This is a reposting of of a blog post by Shaun McElhatton from the CREtrends.com, a blog about commercial real estate published by Leonard Street & Deinard. They have many interesting postings about commercial real estate. I would encourage you to check them out at www.cretrends.com.
A new Brookings Institution study suggests that walkability increases values for both for-sale and rental housing, as well as office and retail real estate. The study concludes that office, residential, and retail rents, retail revenues, and for-sale residential home prices all increase faster in walkable communities than in communities where walking is more difficult. The study also finds that rents and home values increase even more quickly in areas where walkable communities are clustered together to form walkable districts. While the study is based on Washington, D.C. real estate rental and sales data, in a related New York Times editorial, one of the study’s authors argues that data from Seattle, Columbus and Denver support the study’s conclusions.
