Abstract
Appraisers using the market comparison approach find that one of their most difficult tasks is measuring the impact of location on the value of houses. Locational impact is individualistic and subjective, thus defying any general approach to its measurement. The traditional strategy for resolving this problem has been to limit the search for comparable sales to the subject property's immediate neighborhood. However, this generally decreases the number of comparables available for a given appraisal. For study purposes, a community in Pennsylvania was divided into 28 neighborhoods, and 5 ''locational classes''. A total of 150 homes which were sold within the same calendar year were randomly selected, and were appraised 3 times, once using comparables from the neighborhood, then from the locational class, and finally, no locational criteria at all. Data obtained indicated the importance placed upon proximity in choice of comparable sales for appraisal purposes may be unduly restrictive.