Walkscore and Home Values

This post originally appeared on Orphan Road.

Pretty neat to see this study, showing that a home’s Walk Score is correlated with a higher value. Depending on the city, one’s home can be worth almost $3,000 more for every Walk Score point. In Seattle, it’s $1,413.

Matt Yglesias comments, “though Walk Score is a fun tool, the methodology is far from perfect, and you would almost certainly see a stronger walkability/value correlation if you had a better metric for walkability.”

That’s true. Walk Score’s laughably wrong about some things (the bodega around the corner from my house is not a “grocery store”), but it’s a great idea that can only be made greater.