There are no patterns or trends to suggest that natural gas development is impacting, or reducing, property values in and around where these activities occur. Broadly speaking, shale development is providing a huge boost to landowners and communities.
In fact, according to the Associated Press, “Private landowners are reaping billions of dollars in royalties each year from the boom in natural gas drilling, transforming lives and livelihoods even as the windfall provides only a modest boost to the broader economy. In Pennsylvania alone, royalty payments could top $1.2 billion for 2012.”
And more recently, a report – available here – from the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy underscores the clear fact that safe, tightly-regulated Marcellus Shale development has “produced major economic benefits to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.” According the report, estimated royalties paid to Marcellus Shale natural gas land- and mineral-owners in Pennsylvania reached a staggering $731 million in 2012. The researchers also determined that “statewide royalty income rose 61 percent from 2006 to 2010 with an increase of 119 percent in counties with Marcellus Shale drilling activity.”
