Archive for the ‘ Real Estate ’ Category

Serving 4 Million+ Scores Daily

Here are some fun facts from a remarkable 2011:

• Launched the world’s first apartment search by commute time
• 10,000+ sites using our Neighborhood Map
• 100 million views of the Neighborhood Map
• Showing 4 million+ scores per day
• Ranked 2,500 U.S. cities on walkability
• And launched the Neighborhood Flyer, Commute Reports, mobile sites, and too many other features to count.

 

Matt Lerner Named 100 Most Influential People in Real Estate

Matt Named One of the 100 Most Influential People in Real Estate

We were honored that our co-founder and CTO Matt Lerner was named one of the 100 most influential people in real estate by Inman News.

Happy New Year From Walk Score!

Wish you could spend less time in your car? Our new Apartment Search features are for you!

Search by Multiple Commute Times

Just six weeks ago we launched apartment search by commute time. Now we’ve added the ability to search by multiple commutes.

Let’s say you bike to work downtown and your spouse or roommate takes the bus to school.  Walk Score finds apartments that optimize the commute of everyone in your home.  See an example commute search.

Find Apartments Near Transit

Want to find an apartment within walking distance of the subway or the express bus that goes to your office?

No problem, with our new “Near Transit” search option you can select the transit route that you’d like to live near and how far you’re willing to walk to the stop. See transit search in action.

Search by Walk Score

Whether you want to be in the heart of it all, or just don’t want to have to drive to get a cup of coffee, Apartment Search now includes the ability to search by Walk Score.

Select the Walk Score search filter and click Walker’s Paradise to find only Walk Score 90+ apartments. See Walker’s Paradise apartments in Seattle.

Did you know:

• The longer your commute, the more likely you are to be overweight, have high cholesterol and suffer from neck/back pain (Source: Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index)
• Car ownership costs are the second largest household expense in the U.S. The average household spends more on their cars than they do on food and health care. (Source: Dept. of Labor’s Bureau of Labor Statistics)
• People who live in walkable neighborhoods are happier, healthier and more likely to volunteer and entertain friends at home (Source: University of New Hampshire)

Now, with Walk Score Apartment Search you can search for apartments by commute time.

Whether you prefer driving, public transit, walking, or biking, Walk Score can help you find a commute that fits your lifestyle.

Commuting is expensive and time spent sitting in traffic is lost forever. Here are our favorite commuting stats:

• Over three quarters of home shoppers rate being within a 30 minute commute to work as important. (Source: National Association of Realtors)
• Commuters waste 4.2 billion hours and 2.8 billion gallons of gas in traffic per year. (Source: Texas Transportation Institute)
• The average American spends over $9,000 per year on their car. This is the equivalent of a $135,000 mortgage and the second largest expense for most households, costing more than food, clothing and health care. (Source: AAA)

To get started, visit walkscore.com/apartments and enter your work (or school) address, select your preferred mode of transportation, and tell us how long you’re willing to commute.

Apartment listings from craigslist are automatically sorted by estimated commute time and can be further filtered by Walk Score, price and size.

And if you don’t find what you’re looking for, we’ve integrated links to MyNewPlace and ForRent.com to search their national databases for nearby rental listings.

“Access to public transit and minimizing commute times are high-priority, quality of life issues for many renters. We’re very pleased to offer Walk Score users access to MyNewPlace’s extensive inventory of apartments and rental homes in virtually every neighborhood throughout the U.S.,” said Mark Moran, MyNewPlace SVP of Marketing.

Here’s a demo:

Find a better commute today!

Commuting costs are rising with gas prices – so it’s no wonder 75% of potential home buyers want to live within a 30 minute commute to work¹!

We just added commute costs to our Commute Map so you can help your site visitors understand how much their commute will cost in terms of time and money.

Now you can display a commute map and commute cost calculator on your website.

Try it out on our Commute Demo page and then sign up to get started.

Here are the details of how we’re calculating commute costs.  Did you know transportation is the second largest expense for American households²?

Today we’re announcing a free Walk Score WordPress Plugin that makes it easy to showcase the location of a property in your WordPress blog.

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!

We’re excited to announce that now over 10,000 real estate websites are now using Walk Score Professional. This represents a 250% increase over the past year. Read the official press release.

Now Serving 4 Million Scores Daily

Walk Score Professional real estate marketing tools include:

• The Walk Score Neighborhood Map: An interactive map widget that includes nearby amenities, commute times, and public transit.
• The Walk Score Neighborhood Flyer: A low-cost way to showcase the location of a property, the Neighborhood Flyer is easy to customize, share online and print for clients.
• Walk Score APIs: Enable software developers to integrate Walk Score and public transit data into their web and mobile applications.

“Walk Score is helping us to better meet REALTOR® and consumer demand for walkable places to live,” said Russ Bergeron, CEO of MRED, the nation’s largest MLS.  “Serving the Chicagoland area we know how important walkability is to the people who live here – whether they are in downtown Chicago, or in a small town like Naperville. When given the choice, most people prefer to be within walking distance of public transportation, restaurants, shops, and other local businesses.  And with gas prices at current levels, walkable neighborhoods and shorter commutes have become even more important.”

Thanks from the Walk Score team to all of our partners who helped us hit this milestone!

Over three quarters of home shoppers rate being within a 30 minute commute to work as important (source NAR).

Now it’s even easier to show commute times on your real estate listings with the Walk Score Amenity Map.

We’ve made the commute search box easier to find on our Amenity Map:

And you can set the default view of the Amenity Map to commute:

My bike commute to Walk Score HQ. It keeps me sane!

Hot off the virtual press! Today is the official launch of our newest product, the Walk Score Neighborhood Flyer.

Designed to offer real estate professionals a low-cost way to showcase the location of a property, the Neighborhood Flyer is easy to customize, share online, and print for open houses. Ideal for:

• Homes
• Apartments
• Hotels
• Events

For just five dollars per property, you can customize an online flyer that can be downloaded as a print-quality PDF (print as many copies as you want) and get a web link that you can share with clients or post online.

The Neighborhood Flyer is also available as a co-branded service for brokerage firms and we’re pleased to announce a partnership with John L. Scott Real Estate to offer the Walk Score Neighborhood Flyer to their agents. (See official press release.)

Design options allow you to personalize the flyer and choose the amenity categories that showcase what is great about a property’s neighborhood. For example, a broker who is listing a loft in an urban center may want to list restaurants and shopping while a listing in a more bucolic neighborhood might feature schools and parks.

“No matter where the home is, brokers now have a way to showcase what’s great about the neighborhood around it.” says J. Lennox Scott, John L. Scott Chairman and CEO.

Let us know what you think.

Did you know that the Walk Score Amenity Map now includes Bing Bird’s Eye View, Google Street View, and our walkability heatmaps?

Personally, I’ve always loved Street View and Bird’s Eye view—but I find it tedious to navigate around a neighborhood with them.  With Walk Score, you can just click on a category like “Coffee” and then click on each coffee shop to see it in Street View or Bird’s Eye view.  It’s an easy way to tour the neighborhood!

Go to our Amenity Map and then click the Street View button in the top right to see these new views in action.

Street View of Pike Place Market

Bird's Eye View of Pike Place Market

Walk Score Walkability Map

Just two months ago we shared that the Walk Score Professional network had passed 6,000 sites and we are thrilled to say that Walk Score Professional is now being used by over 8,000 sites. Wow! And thank you!

Why is Walk Score growing so fast? A recent study conducted by the National Association of Realtors indicated that commute times (we launched custom Commute Reports in February) and places to walk are two of the top three community characteristics for home shoppers. As NAR president Ron Phipps said, “many home buyers want walkable, transit-accessible communities.” Walkability matters!

But don’t take our word for it. Here’s what some Walk Score Professional sites have to say:

“For my buyers, walkability is almost equal to price as the most important criterion.” Stephanie Somers, Realtor at RE/MAX Access

“Walk Score increases engagement on our site.” Michael D’Alba, Director of Business Development, ForRent.com

“We implemented Walk Score in hours. It was significantly cheaper than building something similar ourselves.” Mark Silva, Development Lead, ZipRealty.com

“Walk Score helps us deliver more qualified leads for landlords.” Mark Moran, VP of Marketing, MyNewPlace.com

Add Walk Score Professional to your site today!