Moving Near A Green Space Better Than Hitting the Lottery?

Researchers in the UK have documented surprisingly positive long-term effects of moving near an urban green space:

UK researchers found moving to a green space had a sustained positive effect, unlike pay rises or promotions, which only provided a short-term boost.

[P]eople do all sorts of things to make them happier: they strive for promotion at work, pay rises, they even get married. "But the trouble with all those things is that within six months to a year, they are back to their original baseline levels of well-being. So these things are not sustainable; they do not make us happy in the long-term. We found that within a group of lottery winners who had won more than £500,000 that the positive effect was definitely there but after six months to a year, they were back to the baseline." 

Dr. White said his team wanted to see whether living in greener urban areas had a lasting positive effect on people's sense of well-being or whether the effect also disappeared after a period of time. [...] Explaining what the data revealed, he said: "What you see is that even after three years, mental health is still better which is unlike many of the other things that we think will make us happy."