Why do People Choose to Live in Golf Course Communities?

Authors

  • Sarah Nicholls
  • John L. Crompton

Keywords:

real estate development, golf courses, open space

Abstract

A substantial proportion of golf courses constructed in recent years are associated with real estate projects. An underlying premise of these developments is that the course creates a premium for the lot values and facilitates a more rapid sale of these lots. The study posed three research questions: (i) Did residents believe that they were paying a premium to live in a golf subdivision and, if so, how much did they estimate that premium to be? (ii) What proportion of households included at least one person who was a regular golfer on the subdivision’s course? and (iii) What features of the development persuaded residents to pay the premium to live there if many of them were non-golfers?

All 707 homeowners in the subdivision were surveyed and 466 (66%) responded. In response to the first research question, most of those whose homes abutted the course recognized they paid a proximate premium. The most striking feature of the responses was their range. Nearly 59% of residents estimated the premium they paid to be 20% or less, while there were 15% who believed they paid a premium of 40% or more. However, over 60% of those who did not live adjacent to the golf course believed that they paid no premium whatsoever to reside in the golf community.

Only 29% of respondents reported that a member of their household played golf regularly (once a month or more) at the subdivision course. Responses to an open-ended question revealed that proximity to, or a view of, the golf course was the most common reason for choosing the subdivision, being cited by almost one-quarter (24.3%) of respondents. However, when respondents were asked to rate eighteen factors on an importance scale in terms of their influence on their decision to purchase their home, “View of the golf course” was ranked fifth by those living adjacent to the golf course but eighteenth by those not living on the golf course, while the respective rankings of the two groups for the item “Proximity to golf course/country club” were sixth and fourteenth. The features deemed to be most important were relatively generic in that they could be applied to any residential area.

Downloads

Published

2005-01-18

Issue

Vol. 23 No. 1 (2005)

Section

Regular Papers

License

Sagamore Publishing LLC (hereinafter the “Copyright Owner”)

Journal Publishing Copyright Agreement for Authors

PLEASE REVIEW OUR POLICIES AND THE PUBLISHING AGREEMENT, AND INDICATE YOUR ACCEPTANCE OF THE TERMS BY CHECKING THE ‘AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS COPYRIGHT NOTICE’ CHECKBOX BELOW.

I understand that by submitting an article to Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, I am granting the copyright to the article submitted for consideration for publication in Journal of Park and Recreation Administration to the Copyright Owner. If after consideration of the Editor of the Journal of Park and Recreation Administration, the article is not accepted for publication, all copyright covered under this agreement will be automatically returned to the Author(s).

THE PUBLISHING AGREEMENT

Assignment of Copyright

I hereby assign to the Copyright Owner the copyright in the manuscript I am submitting in this online procedure and any tables, illustrations or other material submitted for publication as part of the manuscript in all forms and media (whether now known or later developed), throughout the world, in all languages, for the full term of copyright, effective when the article is accepted for publication.

Reversion of Rights

Articles may sometimes be accepted for publication but later be rejected in the publication process, even in some cases after public posting in “Articles in Press” form, in which case all rights will revert to the Author.

Retention of Rights for Scholarly Purposes

I understand that I retain or am hereby granted the Retained Rights. The Retained Rights include the right to use the Preprint, Accepted Manuscript, and the Published Journal Article for Personal Use and Internal Institutional Use.

All journal material is under a 12 month embargo. Authors who would like to have their articles available as open access should contact gbates@sagamorepub.com for further information.

In the case of the Accepted Manuscript and the Published Journal Article, the Retained Rights exclude Commercial Use, other than use by the author in a subsequent compilation of the author’s works or to extend the Article to book length form or re-use by the author of portions or excerpts in other works.

Published Journal Article: the author may share a link to the formal publication through the relevant DOI.

Author Representations

  • The Article I have submitted to the journal for review is original, has been written by the stated author(s) and has not been published elsewhere.
  • The Article was not submitted for review to another journal while under review by this journal and will not be submitted to any other journal.
  • The Article contains no libelous or other unlawful statements and does not contain any materials that violate any personal or proprietary rights of any other person or entity.
  • I have obtained written permission from copyright owners for any excerpts from copyrighted works that are included and have credited the sources in the Article.
  • If the Article was prepared jointly with other authors, I have informed the co-author(s) of the terms of this Journal Publishing Agreement and that I am signing on their behalf as their agent, and I am authorized to do so.