Do NFL Stadiums Increase Nearby Home Values? Property Appreciation, Rental ROI, and Stadium District Data

Every few years the question lands on my desk again, and right now it’s landing weekly. A buyer calls and asks whether they should get ahead of the new stadium. A seller wants to know if they should wait. An investor wants to know if game-day rentals are a real strategy or a fantasy.

So let’s get into the numbers — the actual research, the case studies, and what it means for us here in the DMV.

The short answer

A stadium by itself does not make your home appreciate. A stadium district does.

That distinction is the whole ballgame, and it’s the thing most people get wrong. Eighty thousand people showing up eight to ten times a year is an event. Housing, retail, restaurants, offices, jobs, and transit that operate 365 days a year — that’s an economy. The research separates cleanly along that line, and once you see it, you can’t unsee it.

What the research actually says

The academic picture is genuinely mixed, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something.

On the optimistic side, a study published in the Journal of Sports Economics found housing values near sports stadiums rose about 4.7% in the U.S. Work associated with the National Bureau of Economic Research found rents on properties within one mile of an NFL stadium can run up to 9% higher — and, in a detail I love, that each additional regular-season win corresponds to roughly a 0.14% bump in home values within that same mile. Winning literally pays the neighbors.

Trulia’s research team looked at all 31 NFL stadium neighborhoods and found that nearly two-thirds had higher average home values than comparable non-stadium neighborhoods in the same metro. Sounds like a win — until you read the next line. The same analysis found that of the five new NFL stadiums that had opened in the prior decade, none produced a noticeable lift in home values within a two-mile radius. Their conclusion was blunt: the determining factor was the neighborhood the stadium landed in, not the stadium itself.

Translation — stadiums tend to get built in places that were already appreciating, or already struggling. The building doesn’t rewrite the block. The block was already writing the story.

Now, the study that matters most to us. In 2005, Charles Tu published research in Land Economics on FedExField in Landover — our backyard. His finding was more encouraging than the activists of the day expected: homes near the site had historically sold at a discount, and after the stadium was completed that discount narrowed. He measured a roughly three-mile impact area. So a stadium didn’t tank Prince George’s County values. It closed a gap. That’s a real result, and it’s a modest one.

The case studies — and what separates them

Inglewood: the outlier everybody quotes

SoFi Stadium is the story people cite when they want to argue stadiums make you rich, and the numbers are loud. Inglewood’s median home price ran from about $382,000 in 2015 to roughly $668,000 by 2020, when the first games were played — north of $720,000 by 2021. Since 2016, Inglewood’s median rose about 37.3% while Los Angeles County overall rose about 18.7%. Prices climbed at least $25,000 every single year after 2016.

But be careful with the lesson. SoFi didn’t arrive alone. It arrived inside Hollywood Park — a 300-acre mixed-use district with housing, retail, offices, and an arena, in a supply-starved Southern California market with an NBA team moving in next door and a Super Bowl and an Olympics on the calendar. And that appreciation came with a cost that got reported honestly: local coverage described a crisis for renters as rents chased prices upward. Appreciation and displacement rode in on the same bus.

Las Vegas: the muted middle

Allegiant Stadium gives us the more typical outcome. Research on the Raiders’ relocation found properties closer to the stadium got a positive bump on the announcement, while properties farther out saw a negative effect — and after the stadium opened, values near it rose and closed the gap. Familiar? That’s the FedExField pattern again.

Beyond that, most neighborhoods around Allegiant appreciated roughly in line with Southern Nevada as a whole. The big movement was in commercial and industrial land, not single-family homes. And there’s a sobering finding in the literature: businesses in the neighborhoods that grew fastest after the announcement were actually more likely to close — early speculation raised costs faster than demand arrived.

The Battery and Titletown: the model that works

Here’s where the data stops being ambiguous. The Battery Atlanta, the Braves’ mixed-use district next to Truist Park, saw taxable property value go from about $5 million in 2014 to $736 million by 2022. The Braves pulled roughly $97 million in real estate revenue in 2025 alone, up 45% year over year. The Packers’ Titletown district next to Lambeau put about 220 residences, offices, retail, and public park space on 45 acres — a place people use in February, not just in September.

Notice what those two have in common, and what Inglewood shares with them: housing and daily-use commercial development integrated into the site. The stadium is the anchor tenant. The district is the product.

Rental ROI: real, but smaller than the hype

Let’s talk honestly about the investor angle, because this is where people lose money by doing napkin math.

The event premiums are real. For Super Bowl LX in Santa Clara, short-term rentals within 10 miles of Levi’s Stadium captured 30–37% rate premiums, while listings 45 miles out in San Francisco managed only 5.6% over baseline. Proximity absolutely prices. But the same market data shows Santa Clara’s median annual short-term rental revenue at about $7,266 — average around $18,296. Those spike weekends do not carry a mortgage by themselves.

Here’s the math nobody wants to run: an NFL team plays eight or nine regular-season home games. Add a preseason game and a playoff game in a good year. That’s maybe ten to eleven premium weekends out of fifty-two. A Super Bowl or a World Cup is a once-in-a-decade windfall, not a business model.

So where’s the actual return? Three places. The long-term rent premium — that up-to-9% figure within a mile is the durable number, because it’s driven by jobs and amenities, not by kickoff. Density upzoning around stadium districts, which is where small multifamily and land plays get made. And the arrival of daily-use retail and transit, which is what makes a neighborhood rentable to people who have never watched a football game in their lives.

And underwrite the friction, always: game-day traffic, parking spillover, noise, and — critically — short-term rental regulation. In our market, D.C.’s STR rules are restrictive and Prince George’s County has its own licensing requirements. Buy a property whose model only works if you can rent it nightly, and a single council vote can erase your thesis.

What this means right here in the DMV

We are living through the exact scenario the research describes, on both ends.

Northwest Stadium in Landover has anchored Prince George’s County since 1997. Tu’s study told us it closed a value gap rather than creating a boom — and the surrounding land never got the integrated district treatment that Inglewood, Atlanta, and Green Bay received. That’s the honest lesson: the site was never allowed to become more than a parking lot with a building in the middle.

The RFK Campus project in D.C. is being designed the other way. The plan calls for a roughly 65,000-seat roofed stadium on an approximately 180-acre campus between the Anacostia River and the Kingman Park and Hill East neighborhoods, with 5,000 to 6,000 new homes — at least 30% of them affordable — as part of the master plan. Groundbreaking is targeted for fall or winter 2026, with the stadium opening in fall 2030. Boosters project 30,000 construction jobs and 2,000 permanent ones.

Whether every projection lands, the structure is the one that historically correlates with appreciation: housing plus retail plus transit, not a stadium standing alone. Hill East, Kingman Park, Carver-Langston, River Terrace, and Deanwood are the blocks I’d be watching, and so are the Blue and Silver Line corridors running back into P.G. County.

For Prince George’s, there’s a second story: what happens to the Landover site once the team is gone. That land, freed up and properly master-planned, may end up being the bigger opportunity for our clients than the stadium ever was. Redevelopment sites with that much acreage and that much transit access don’t come along often.

What to actually do with this

If you’re buying near a proposed stadium, buy the neighborhood, not the announcement. Ask whether the plan includes housing and daily-use retail — if it’s a bowl and a parking lot, expect market-rate appreciation and nothing more. And check the timeline honestly: the RFK stadium opens in 2030. That’s a hold, not a flip.

If you’re selling in an impact zone, know that announcement bumps are usually front-loaded and then flat for years. Don’t wait for a payday that the data says arrives slowly, if at all.

If you’re investing, underwrite on long-term rent and neighborhood fundamentals. Treat game-day and event revenue as upside, never as the base case. And read the STR ordinance before you read the pro forma.

The bottom line

Does an NFL stadium increase nearby home values? Modestly, sometimes, and mostly by closing an existing discount rather than creating a premium. Does a well-designed stadium district — with housing, retail, jobs, and transit — increase them? The data there is much stronger.

The stadium gets the headlines. The district builds the wealth.

If you own near one of these sites, or you’re thinking about buying near one, let’s sit down and look at your specific block, your specific timeline, and your specific numbers. General research is useful. A plan for your property is better.

Reginald “Reggie” Butler Jr. Broker/Owner, CENTURY 21 ENVISION 240-232-7005 | 240-938-1244 reggiebutler333@gmail.com

Sources

• Tu, C.C. (2005). “How Does a New Sports Stadium Affect Housing Values? The Case of FedEx Field.” Land Economics 81(3), 379–395. https://le.uwpress.org/content/81/3/379
• Trulia Research, “Field Position: Does An NFL Stadium Boost Your Home Value?” https://www.trulia.com/research/nfl-stadium/
• Bisnow, “The Truth About NFL Stadiums And Property Values.” https://www.bisnow.com/national/news/commercial-real-estate/how-do-nfl-stadiums-affect-property-prices-55529
• LeadingRE, “The Intersection of Sports Stadiums and Real Estate.” https://www.leadingre.com/mediaroom/2024/01/05/the-intersection-of-sports-stadiums-and-real-estate-a-complex-game
• Los Angeles Times / AOL, “‘A crisis for renters’: Football sent Inglewood home prices and rents skyrocketing.” https://www.aol.com/news/football-came-inglewood-home-prices-130044622.html
• NBC News, “Inglewood home prices soaring near SoFi Stadium.” https://www.nbcnews.com/business/super-bowl-inglewood-california-home-prices-soaring-sofi-stadium-rcna14240
• Jewell, T., “An Impact Evaluation of Stadium Construction on Local Economies.” SSRN. https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=4990128
• Nevada Current, “Will Raiders football hike your home value?” https://nevadacurrent.com/2019/11/11/will-raiders-football-hike-your-home-value/
• Cobb County, “2026 Truist Park and The Battery Update.” https://www.cobbcounty.gov/news/2026-truist-park-battery-update
• Sportico, “Atlanta Braves’ Real Estate Revenue From the Battery Surges.” https://www.sportico.com/leagues/baseball/2026/atlanta-braves-battery-revenue-surges-main-street-1234885613/
• RCLCO, “Titletown Mixed-Use Development Case Study.” https://www.rclco.com/case_studies/ree-case-study-strategic-market-analysis-for-titletown-mixed-use-development/
• AirROI, “Super Bowl 2026 Airbnb Data: Bay Area STR Demand and Pricing.” https://www.airroi.com/blog/super-bowl-2026-airbnb-impact
• RentalScaleUp, “Super Bowl LX Short-Term Rentals.” https://www.rentalscaleup.com/super-bowl-lx-short-term-rentals/
• National Capital Planning Commission, “New Stadium at RFK Campus — Project Synopsis, Feb 2026.” https://www.ncpc.gov/files/projects/2026/8721_New_Stadium_at_RFK_Campus_Project_Synopsis_Feb2026.pdf
• NBC Washington, “FAQ: Inside the $3B plan for a Commanders stadium in DC.” https://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/faq-inside-the-3b-plan-for-a-commanders-stadium-in-dc-and-the-pushback/3901801/
• WTOP, “Feedback period on RFK Campus master plan set to close soon.” https://wtop.com/dc/2026/08/dc-residents-running-out-of-time-to-give-feedback-on-master-plan-surrounding-future-commanders-stadium/