New Report: Walkability Tied to Home Values
By Jon Whiten • Sep 3rd, 2009 • Category: Blog, NewsA new report by the group CEO for Cities reinforces what many urban planners have known for years: the more walkable a neighborhood is, the higher it’s home prices will be.
The report, “Walking the Walk: How Walkability Raises Housing Values in U.S. Cities,” analyzed data from 94,000 real estate transactions in 15 major markets provided by ZipRealty and found that in 13 of the 15 markets, higher levels of walkability, as measured by Walk Score, were directly linked to higher home values.
“These findings are significant for policy makers,” said Carol Coletta, president and CEO of CEOs for Cities said in a statement. “They tell us that if urban leaders are intentional about developing and redeveloping their cities to make them more walkable, it will not only enhance the local tax base but will also contribute to individual wealth by increasing the value of what is, for most people, their biggest asset.”
Unfortunately, the study did not look at Jersey City. But using Walkscore, it’s easy to see that the study’s results play out in Chilltown too.
The highest rated ZIP code in Jersey City, in terms of walkability, was 07302, the downtown area that features the city’s most valuable homes and condominiums. It scored 95 out of 100, earning it a designation as a Walker’s Paradise.
The only other Jersey City ZIP code to receive that high score from Walkscore was 07306, which makes up the Journal Square area — and which is seeing quickly rising home prices.
This isn’t to say that the rest of the city didn’t do well on the Walkscore test. The other four residential ZIP codes in the city were all deemed Very Walkable (07310 scored 86 out of 100; 07304 scored 85; 07307 scored 83 and 07305 scored 80) — and all feature relatively high home prices (when compared with the rest of the country).
Back to the study for a second. Problem with it is that it treats higher home values as an inherent positive. Sure, that might be good for homeowners, but what about the rest of us? What about the many Jersey City residents who can’t afford to live in the walkable neighborhoods and either have to resort to automobile travel or more unreliable forms of transit?
“We can’t forget that even though higher market price is presented as a positive within the study, ensuring equity in who can benefit from walkable neighborhoods is another social good,” writes Smart Growth America’s Sara Wolfson. “Walkability is great; walkability that everyone can afford is much better.”
Hear, hear. But how? For starters, we turn to another blogger, Clark Williams-Derry of Sightline, who calls for “policies that are designed to increase the supply of homes in walkable neighborhoods,” noting that such a move is “good for affordability, good for reducing transportation costs, and a great way to help more people add walking to their daily routines.”
What do you think? How can we make the city sustainable in terms of access (to shops, transit, etc.) and in terms of affordability?
You can check out the full report here.
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Jon Whiten is the founding editor of the Jersey City Independent.
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the downtown is not a walker’s paradise. it is more like a walker’s obstacle course.
walkscores are subjective. one man’s amenity is another man’s trash, and vice versa. not everybody is looking for the same thing when they walk, and i say that no residential neighborhood in jersey city is lousy for walkers. well, maybe the concrete divider on kennedy boulevard by the jsq path is bad. that can get you killed.
Downtown JC 07302 may be very walkable but its also very dangerous for pedestrians. Drivers who come in from out of the neighborhood (ie suburbia) treat the local streets like a highway speeding along, not stopping at Stop signs, etc. Its a dreadful mess. Just last week a Downtown JC man was struck by a car. He survived luckily and the driver’s car was totaled, mangled around a tree.
Yes Robocub, that gets into a whole ‘nother can of worms, something that the Walkscore doesn’t take into account. Walking is indeed quite dangerous in downtown Jersey City, as it is in other parts of the city. And don’t even get me started about how dangerous it is to bicycle!