Is Coffee Within Walking Distance? Check your walkability score.

If you have ever lived in a highly walkable neighborhood, you already know what a beautiful thing it is. Walkable communities are happier, healthier, safer, cleaner, and greener.

A truly walkable neighborhood offers convenient access to the daily destinations of life. If you?re lucky, you can walk to school or work. If you?re even luckier, there are groceries, a decent bakery, and a good cup of coffee within walking distance.

A premium coffee vendor signals that a neighborhood has arrived, that it has economic vitality and cultural momentum that can continue to snowball into something greater. Realtors and civic associations even refer to this type of upswing as the ‘Starbucks Effect.’ And we’re not just talking about fuzzy, quality of life issues; there is usually a real increase in property values when a neighborhood acquires food-related amenities.

You can find the walkability rating of any home or business at Walk Score. Relying heavily on Zillow and Google Maps data, Walk Score’s algorithm awards points based on the closest amenities to an address, then calculates an overall  score from 0?100, with 100 rated a Walker’s Paradise, and 0 being totally Car-Dependent. It becomes possible to live without a car somewhere upward from 80 points. A study conducted by CEOs for Cities quantified the homeowner value of Walk Score, estimating that each point adds $3,000 to a home’s sales price.

After you’ve checked YOUR Walk Score, see how it matches up against some of these well-known residences:

The Obama’s former Chicago residence has a middling Walk Score of 71. The move to the White House got them into a home with the very robust score of 97.

The Brady Bunch ranch house had a Walk Score of 74; very respectable for the San Fernando Valley.

Monica’s lower Manhattan apartment on Friends scores an unbeatable 100 points.

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