Underpaid Genius

The future of cities is walkable neighborhoods and small homes:

Jillian Glover, Microcities: The Rise of the Mini Home and the Walkable Neighbourhood | This Big City

North American demographics, car buying trends and real estate market research are all converging to prove what the urban planning community has been touting for years: the home of the future is small and in a walkable community.

America’s National Association of Realtors’ 2011 Community Preference Survey found that 58 percent of respondents indicated a preference for “a neighborhood with a mix of houses and stores and other businesses within an easy walk.”

This makes sense considering demographic trends. According to a recent Atlantic Cities article, the two largest generations – the Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) and Millennials (born 1981-2000) - are reducing the share of total households with children, traditionally the portion of the market most interested in suburban homes with sizeable lots for kids to play in and grownups to maintain. Neither the Millennials with their preference for urban lifestyles nor the empty-nesting Boomers fit that suburban home market to nearly the same degree as their parents did. According to a recent article by Patrick Doherty of the New America Foundation:

Boomers and millennials, the two largest demographic groups in the country, are converging in a time-of-life moment where what they want is smaller homes on smaller lots in walkable, service-rich, transit-oriented communities. Boomers, who have just started turning 65, are empty-nesting and downsizing. Millennials are in the process of getting married and having kids, and according to market surveys, 77 percent simply don’t ever want to go back to the ‘burbs.

Who would?

I find that I am walking more and hardly ever driving — except for a weekly shopping trip, or buying lumber. But it’s not just about decreasing gas use: walking is good for us, healthwise, and at a neighborhood level, financially.

A Data-Driven Case for Walkability - Kaid Benfeild via The Atlantic Cities

• A one-point increase in Walk Score [based on number of destinations within a short distance] is associated with between a $700 and $3,000 increase in home values. [CEOs for Cities, 2009]

• A 10-point increase in Walk Score increases commercial property values by 5 percent to 8 percent. [University of Arizona &Indiana University, 2010]
• Homes in walkable urban neighborhoods have experienced less than half the average decline in price from the housing peak in the mid-2000s. [Brookings Institution, 2011] (See also this analysis.)

My town, Beacon NY, is pretty walkable, although there is more work to be done. And we need some parks in the central area of town, too, which is one of the things I am going to put some energy into.