The mantra of real estate professionals is "location, location, location" . No one willingly chooses to buy a home under a flight path, unless they are enticed by a low price for the property.

Real estate law requires sellers to reveal noise and other nuisance factors prior to sale, using a Real Estate Transfer Disclosure Statement.  This allows informed buyers to look elsewhere, or to lower their offer.  It follows that home values will be substantially lower near a hospital helipad with "up to 3 flights a day", as predicted by SF General in the Helipad Initial Study.

STUDIES MEASURE AIRPORT IMPACT

In 1994, the consulting firm of Booz-Allen & Hamilton, Inc. was commissioned by the Federal Aviation Administration to prepare a study entitled, The Effect of Airport Noise on Housing Values: A Summary Report.  The study developed a methodology for evaluating the impact of noise on housing values by comparing market prices in similar neighborhoods that differed only in the level of airport related noise.  The study found that the effect of noise on prices was highest in moderately priced and expensive neighborhoods.  For two moderately priced "paired" neighborhoods north of LAX, the study found "an average 18.6 percent higher property value in the quiet neighborhood, or 1.33 percent per dB of additional quiet."

A 1996 study, funded by a grant from the Legislature of the State of Washington, used somewhat similar methodology and found that the proposed expansion of Seattle-Tacoma Airport would cost five nearby cities $500 million in property values and $22 million in real-estate tax revenue. The study of single family homes in "very good" condition, with "three or more bedrooms and two or more baths" and "excluding the most expensive and inexpensive units to provide more representative comparisons" found that "a housing unit in the immediate vicinity of the airport would sell for 10.1 percent more-- if it were located elsewhere."

The study also concluded that, "all other things remaining equal, the value of a house and lot increases by about 3.4% for every quarter of a mile the house is farther away from being directly underneath the flight track of departing/approaching jet aircraft".

In 1997, Randall Bell, MAI, Certified General Real Estate Appraiser, Licensed Real Estate Broker and instructor for the Appraisal Institute, provided the results of his own professional analysis to the Orange County Board of Supervisors. After examining 190 sales comparables over the previous six months, in communities near LAX, John Wayne airport and Ontario Airport, Mr. Bell found a diminution in value due to airports averaging 27.4 percent.

The noise and danger of low-flying helicopter landings and departures  over San Francisco's Mission District and Protrero Hill, will reverse significant  improvements in these neighborhoods that has occurred in the last 10 years.   In addition,  lower prices for home sales will reduce real-estate tax revenues to the city of San Francisco.  This loss will far outweigh the expected increase in  revenue to the Hospital generated by the insured patients flown in by helicopter from surrounding counties.