Earlier this month, we published an analysis estimating that the proposed ICE detention center in Williamsport could wipe as much as $22.3 million off the value of nearby homes. The estimate was based on a peer-reviewed national study published by MIT Press that found home values declined around newly opened prisons, with the largest declines occurring closest to the facilities. Since publishing that analysis, I spoke with someone who was actually under contract to buy property in Williamsport but then heard the news of the proposed ICE detention center.
Chris, who asked that we only use his first name because he is concerned about harassment, had been planning to move with his family from the Baltimore area to western Maryland, where they could buy some land and build a house. They found a property in Williamsport and were under contract by late March. While the land itself was relatively inexpensive, building the house would not have been, and Chris said the family’s total investment would have been more than $1 million. “This is the most amount of money that we have ever invested in anything,” he told me.
Around the same time they were under contract, Chris and his family learned about the proposed ICE detention center DHS wants to open in Williamsport. The location was particularly difficult to overlook because they would have regularly driven directly past it on the way to their new home. “Each time we would get off the highway we passed the warehouse. We would have had to pretty much drive by it to get down to where we were all the time,” he said.
The family ultimately walked away from the Williamsport property, with Chris describing the proposed ICE facility as the “final straw.”
“We were under contract when the news of the detention center broke. It wasn’t the only reason we pulled out of the contract, but it was the final straw. We don’t want to support a local government who allows human rights violations and won’t protect their constituents.”
Instead of building in Williamsport, the family bought property in Allegany County. Chris estimates they would have put more than $1 million into the Williamsport property, with much of that money going toward construction of the house. “That would have created a lot of construction jobs for that single house and it’s still on the market,” he said. “A loss of investment that went to another county instead.”
Chris’s story also isn’t the first time we’ve heard from someone whose decision about where to live has been affected by the proposed ICE facility. In March, NBC Washington interviewed Nica Sutch, who bought her home near Williamsport almost 30 years ago and told the station that she had expected to remain there for the rest of her life. The proposed detention center, which would be within sight of her home, changed that. “I definitely am planning to move,” Sutch told NBC Washington. “I won’t stay here in the future.”
We now have one family telling us the ICE jail helped convince them not to move to Williamsport and a longtime resident saying it has convinced her to leave. All of this is happening before the facility has even opened. Their stories indicate that the ICE facility is already factoring into real decisions people are making about whether they want to live in this part of Washington County.
In Chris’s case, his family had already chosen Williamsport, found the property, and signed a contract. They were preparing to invest more than $1 million into buying the land and building their home before ultimately deciding to put that money into another county instead. At the same time, a Williamsport resident for almost three decades and who once thought she would remain in her home forever now says she plans to leave.
The proposed ICE jail hasn’t opened yet, but for at least these two families, it has already changed where they want to live. The effect on housing demand isn’t complicated: if people don’t want to live near something, fewer people will want to buy homes near it. We already have one family that chose not to move in and a longtime resident who says she wants to move out.
Read our original analysis: Washington County ICE Jail Could Wipe $22.3 Million Off Local Home Values and check out our new tool to see if your home value could be impacted if the proposed ICE jail opens at ICEJailTax.com.
