The data was pulled from Walkscore.com (this particular link should lead you to a page showing that Washington City Paper‘s Adams Morgan office possesses a sky high score of 97 out of 100).
Here’s how the paper’s author analyzed Walkscore’s numbers (as described by the New York Times):
It looked at the sales of 90,000 homes in 15 markets to estimate how much value was associated with something called the Walk Score. Using a 100-point scale, this score rates the number of destinations, including libraries, parks and coffee shops, within walking distance of a home.
And here’s what the study found:
The study found that houses with above-average Walk Scores commanded a premium. It was as much as $30,000 in cities like Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Sacramento and San Francisco, wrote Joe Cortright, the study’s author and an economist at Impresa, a consulting firm in Portland, Ore.
But beyond these revelations, I would just enourage you to spend some solid time procrastinating on Walkscore.com. I know I did: Childhood home in Bethesda (Walk Score 75); College dorm in Houston Texas (Walk Score 72); First home in D.C. in Columbia Heights (Walk Score 95); Second home in D.C. near U Street (Walk Score 91).
Ahhhh backsliding a bit toward the end there.
Image by Birdfreak.com, Flickr Creative Commons Attribution License