Zillow Confirms That Starbucks Fuels Your Morning–and Gentrification

Data shows home values within a quarter-mile of a Starbucks nearly doubled within five years of the store opening.

By James Jennings· 1/29/2015, 10:58 a.m.

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Have you had your coffee this morning? If not, here’s a bit of information from a recent study conducted by Zillow that will certainly open your eyes:

A home that is now near a Starbucks would have sold, on average, for $137,000. A home that is not near a Starbucks would have sold, on average, for $102,000.
Fast-forward 17 years to 2014. That average American home has now appreciated 65%, to $168,000. But the Starbucks-adjacent property has far outpaced that, appreciating 96% to $269,000.

That’s quite remarkable, but is it really just Starbucks or is it simply something Zillow calls the “coffee shop effect”? The report also compared the home values adjacent to both Starbucks and Dunkin’ Donuts within the first five years of the store opening.

The results saw that both home values appreciated, but ones closest to Starbucks, within a mere quarter-mile, outpaced those near Dunkin’ 96% to 80%, respectively. And while there are a bevy of factors that contribute to rising and falling home values, the team at Zillow sees the proof is in the pudding–or at least the Pike Place Roast: “it looks like Starbucks itself is driving the increase in home values.”

So, once a Starbucks decides to plant their flag in your ‘hood, the data shows you’ll be paying a premium for your latte (and taking advantage of some free Wi-Fi) while also seeing the value of your home damn near double in the process.

The Starbucks team explained that while they have 20 or so analytics experts around the world poring over maps and geographic information systems data—assessing factors like an area’s traffic patterns and businesses—the company also empowers dozens of regional teams to come to their own conclusions about location, store design, and a host of other issues … “The beauty of Starbucks is our understanding of real-estate site locationing,” Arthur [Rubinfeld for Starbucks] told us. “It’s an art and a science.”

• Confirmed: Starbucks knows the next hot neighborhood before everybody else does [Quartz]