Most of the 550 people surveyed in a recent University of Denver study wouldn’t buy a home near a natural gas drilling field, according to a study to be published in the Journal of Real Estate Literature. The study also found that “fracking” can dent bids for nearby homes by up to 25 percent, Reuters reports.

“For the most part, it renders those houses unsellable,” Denton, Texas-based real estate agent Phyllis Wolper tells Reuters, based on her experience with several  clients who have been unable to sell homes near oil and gas wells.

Another working paper — by economists with the Environmental Defense Fund, Duke University and Resources for the Future — found that shale gas drilling within 0.6 mile of homes that depend on groundwater wells can decrease property values by an average of 16.7 percent.

While many homeowners have benefited from the boom in fracking — oil and gas operators paid more than $20 billion in gas royalties in 2012 — many homeowners who live near drilling sites don’t receive royalties, but may still have to cope with issues like groundwater contamination and reduced property values associated with the “stigma” of fracking. Source: reuters.com

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