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!

What's Your Home's Walk Score?

One of the reasons my wife and I choose our home was the location. It's convenient to downtown Olympia, it's on the busline, and many destinations are easily walkable. We live within a half-mile or so of three grocery stores, a dozen restaurants, tennis courts, and several parks. A movie theater, mall, banks, video stores, postal store, and bookstores are less than a mile away.

But I didn't know there was a way to quantify "walkability" until I ran across Walk Score, a website that identifies and promotes walkable neighborhoods. Their mission, the website says, is to "help homebuyers, renters, and real estate agents find houses and apartments in great neighborhoods. Walk Score shows you a map of what's nearby and calculates a Walk Score for any property. Buying a house in a walkable neighborhood is good for your health and good for the environment."

The site isn't completely accurate. I noticed that it counted two local grocery store's offices as actual stores, for example. But it gives a good overall impression of a neighborhood's walkability.

My home's walk score is 60. Which makes me wonder where you'd have to live to score 80 or 90 or 100.

I checked up on my family, of course. My mother's home has a score of just 15, but then again...she lives on lakefront property, so that's some consolation. My sister's score is 6 (yikes!). The Prudential Olympia, REALTORS office scores in at 63 (but I wouldn't want to LIVE here!).

What's your walk score?