Whenever a new development is opposed by neighboring homeowners, one of the opponents' foremost claims is that the development will reduce residential property values. Sometimes the claims are borne out by the facts, sometimes not. The proposed FedEx hub at Piedmont Triad International Airport has generated this type of complaint, and the reasoning seems sound.
More jets equal more noise, more noise is a nuisance, and nuisances lower home values.
In fact, a 1994 study conducted on behalf of the Federal Aviation Administration supports this view. I'll address a pair of misconceptions about how airport expansions affect residential property values. The first misconception is the view that changes in property values should be construed as economic costs to the community, to be weighed directly against a development's benefits. But there's no shrinkage when a development reduces property values in one particular area. In a stable population, those reductions are completely offset by rising home values elsewhere in the area, leaving the aggregate value of the region's stock of housing unchanged.