Once you install the plugin, you can embed our Neighborhood Map in any post by typing a shortcode like this:

[walk-score-map address="3503 NE 45th St. Seattle WA 98105"]

 
The  shortcode above will display a map like this:

 

 
Give it a try and then rate our plugin on the WordPress site!

WordPress Trivia: Did you know WordPress powers 22 out of every 100 new websites in the United States? Wow!

Below is a screenshot from the front page of Yahoo! Real Estate in Japan.  See the big picture of a train?

Picking the subway line or subway station near where you’d like to live is the primary way to search for a home or apartment on many Japanese real estate websites.  Picking the subway line comes before picking your price range, before picking the number of bedrooms, before picking a neighborhood, etc.  Exotic, isn’t it?!

Search by Subway Line - Front Page of Yahoo! Real Estate Japan

Here I’ve selected the Yamanote line to search for properties.  Real estate near the Yamanote line is desirable and expensive (more on why below).

Now I can select the subway stations on the Yamanote line where I’d like to search for real estate.

Search for Properties by Subway Station

Now I see the list of properties near the subway stations I’ve selected.

And drum roll please…  each property shows the walking distance to the nearest subway station!

In fact, my Japanese sources (pictured at the bottom of this post) tell me that the walking distance to the nearest subway station is the thing they look at first on a real estate listing.

Property Listings Show Walking Distance to Subway Stations

What is Transit-Oriented Development?

Transit-oriented development (TOD) is mixed-use residential and commercial development designed to maximize access to public transit.  TOD is a hot topic among urban planners right now—but Japan has been doing it for decades!

Why did Japanese real estate evolve this way? It turns out that Japanese rail companies built their subway lines on land they already owned—and these same companies developed the real estate around the subway lines. This ensured that there were enough people within walking distance of the subway.  In other words, the subway lines and real estate were developed together… which is exactly transit-oriented development!

An interesting side effect of this process is that the companies who built the subway lines tended to develop similar real estate along the entire line.  For example, a luxury company would develop high-end real estate along their subway line.  This is why real estate on the Yamanote line is considered desirable and is expensive—it was developed to be luxurious!  Imagine if people in the Bay Area said, “I’ve always wanted to live on the Pittsburgh / Bay Point line.  The real estate along that line is really choice.”

Public Transit on U.S. Real Estate Listings

As more cities in the U.S. benefit from transit-oriented development (like the Seattle light rail that is being extended as I type this) we expect to see more real estate listings showing nearby transit.

Walk Score has already helped hundreds of real estate sites show nearby public transit on their listings and we’re considering making our public transit data available via an API.  Contact us if you’re interested in showing public transit on your site.

Thanks to Takeshi and Yasuo from NHK TV in Japan who came to our offices to interview us about Walk Score—little did they know I was going to interview them about Japanese real estate!

I’m @mrlerner on Twitter.

Zillow just released version 2 of the Local Market Explorer.  Improvements include support for neighborhoods and ZIPs, video embedding, and easier customization.

Download version 2 of the Local Market Explorer plugin here or read more on the Zillow blog.

Check out these sample pages on the Geek Estate Blog:

• Pearl District, Portland, OR
• Upper Eastside, New York, NY
• Los Angeles, CA

Enjoy!

So why don’t real estate sites ask for your work address and then display your commute time?  We were psyched to discover this feature on ZipRealty:

Once you set up My Places, ZipRealty shows the distance from each property to work.  This helps people reduce the time they spend commuting—which means more time with friends and family and less stress.

ZipRealty is also one of the few sites that shows transit near homes:

The simplest way to reduce your carbon footprint is to live in a walkable, transit-oriented neighborhood near where you work.  With a couple of additional search features, ZipRealty could make these homes simple to find.  And this makes me wonder, is ZipRealty the greenest real estate website?

Upset about your home’s value?  The good news is that you, your neighbors, and government can work together to make your neighborhood more walkable—and a higher Walk Score makes your home worth more.

Here’s the value of one point of Walk Score by city:

In 13 out of 15 metro areas, higher Walk Scores are directly linked to higher home values.  Homes with above-average Walk Scores are worth between $4,000 – $34,000 more than similar but less walkable homes.

So why do Las Vegas and Bakersfield have lower home prices with higher Walk Scores?  My hunch is that those sprawling cities don’t have enough walkable neighborhoods to create a price premium.  Also, in Las Vegas residents may actually pay more to be farther away from The Strip.

Read the research report and let us know what you think!

The first report by Gary Pivo (U of Arizona) and Jeffrey D. Fisher (Indiana U) was released last week and shows a 10 point increase in Walk Score increases commercial property values by 5-8%. Download the report here.

The second report by Joe Cortright and CEOs for Cities will be launching soon and revels how much one point of Walk Score is worth in different metro areas.  Stay tuned…

New features include:

• Google Street View
• Ability to customize height and layout
• Smooth map scrolling between amenities
• Faster load time (compressed JavaScript)
• Search box to look up additional Walk Scores (links to WalkScore.com)

My favorite feature is scrolling through the amenities near a property with street view turned on—you can see whether the nearby coffee shop is your kind of place!

Here’s another screenshot:

Enjoy and send any feedback our way!

Thanks to the hax0rs (that is geek for “hackers”) at M Realty in Portland, now you can!

A moving picture is worth a thousand thousand words so here is Garron Selliken from M Realty showing off their Walk Score maps:

Here’s my favorite screenshot of the feature: you can see houses for sale on top of the Walk Score heat map.  Note the difference in walkability between the Hawthorne neighborhood (green = walkable) and the Mt. Tabor neighborhood (red = less walkable).

Thanks to M Realty for being the first real estate website to integrate Walk Score heat maps!  And if you don’t know, Garron and M realty have the most tricked out mobile office in the real estate industry:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2009/04/05/walk_this_way/

“Walkability has become a buzzword in real estate, as environmentalists and “green” planners advocate compact residential neighborhoods near businesses and public transportation. And some realtors say in this difficult market, houses with high walkability scores are easier to sell: Owners can save money by walking to mass transit, and by using less gas when running errands.”

But they didn’t stop there—they also added a gorgeous search by Walk Score feature, the ability to sort results by Walk Score (powered by the Walk Score API), and a slick Walk Score Tile integration.

Sort by Walk Score and Walk Score Tile Integration

Diverse Solutions covers hundreds of MLS feeds with nearly 2.5 million active property listings.  They are also h4ck3rs (our ultimate programming compliment) of the first order: this is one of the nicest Walk Score integrations we’ve seen.  Super fast search,  great attention to detail, <gush>, <gush>.

Best of all, you can try it out right here.

Search by Walk Score, view Walk Score in property listings.