Confederate Street Names Bring Lower Home Prices
A new study analyzes the value of houses on streets with Confederate-themed names and finds a mean discount of about $7,000 on a $240,000 home.
A sign for the Old Dixie Highway in Homestead, Florida, in 2020.
Photographer: Joe Raedle/Getty Images North AmericaMore than 1,400 streets across the U.S. bear the names of Confederate figures such as Jefferson Davis, Robert E. Lee and Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, the legacy of historical revisionists over the 20th century. These memorials come with a price, a new study suggests: Governments that insist on naming streets after Confederate figures are costing some homeowners a small fortune.
Confederate addresses sell for 3% less on average than homes of similar size and age on nearby streets that aren’t named for secessionists. That works out to a mean Confederate home-sale discount of about $7,000 on a $240,000 home. Houses on Confederate streets also take longer to sell than otherwise comparable homes, according to a review of home sales data across 35 states.