Title:

Fragmented Information about PFAS Contamination in Private Wells and its Role in Housing Market Responses

PFAS are emerging contaminants that continue to rise in their public and political saliency. Although causal health outcomes are still unclear, there is evidence that the widespread and widely used family of chemicals has been correlated with negative human health impacts. The state of New Hampshire was one of the first in the country to regulate PFAS, establishing a lower maximum contaminant limit (MCL) than the EPA at the federal level. As PFAS policy continues to develop at the federal and state levels, it is important to consider how New Hampshire residents perceive this issue. In particular, residents in Hillsborough, Rockingham, and Strafford counties have been affected by unsafe levels of PFAS in their drinking water. Many of these residents, like 46% of the state, source their drinking water from private wells. We use the hedonic method to quantify the impact of PFAS on selling prices of homes (2015-21) in 3 New Hampshire counties by determining if homes with wells contaminated by PFAS experienced a decline in sold price. Similar to other groundwater studies (Malone and Barrows, 1990; Page and Rabinowitz, 1993; Dotzour, 1997) this study did not find evidence that PFAS contamination in private wells over the state maximum contaminant limit has a significant effect on sold housing prices. However, it is unlikely that this result indicates that homeowners truly do not value avoidance of PFAS exposure. It is often hypothesized that asymmetrical information could prevent the market response observed in the hedonic property method. The homeowner survey uncovered evidence that information about PFAS is fragmented. In our sample, 62.9% of respondents were unaware of the potential for PFAS to contaminate a household’s drinking water prior to purchasing their home. The homeowner survey also provides evidence that PFAS contamination in drinking water is a concern for NH residents and that they value the avoidance of such contamination. 72% of respondents expressed some to high concern about PFAS and valued monthly avoidance at $13.50. This study has implications for policy action in the state of New Hampshire to address a fragmented information landscape that has the potential to create issues of environmental justice and equity.

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