on value. Perhaps they should consider use of recognized appraisal methodology for measuring proximity impacts from turbines.

Michael S. McCann
McCann Appraisal, LLC

See also: Wind Turbines Devalue Falmouth Home 22 Percent Official 

Refusal of Old Leighlin wind farm lists property devaluation among reasons for turning down development

Daily Mail, by Sanchez Manning
The presence of wind turbines near homes has wiped tens of thousands of pounds off their value, according to the first major study into the impact the eyesore structures have on house prices.

The study by the London School of Economics (LSE) – which looked at more than a million sales of properties close to wind farm sites over a 12-year period – found that values of homes within 1.2  miles of large wind farms were being slashed by about 11 per cent.

This means that if such a wind farm were near an average house in Britain, which now costs almost £250,000, it would lose more than £27,000 in value. In sought-after rural idylls where property prices are higher, the financial damage is even more substantial. In villages around one of Southern England’s largest onshore developments – Little Cheyne Court Wind Farm in Romney Marsh,  Kent, where homes can cost close to £1 million – house values could drop by more than £100,000. Read article

The Whig
KINGSTON – A Wolfe Island couple learned late in 2013 that a re-evaluation of their cottage property, based in part on their proximity to wind turbines, would not result in an assessment reduction. It was a last ray of hope for Ed and Gail Kenney, who had also unsuccessfully challenged the property value of their home before a Municipal Property Assessment Corporation tribunal, claiming it had been devalued since the construction of the 86-turbine project on the island.

The couple have not been alone in their efforts. In the west end of the province, Goderich landowner Dave Hemingway got a similar letter from MPAC concerning a reassessment of 80 acres of his family farmland. Hemingway, who is also chairman of the anti-turbine group SWEAR (Safe Wind Energy for All Residents), was skeptical of the review all along. A University of Waterloo study released last October, he said, found that health and sleep problems were more prevalent in people the closer they live to turbines.

MPAC, on the other hand, uses “regression modelling” in its assessments. It looks at the sale prices of similar homes within a certain distance of the property being assessed — then widens that search to assemble a large enough sampling. “When you go further away from the turbines, the issues aren’t as great,” said Hemingway. Read article

Manitoulin Expositor
Landowners and homeowners have the option for reassessment submissions to MPAC for property devaluations in proximity of industrial wind turbines.

Deadlines are approaching. You may have to search out last year’s notices as new notices may not have been sent if there were no changes to the previous assessment. This can be done online also at About My Property Link, 1-866-296-MPAC (6722) orwww.mpac.ca.

Send in pictures, distance of turbines, and the peer reviewed health studies, etc. to support your documentation in a Request for Reconsideration.

MPAC is being reviewed by the provincial ministry and there is also a review on the impacts of industrial wind turbines on property value that is not completed as of yet. Read article

CKWSTV
Janet Grace, Real Estate Agent, Royal LePage: “All it takes is just saying well there is a project that has been proposed that entails bringing 33 to 37 huge wind turbines and people just say oh no no no we’ll walk away from that.”  This is the second time Best’s home has been put on the market and without a buyer she is left with few options.