Live near a train stop? That's a good thing

For several years now, planners have predicted that housing near train stations would become more and more desirable.

Developers were looking at development near commuter rail stations, and planners were nudging them toward plans that made it easier to take a bus or walk to the station.

No one needs a better example of that than the move to add stops on the Union Pacific West Line for Metra that used to end in Geneva. It now ends in Elburn, with another stop between, in LaFox.

Metra added the two stations because of development activity west of Geneva. Development plans increased as soon as the announcement of the two new suburban stops was made. And at both the LaFox and Elburn stations, there are now plans for large-scale housing developments that combine transit, pedestrian uses and, of course, the new train stations.

But the trend does not stop at new development designed around new stations.

A recent study by RE/MAX, the real estate company, now puts numbers to back up the faith planners had in the pro-transit development trend.

The study shows that homes during 2009 are worth 2 to 4 percent more if they are near a Metra stop. The study looked at housing throughout the seven-county Chicago metropolitan area.

According to the numbers for the first six months of 2009, the average price of a home in Chicago's suburbs declined by 19 percent compared to the first six months of 2008. But in 32 towns serviced by Metra looked at in the study, home values only declined by about 15.2 percent The study also showed that there were about 19 percent fewer houses changing hands in 2009 than in 2008, compared to about 15 percent fewer in suburbs as a whole.

All those numbers contrast greatly to a similar study done over a two-year period between 2006 and 2008, that showed suburban houses as a whole rising in market value by about 1 percent, while those in Metra-served towns actually declined by about 2.7 percent.

RE/MAX officials said they think the results are tied to spikes in gas prices. They are interested to see what happens if and when gas prices go down.

But my bet is that value in homes near train stations will continue to increase, and their desirability will be greater. The trend toward favoring transit and pedestrian friendly development will continue as people look more and more toward fuel conservation for green purposes, not just for price.