How does the renaming of neighborhoods affect property values?

Recently there has been a lot of buzz around Newbold. While the neighborhood name itself is still the same, a civic association within its boundaries has disconnected itself from the name.

How much does a neighborhood name have to do with the values of the homes within it? Curbed cited a Redfin report about the topic, with emphasis on South Philly’s Newbold and Passyunk Square.

From Curbed:

Newbold was rebranded from a section in Point Breeze by developer John Longacre in 2003. From the start, the name became a source of contention between residents. Still, data shows that from 2000 to 2009, home values in Newbold did more than double.

Yet over in nearby Grays Ferry, home values rose even higher by 121 percent—without a name change. That shows that Newbold’s rebranding doesn’t likely deserve full credit for its rising home values. In fact, one neighborhood association so disliked its new name that it recently voted to change it to East Point Breeze Neighbors.

The findings were similar in Passyunk Square, which was re-named from Columbus Square Park in 2003. From 2000 to 2009 home values more than doubled, outpacing the city’s median value. Yet in Devil’s Pocket, home prices actually tripled.