Abstract
Most of the hedonic literature treats the housing market as a single geographical entity. We use a database with precise information on home characteristics at a property level to show that this is not always correct. We also exploit a refinery closure to address locational sorting and all other unobserved attributes. Refinery closure is associated with an approximately 1.5 µg per cubic metre decrease in SO2 air pollution, and refinery closure leads to a 6.7% increase in property values with at least 5 rooms or a benefit of approximately 457 million for these households; however, it leads to 28% declines in property values in Dunkirk with one room or a loss of approximately 1 billion for these households.