Metro’s night travel offer on the weekend and its impact on house prices

Abstract

We examine the impact of introducing a weekend metro night service on housing prices in Frankfurt, Germany. Our identification strategy combines a triple-differences design to estimate the average treatment effect on the treated (ATET). We find both statistically and economically significant ATETs. For housing units located within a 300 m distance of the night service trains, housing value experience an average 22 % increase within a one-year period following the schedule change. This is equivalent to an average increase in home value of EUR 109,835 , or a total value appreciation of the nearby housing stock of more than EUR 32 million. Further, we do not find evidence that the night service trains bring negative externalities, such as noise, for units located within 100 m of train stations.