Jun. 30, 2008 - HAVE YOU CHECKED OUT YOUR WALK SCORE? HAVE YOUR CLIENTS?
My current home's walk score is 74 (very walkable), my office's score is 100 (walker's paradise), and the score for the home where I'm looking to move is 97.
What is your walk score? What are your listing's walk scores?
First things first--what exactly is a walk score? According the the website www.walkscore.com: A walk score helps people find walkable places to live. Walk score calculates the walkability of an address by locating nearby stores, restaurants, schools, parks, etc. Walk score measures how easy it is to live a car-lite lifestyle—not how pretty the area is for walking.
Now, walk score does not count every single business within a one-mile radius. Instead, it calculates the distance to the nearest business from a list of common categories. For instance: restaurants, grocery stores, and (vitally important for most Seattleites) coffee shops. Points are given based on the distance to these businesses, then calculates an average score. 90-100 (walker's paradise), 70-90 (very walkable), 50-70 (somewhat walkable), 25-50 (not walkable), and 0-25 (driving only).
The most walkable neighborhoods are calculated by applying the walk score algorithm block by block throughout the city. The walk scores are weighted by population density using the 2000 Census and then grouped into neighborhood boundaries as provided by Zillow.
The most significant impact of this tool will be when REALTORS start displaying the walk scores on their property listings similar to other community features such as local school information. As this gains acceptance over time, consumers will begin to place greater emphasis on factors such a centrally-based compact neighboorhoods and less on attributes like square footage when shopping for a new home.
And if the gang at Walk Score have their way, it will help to imporve our overall health and less our dependance on foriegn oil. Not a bad thing indeed.
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