This post was written by Aleece Smith, MPC research assistant.
In his blog post last week, MPC’s Peter Skosey mentioned a recent CEOs for Cities report that sheds light on the link between walkable neighborhoods and home values. The report, Walking the Walk, concluded that homes located in neighborhoods with a mix of common daily shopping and social destinations within a short distance command a price premium over similar homes in less walkable areas. Houses with above-average levels of walkability can go for up to $34,000 more than houses with just average levels of walkability!
Walking the Walk compared neighborhoods with varying Walk Scores in 15 metropolitan areas. Controlling for key characteristics of individual homes (e.g. house size, age, type) and neighborhoods (e.g. distance to jobs, neighborhood income), the analysis revealed that in 13 of the 15 housing markets, increases in home sale price were directly related to the neighborhood’s walkability. In the typical market, an additional one point increase in Walk Score over the average Walk Score for the metropolitan area was associated with between a $700 and $3,000 increase in home values.
Consumers are attaching a positive value to living within easy walking distance of shopping, services, schools and parks. If your neighborhood isn’t as walkable as you would like, take some action! MPC’s Placemaking Chicago has helped Chicago residents envision how to turn their neighborhoods into spaces that make a stroll through them more pleasant.
Want to learn how Chicago and cities around the world are promoting walkability? Join MPC at noon on April 21 for Talking the Walk: The Importance of Pedestrian Friendly Public Spaces. This lunch roundtable will feature Sam Schwartz of Sam Schwartz Engineering, John Tolva from IBM, and Joe Gonzalez from DeStefano + Partners. Register here to reserve a spot!