According to a new study, marijuana legalization may have a positive connection with home values within a cannabis-legal state. Cannabis has already been discussed to help with even chronic ailments, like fibromyalgia, and its legalization has been connected with a decrease in the number of opioid deaths. The study shows how, in a roundabout way, a state legalizing marijuana leads to increased home values. 

Study

The study involved the examination of data from Zillow and the U.S. Census, on top of other sources. The researchers looked at the data from 2017 to 2019 and found that the home values increased in specific states. These states are the ones that have legalized marijuana. In the years that they studied, the researchers found that home values increased $6338 more in marijuana-legal states than in the other states.

In fact, the researchers found, on average, home values increased by $470 for every $1 million increase in tax revenue. Additionally, the states that legalized the use of recreational marijuana saw the biggest increases in home values. The researchers found the states raised $17,113 more than in states where it was illegal or limited to medicinal use.

Discussion

By finding that the states with legal marijuana have increased home values, it shows that legalizing marijuana offers improvements outside of what many may have thought. This study shows that there is physical evidence proving that there is an additional benefit to legalizing as well. On top of the taxes, those funds that come from these sales also lead to improvements in other areas.

For example, Illinois, using the additional tax revenue granted by legalizing marijuana, awarded $3.5 million in grants to help reduce violence. This gives another benefit to legalizing marijuana. Specifically, members of the government could put the tax money towards causes that need them.

By improving these violent crime numbers, they may help improve the local home values. As such, by legalizing marijuana, they are showing that home values are potentially improved as a result. That said, at this time, the correlation between marijuana legalization and home value increases is tenuous at best.

Hopefully, as lawmakers come to accept legalizing cannabis as a viable option, the benefits, both medicinal and not, will become more evident.

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