It seems that property values in neighborhoods are often higher around a temple than otherwise. With the recent temple in Twin Falls, Idaho opening last August, property values seemed to bring higher prices than other places in the city.
Plans for the Gilbert temple were announced in April for a site on the corner of Pecos and Greenfield roads near Loop 202. Ground breaking for the Gilbert temple is expected to be in about a year. Temples are also in the works for Phoenix and the Gila Valley in eastern Arizona. The site for the Phoenix temple has not yet been announced. Even in a depressed real-estate market, homeowners near the proposed site of a Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints temple in Gilbert, Arizona could see their property values increase.
There could be several explanations of why property values are higher:
1. Church members like to live near a temple because of the spiritual motivation. Seeing the temple on a daily basis as they leave for work (or their return home) gives them extra motivation to live a Christ-centered life.
2. Temples and the patrons have a reputation of being good neighbors and can anchor the long-term quality of an area.
3. Temples are generally built in areas where they can serve a number of surrounding LDS members. Because of this, the area may already have many members that live high standards and boost the property values prior to the temple being built.
4. LDS members generally do not want to put forth the sacrifice and travel long distances to attend the temple. Thus, they are more motivated to seek out neighborhoods and homes that are close to the temple.
There may be other reasons as well. Gilbert is known to have slightly higher home values than other places in the Southeast Valley. Likewise, the Houston temple site was selected in an area that was already known to be one of the wealthiest communities in suburban Houston. So, the question is: do you think that temples are built in existing high value communities, or do the temples single-handedly raise property values by themselves?
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