(Please see a summary of the previous chapter in chapter 3, eighborhoods that will appreciate)
As summarized in this chapter, proximity to Starbucks is in fact correlated to higher house prices. But then the biggest questions are, whether Starbucks stores follow or fuel market growth, and therefore, is the market growth really an effect of Starbucks opening in an area, or a result of other criteria.
Studying price of houses within quarter a mile from Starbucks, then between quarter a mile and half a mile from Starbucks in five years after Starbucks store opened shows that house prices within quarter a mile increased by 21%, while prices within quarter to half a mile increased by 17%. So, there is a correlation.
Starbucks has in fact a team (and process) for location selection. All over the world and in different countries, their analysts investigate many factors to select new location and design for their new store. They consider it not just a science, but an art.
It should be however noticed that there have been some poor judgement about the new store location too, where Starbucks closed down the location a couple of years after opening it. But more often than not, a new Starbucks store is an indicative of higher (than average) growth in the neighborhood.
PS: see the book on Amazon at Zillow Talk: The New Rules of Real Estate or directly from Zillow at https://www.zillow.com/zillowtalk/buy/