Opponents said Colorado’s recreational marijuana shops would drive down nearby home prices, but so far buyers don’t seem discouraged at all, according to new research from the University of Wisconsin School of Business.

In fact, public records show property values have risen faster within 528 feet of medical marijuana shops that added or converted to recreational marijuana. Home values increased 8.4 percent, an average of about $27,000, since Jan. 1, 2014, when recreational pot joined the medical marketplace in Denver, That’s slightly higher than homes up to a quarter mile away. Overall home prices in Denver have risen 6 percent since legalization, a home price study cited in the paper says.

“The presence of retail marijuana establishments clearly had a short-term positive impact on nearby properties in Denver,” Moussa Diop, assistant professor of real estate and urban land economics and one of the authors of the report, said in a statement. “This suggests that in addition to the sales and business taxes generated from the retail marijuana industry, municipalities may experience an increase in property taxes. It’s an important piece of the puzzle as more and more voters and policy-makers look for evidence about the effects of legalizing recreational marijuana, as the issue is taken up by state legislatures across the country.”

Denver is experiencing an overall surge in home prices, so the study’s authors say the availability of pot within walking distance likely isn’t the only driver of higher home values, though the shops clearly aren’t discouraging buyers. It cites the potential contributions from a surge in marijuana-related employment, lower crime rates and other nearby amenities.

The report, called “Contact High: The External Effects of Retail Marijuana Establishments on House Prices,” will be published in the trade journal Real Estate Economics.

Researchers noted the limitations of their findings, including a short two-year snapshot of data since recreational legalization occurred, but the school expects its research to influence other states considering legalization.

“To our knowledge, our paper is the first to analyze the effects of retail marijuana conversions on property values at the local level,” the report states. “The results indicate that retail conversion has a large positive, but highly localized effect on property values. Understanding the relationship between house prices and retail conversion is particularly important since voters in four states voted to legalize recreational marijuana in the November 2016 election, and others are likely to follow. Voters should understand the full impact of (recreational marijuana legalization) prior to voting on the issue, including its effect on property values. Similarly, policymakers in states that adopt RML will want to know how to proceed with implementation of the laws.”