The Walkability Premium

How much more would you pay for a home that is within walking distance of a grocery store, a library, or your workplace? A new nationwide survey finds that people were willing to pay from $4,000 to $34,000 for homes in walkable neighborhoods, and that people throughout the USA find walkable neighborhoods a premium home feature.

You can check the walkability index of your own neighborhood -- or one where you're thinking about buying -- on the website walkscore.com. That site not only gives information at the neighborhood level, it also ranks the most walkable cities in the US. The top 10 are:

1. San Francisco, CA
2. New York, NY
3. Boston, MA
4. Chicago, IL
5. Philadelphia, PA
6. Seattle, WA
7. Washington D.C.
8. Long Beach, CA
9. Los Angeles, CA
10. Portland, OR

What makes a place walkable? "The cities at the top of the Walk Score rankings have density, mixed use, transit, short blocks—and almost everything else on our walkability checklist," the website says. "Most importantly, these cities have lots of destinations near each address, which is the strongest indicator of whether people walk."

The website has done detailed workups only on the 40 largest US cities, so no Olympia stats, (though you can look up your walkability score no matter where you live). In Seattle, the top neighborhoods for walkers are:

1 Pioneer Square
2 Downtown
3 First Hill
4 Belltown
5 Roosevelt
6 International District
7 South Lake Union
8 University District
9 Lower Queen Anne
10 Wallingford

Happy walking!