I just lifted this quote from the walkscore website because their explanation is way better than mine about what a transit score is.
“Transit score is a measure of how well a location is served by public transit. Transit Scores are based on schedule data released in a standard format by public transit agencies. To calculate a Transit Score, we assign a “usefulness” value to nearby transit routes based on the frequency, type of route (rail, bus, etc.), and distance to the nearest stop on the route. The “usefulness” of all nearby routes is summed and we normalize this to a score between 0 – 100.”
I feel like this is really unique tool for agents to use, especially in cities with great public transit systems. There is a widget for the transit score should you wish to have it on your website but it appears there is some cost affiliated with it. There are heat maps for particular neighborhoods and even some estimates on what transportation would cost in some of those areas which would be extremely helpful in evaluating a “hidden” cost of home ownership. My city is not yet represented but you can ask to have your city signed up here.
I am certainly starting to see folks become more interested in this issue as Americans are starting to see the light that being completely dependant on vehicles is not only expensive, it’s not healthy. Hopefully this will give you some additional tools in your bag to provide relevant data should this question come up in your area.
