The article was useless. They could have showed asylums, prisons and liquor stores built during 1996-2006, you know, the year that housing prices peaked and said it had no effect on housing prices.
The article is comparing < 2000 feet away to < 4000 feet away home prices. So, any broader market trend is accounted for.
Doesn't really matter when they use booming housing prices from over a decade ago to justify their cooked statistics.
Yes, it does. By comparing them to teach other, the broader trend in the housing market is held constant. They may be making other errors, but this isn't one of them.
I'm sure they have other decades they could use, but they choose the time right when the housing boomed and right before it burst. I doubt the prices had anything to do with affordable housing, and more with other factors that could have easily negated it.