Tag Archives: walkable homes
What is Walking Distance to You? (in Charlottesville)
“Walkable houses in Charlottesville” – one of the more frequent requests I get both from buyer clients and from visitors to this site.
But “walkable” means different things to different people.
Clarifying and pulling out buyers’ true intents is one of the most useful skills a good real estate agent brings to the table. For example, when a new buyer client tells me that he wants to be within “walking distance” of the Downtown Mall, I always follow up with:
“What is walking distance to you?”
Your response of “less than 30 minute walking distance” is why I asked … my non-American-based clients have a much more liberal definition of close (usually less than 30 minutes or 2 miles) than do my American clients (less than 10 minutes or 5 blocks).
So the question is – what does walkable mean to you?
As I do with a lot of the stories that make it to this here real estate blog, I started by asking on the social networks – Twitter, Facebook and Google+
The City of Charlottesville has a lot of highly “walkable” homes, using Walkscore as the guide, and there are an awful lot of condos in the City of Charlottesville that offer walkability.
WalkScore is Getting (even) Better
I love what WalkScore is doing – making it easier for consumers to see how walkable (I'm still waiting for bikeable) properties and areas are.
… Once the changes are live on your site (you'll notice the new iPhone style lists), you can visit our Amenity Map Wizard to see how larger sizes would look on your site.
…Our new commute reports show commute time and distance for driving, public transit, walking, and biking from a home or apartment listing to a work address.
…var ws_address = ’616 mcintire road, charlottesville, va’;var ws_width = ’600′;var ws_height = ’286′;var ws_layout = ‘horizontal’; #ws-walkscore-tile{position:relative;text-align:left}#ws-walkscore-tile *{float:none;}#ws-footer a,#ws-footer a:link{font:11px/14px Verdana,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;margin-right:6px;white-space:nowrap;padding:0;color:#000;font-weight:bold;text-decoration:none}#ws-footer a:hover{color:#777;text-decoration:none}#ws-footer a:active{color:#b14900} What's Your Walk Score? Continue reading
Walkability = Happiness – And why Does this Matter to Charlottesville Real Estate?
The authors found that individuals in more walkable neighborhoods tended to have higher levels of trust and community involvement, whether that was working on a community project, attending a club meeting, volunteering, or simply entertaining friends at home. … Walkability may also enhance social capital by providing the means and locations for individuals to connect, share information, and interact with those that they might not otherwise meet. The links we found between walkability and measures of social capital in this study provide further evidence for the consideration of social capital as a key component of quality of life.” … Because this here is a Charlottesville real estate blog, I might as well include a few links to search for homes with high WalkScores: – Walkable homes in Charlottesville and Albemarle – Most walkable homes for sale in the City of Charlottesville – Walkable homes in Crozet H/T @JessicaChapin Continue reading
Wednesday Thought – Connecting via Bike and Walking
One of the very first features desired by clients with whom I just met was “walkability” – being able to walk to stuff – grocery stores, coffee shops, parks … but there’s another aspect of walkability and bikeability that I have noticed since I started my effort to bike and walk around Charlottesville and Crozet – I’m more connected to my community . I see people more, I wave more, I see Charlottesville from a different perspective than that from a car. … This is what it looks like from my car: And this is what it looks like when walking (incidentally, I took this photo after walking my younger one to school, stopping at the Crozet Mudhouse on the way to and from): Granted, it’s just a pothole, but think about if it were a friend, or a dog, or a client, or a garden … Using Walkscore , these are some of the most walkable homes for sale in Crozet and these are some of the most walkable homes for sale in Charlottesville . Continue reading
Walkability – More than a Fad
“For the typical metropolitan area, each additional point of Walk Score was associated with a $700- to $3,000- increase in home values, after controlling for other observable factors. To give you an idea of what kind of difference that makes in the marketplace, we looked at the difference in home values between a typical house that had the 50th percentile Walk Score, compared to an otherwise identical house that had the 75th percentile Walk Score. Going from the average level of walkability to the 75th percentile raised the value of the median house by between $4,000 and about $34,000, depending on the market.”
…Even more on walkability from the New York Times : REAL estate agents often chant the mantra “location, location, location,” which essentially means “find a home in a well-kept neighborhood with good schools and a low crime rate.”
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