Walk Score adds 2500 more cities, affects real estate industry

Using a 100-point scale to score the walkability of neighborhoods, WalkScore.com was launched in 2007 by a pair of former Microsoft employees in an effort to highlight and promote walkable neighborhoods. Anna Altic wrote here in May that homes that are considered walkable sell for $4,000 to $34,000 more than those that are not. Buyers seeking walkability is not a trendy move, it is becoming a mainstream request.

Having launched already in 40 cities, major metro areas are used to referring to Walk Scores, and WalkScore.com just announced launching in 2,500 additional cities, bringing 6,000 neighborhoods live for search.

WalkScore.com scores are so important to buyers now that even IDX providers have begun featuring Walk Scores on every listing automatically in cities where it has been available, as seen below:

If you are preparing a listing for market and it is highly walkable, consider checking out its Walk Score and featuring that as a selling point. It’s no longer a subjective matter that a home is “near” everything buyers want, but it can be calculated for consumers. Blogging about the Walk Scores of your hyperlocal market makes for great content and writing about *why* the areas are highly walkable shows your value above other Realtors who blog about nonsense that buyers don’t care about.

How will you take Walk Scores into account?