Gone with the wind

WHEN IT COMES to home sales, wind turbines hurt curb appeal. So says a new National Academy of Sciences paper that found home sale prices drop 1 percent on average when at least one visible turbine is within about 6 miles of a property. Prices drop up to 8 percent when a turbine is within about 1 mile.

In the study, published March 18, researchers compared sale prices of more than 300 million homes between 1997 and 2020 with the locations of 60,000 wind turbines in the United States. Home prices were lower the closer and more numerous the turbines were. When 20 or more turbines were visible, the drop in home value was double that of homes with fewer turbines within eyesight.

Sale prices dropped most significantly when the turbines were first installed. The price reductions were less pronounced toward the end of the period studied, possibly reflecting changing attitudes toward wind-energy projects.

The number of homes affected was relatively low: Fewer than 9 million sold were within 6 miles of wind turbines. The cumulative $24.5 billion loss in property values represents a small portion of the approximately $45 trillion total home value nationwide.

Mixed outlooks

Most working-age Americans remain worried about their retirement despite strong U.S. employment numbers and recent gains in home values and the stock ­market. More than half of about 1,200 surveyed Americans 25 or older said they are concerned that they cannot achieve financial security in retirement, according to recently released poll results from the nonprofit National Institute on Retirement Security.

This is more pessimistic than recent economic data from the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College that shows a significant reduction in the percentage of households at risk of being unable to maintain their pre-retirement standard of living. After remaining relatively unchanged for a decade, that risk index fell from 47 percent to 39 percent between 2019 and 2022. Researchers attributed the drop to increased savings spurred by ­government stimulus payments and gains in home values and stocks. —T.V.

Cost of content

U.S. households spend on average $61 monthly on video streaming services, according to a recent survey by Deloitte. That’s about 25 percent more than last year. More than 35 percent of consumers across all generations surveyed said the content isn’t worth the price. Americans spend almost $300 per month on streaming subscriptions, internet and phone service, and cable TV, according to Reviews.org. —T.V.