How does walk score work

To calculate a Transit Score, we assign a "usefulness" value to nearby transit routes based on the frequency, type of route rail, bus, etc. The "usefulness" of all nearby routes is summed and normalized to a score between 0 - View a map of where we provide Transit Score — or for a full Transit Score geek out, read the detailed Transit Score methodology.

Find apartments in the highest transit ranking U. Bike Score measures whether an area is good for biking. For a given location, a Bike Score is calculated by measuring bike infrastructure lanes, trails, etc. Find apartments in the most bikeable large U. Find real estate in Portland , San Francisco , and Denver. The Crime Grade measures your personal violent crime risk and property crime risk near an address on an A - D scale using a patent-pending system.

Our crime data is imported directly from police departments. To compute the Crime Grade we aggregate crimes near an address and weight them by severity and distance. We calculate a per capita crime rate for an address based on the resident and worker population in the area. Crime rates are then compared against city-wide rates and converted into a letter grade.

To rank cities and neighborhoods, we calculate the Walk Score of approximately every city block technically a grid of latitude and longitude points spaced roughly feet apart. All the places in your community that are in easy walking distance from your location home, school, office or wherever you consider your home base to be is your walkshed.

A walkshed usually extends less than one mile from your home base, and the more places there are for you to walk to, the better. A well-stocked walkshed includes a variety of things, from parks and other public spaces to retail stores, restaurants, libraries and other services.

How do you know how good your walkshed is? Aside from giving it a test walk, the walkability of a neighborhood can be rated with a walk score and ranked by a Web site called Walk Score. Let's find out how Walk Score works, next. Using a patent-pending algorithm , Walk Score establishes neighborhood boundaries using data from the real estate information Web site Zillow, calculates the distances from your entered location to amenities in your walkshed via Google Maps, and weighs in the population density information from the census.

Based on these three fold criteria, Walk Score ranks an address with a score between zero and being the best. Amenities within 0.

Places farther than one mile 1. Scores are broken into five categories. The most desirable scores are between 70 and is considered a walkers' paradise where residents don't need to own a car; is very walkable and residents probably don't need a car. Below 70 and you get into the neighborhoods that are somewhat walkable but probably necessitate public transportation, a bike or a car for getting around. A score below 50 means the community is car-dependent, and a score below 25 means residents need to drive everywhere.

A few caveats about scoring: Walk Score depends on the available data sources. If it doesn't know about the Starbucks located just across the street from your house, it can't include it in its rankings. Luckily, you have the opportunity to add missing community amenities to Google's Local Search API and in doing so, increase your walk score rank. Walk Score is also blind to some important details -- it doesn't include such factors as topography, street design, available public transportation or bodies of water in its rankings.

A Clever Partner Agent will find you an area that matches your lifestyle. It's no secret that owning a car can take make a huge dent in your monthly paycheck.

Potential home buyers may desire a home with a high walk score because they'd like to ditch the car and save on gas, maintenance, and insurance. Also keep in mind, when it comes to future resale, the higher the walk score, the higher the home value. Not only will your body and mind thank you, so will your wallet. While walkscore. In an effort to supplement data from walkscore. This database also accounts for residential proximity to walkable places but color-codes walkability in an effort to show how close certain streets are from very walkable zones.

For example, walkscore. NWI lets users see a more thorough picture of an entire city's walkability. If walkability is of the utmost importance to you, it's vital that you gather data from multiple points for a more holistic walk score. Use the NWI and walkscore. If you haven't already, take the time to stroll through the area, noting what types of retail and restaurants are within a few square miles.

For home buyers that prefer the freedom four wheels can offer, look for a neighborhood that sits somewhere in the middle. However, if you want to be free of all burdens associated with automobile ownership, a big city is your best bet.

A knowledgeable realtor will offer guidance and support throughout your real estate transaction. Clever Partner Agents are experts and know their localities in and out. Partner Agents are in the know about hot neighborhoods, new restaurants, infrastructure projects, and other considerations that could positively or negatively affect a home's walk score.

Contact Clever today and speak with a local Partner Agent. If you don't love your Clever partner agent, you can request to meet with another, or shake hands and go a different direction. We offer this because we're confident you're going to love working with a Clever Partner Agent. Best of Best low commission real estate companies.