Will power plant affect Walpole property values?

Competitive Power Ventures claims a power plant won't hurt local property values. In fact, the company, which is proposing a 580-megwatt gas-fired plant for Industrial Road, believes such a facility could actually increase values.

But that is debatable, say property experts across the state and region. And at least one Walpole real estate agent disagrees entirely with Competitive Power's claims.

"I think it definitely will affect sales price for homes depending on where (they are) in town," said Paula Verderber of Verderber Real Estate in Walpole.

"Generally, (a power plant) does negatively affect values. They would be lower," said Jim McCathern, chief executive officer at Patriot Properties, a revaluation company that does work in communities hosting power plants.

If you were looking for a home and you found two options - "both nice, both worked" - you would always take the one farther away from the plant, he said.

"I think it's a visual thing ... (and) a perception thing," he said.

Even with the state Department of Public Health ensuring no adverse health hazards, there's still a "perception that it's negative."

"You don't want to sit out on your deck in the summer and look at (a power plant)," he said.

Mary Jane Lightbody, another Walpole agent, suspects a plant would harm real estate values in town, though she has yet to deal with any hesitant buyers or eager sellers.

She compared living near a plant to living near high tension wires.

"It's an unknown factor right now," she said. All you can do as a real estate agent is point it out and say, "This is the location."

McCathern's comments, and Lightbody's suspicions, conflict with statements by Competitive Power representatives at public forums in November and December.

George Grunbeck, a Competitive Power vice president, said in a recent interview in his experience power plants haven't changed local property values and in some cases they have actually increased property values with the extra tax revenue generated by plants.

"Everybody likes to have nice schools," said Grunbeck.

Median sales prices of single-family homes in various power plant towns seem to support Competitive Power claims. Values across Bellingham, for example, increased rapidly in the years surrounding the power plant discussion, construction and initial operation. In 1997, the median value for a single-family home was $129,000. Three years later, it was $179,250. In 2004, it was $286,630.

Of curse, these were boom years for property value across the region, numerous real estate agents point out. Similar townwide property value increases occurred in Weymouth and Milford, Conn., during opening of power plants there.

These blanket townwide assessments obscure the complicated impact of a power plant, said David Kmetz, a listing agent in Charlton - home to a Competitive Power-operated, 360-megawatt plant.

Regarding homes closest to a power plant, Kmetz stressed he had never heard of the Charlton plant harming local real estate values. But for those living next to a plant, there would have been some impact, he said.

"It's not a black-and-white thing," he added, meaning a power plant is neither all negative nor all positive. "But it's not a golden parachute either."

"I don't really think (the Charlton plant) had any impact," said Lorraine Herbert of Re/Max in Charlton. She would, however, point it out to prospective buyers in full disclosure.

Herbert said its impact was probably a reduction of about 5 to 10 percent in the values of nearby properties. In Charlton, she added, this refers "to so few homes."

"There's no evidence that power plants cause property values to decrease," said Betsy Cournoyer, Bellingham tax assessor. That town's plant is roughly 1,000 feet away from the nearest home.

Speaking from an experience of plants located on "large sums of acreage" where those facilities are "unobtrusive as possible," Cournoyer cited sales data to support her statements.

There's plenty of evidence that power plants don't affect property values at all, Cournoyer said. For buyers, "it's either an issue or it's not." The data shows people are willing to buy homes close to power plants, she said.