Walkable Neighborhoods Benefit Property Values

Walkable areas are more prosperous in cities all around the country, a report from Foot Traffic Ahead concludes.

1 minute read

June 27, 2019, 2:00 PM PDT

By Casey Brazeal @northandclark


walkable street

Dewita Soeharjono / Flickr

Walkable areas are more prosperous than non-walkable areas in cities, according to the "Foot Traffic Ahead," report. The connection between density and prosperity might not be a surprise, but the extent of the connection might be surprising. "It’s not a trend confined to coastal cities; it’s on the rise in the Rust Belt, the Sun Belt, tech metropolises, government centers, innovation centers, and millennial magnets,” Patrick Sisson reports for Curbed.

Denser more walkable neighborhoods are continuing to become yet more dense and represent a larger share of the city’s wealth. "In Dallas, a poster child for sprawl, the 38 WalkUPs comprise 0.10 percent of metro land area, but 12 percent of metro GDP," Sisson writes.

Low-density areas with segregated building types lack the flexibility that denser areas have, the report argues, giving more walkable areas an advantage.

Monday, June 24, 2019 in Curbed

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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