Policymakers grappling with how to meet EPA water quality standards within the Chesapeake Bay must weigh the cost of water quality restoration against the benefits accrued to nearby homeowners. Missing from this analysis are the benefits homeowners receive from increased home liquidity – or how quickly a home is sold once listed. In this paper, we exploit variation in water clarity data to examine its relationship with prices and liquidity using real estate data (2008–2015) from the Baltimore region. We find a one-foot improvement in Secchi depth, needed to meet the total maximum daily load recommendation for the central and northern portion of the Chesapeake Bay, increases housing prices by $9600, decreases time on market by 19.7 days, and reduces seller holding costs by $1280. This cost-savings is welfare-enhancing for many home sellers, especially absentee homeowners who are likely to net an additional 13.3% in water quality benefits when liquidity changes are considered alongside property value increases. Not accounting for the additional benefits and losses accrued through home liquidity suggests water quality restoration projects and damages from impairment will be undervalued.

政策制定者在切萨皮克湾如何达到 EPA 水质标准时必须权衡恢复水质的成本与附近房主的收益。该分析缺少的是房主从增加的房屋流动性中获得的好处——或者房屋上市后的销售速度。在本文中，我们利用巴尔的摩地区的房地产数据（2008-2015 年）利用水透明度数据的变化来检查其与价格和流动性的关系。我们发现 Secchi 深度提高了一英尺，需要满足切萨皮克湾中部和北部的最大每日总负荷建议，将房价提高 9600 美元，将上市时间缩短 19.7 天，并降低卖方持有成本1280 美元。这种节省的成本对许多购房者来说是一种福利，尤其是缺席房主，当考虑到流动性变化和房产价值增加时，他们可能会额外获得 13.3% 的水质收益。不考虑通过家庭流动性产生的额外收益和损失表明水质恢复项目和减值造成的损害将被低估。