Urban Highways Cost Billions in Lost Home Value, Property Taxes
A new study quantifies the monetary loss of interstates that displaced residents and neighborhoods in Washington, DC and Atlanta.
Thousands of residents were ejected to make way for I-395 in Washington, DC.
Photographer: Al Drago/Bloomberg
In 1960, two highway segments cut through majority-Black neighborhoods in Washington, DC. Interstates 395 and 695, known locally as the Southwest and Southeast freeways, forced the removal of at least 1,400 occupied housing units and ejected about 4,700 residents. That was just a small fraction of the total population that was displaced by urban renewal projects throughout the city at that time.
Similar stories played out across the country as highways tore holes through inner-city neighborhoods coast to coast. Now a new report from the nonprofit Smart Growth America quantifies the monetary losses caused by that rending of urban fabric. In DC, those two interstate sections eliminated at least $1.4 billion in home value, based on today’s market. They also cost the city at least $7.6 million in annual property taxes (based on the 2023 residential property tax rate of 0.54%).