Starbucks Effect: Will Closings Hurt Home Values?

13 Comments so far

1. Richard Johnston, Sherman Oaks Homes on July 8, 2008 2:26 am

   I doubt they are going to be closing any stores here in the San Fernando Valley. Well…at least not the busy ones.

2. Jim Duncan on July 8, 2008 3:53 am

   I see this as an opportunity for independent coffee shops to pick up the slack left by Starbucks. SB has already made the coffee culture ubiquitous so much so that there will likely be a void left when they close.

   When I define “self-sustaining areas” for my clients, a coffee shop is one of the criteria; but my area isn’t as inundated/infested with Starbucks as are many other areas.

3. Zoomf Blog - UK Property Blog » Blog Archive » Starbucks and real estate… on July 8, 2008 4:05 am

   [...] over the next year and, whilst many people are enjoying the fate of Starbucks as a talking point, Zillow have raised the interesting question of ‘what does it mean for house [...]

4. skeptic on July 8, 2008 7:41 am

   “to have a Starbucks store in a neighborhood, means area homes prices go up in value.”

   wow. talk about really, really bad science….home prices went up for a multitude of reasons, the proximity to an overpriced trendy spot would hardly be a valid reason.

   The store was placed there BECAUSE the home prices were ALREADY expected to increase.

5. Adam on July 8, 2008 8:34 am

   Yes, I’d agree with other comments. I don’t see a few Starbucks stores closing having any measurable effect on home prices. That is, unless Starbucks is the only coffee place in your town.

6. Riley Smith | Coconut Grove Realtor on July 8, 2008 1:06 pm

   I agree that the two may be related, but not in the way that Starbucks says. I think that the housing crisis caused our economy slump, which has caused people to spend less, i.e. stop buying $6.00 cups of coffee.
   I disagree that Starbucks stores closing will hurt home values.

7. mr. big on July 9, 2008 12:00 am

   It’ll be hard to tell if home prices are hurt because the Zillow Heat Maps have been down for months.

   It’s shameful that this feature is still touted on the Zillow website, even though it is no longer available.

   Have other readers seen similar functionality on any other sites?

8. Priya on July 9, 2008 8:25 am

   I don’t think that closing of Starbukcs stores will affect anything. It might, infact, create some opportunities.

9. David G from Zillow.com on July 9, 2008 11:45 am

   mr. big -

   It wasn’t an easy decision. Ultimately, we realized that the improvement to our maps with the switch to Virtual Earth was more compelling from a users’ perspective than maintaining the old maps with heat maps. I hope that you understand. We do plan to bring back the heat maps but to set realistic expectations, that work is not yet scheduled.

10. mr. big on July 10, 2008 9:18 pm

    David G,

    Thanks for the response. So when is the section of the website touting heat maps coming down? This is exasperating to users who spend lots of time trying to figure out what they’re doing wrong because they can’t get heat maps to come up.

    Very frustrating from the end-user point of view. Seems like there’s more daily content and updates on the Zillow blog than there is on the actual Zillow site.

11. Starbucks Store Closing Locations Announced | Zillow® Blog on July 15, 2008 11:45 am

    [...] you’re at all concerned that your home’s value will dwindle if a nearby Starbucks store closes, you can check to see if your ‘hood is on the list. Starbucks just released its first closure [...]

12. Media Appearance on Thursday 17 July | Real Central VA on July 18, 2008 4:13 am

    [...] Starbucks are closing; what might the impact be on the housing markets around [...]

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