Walkscore

All the different ways of solving the shelter problem. To be static or mobile? Roots, legs, or wheels?
The Old Man
Posts: 503
Joined: Sat Jun 30, 2012 5:55 pm

Re: Walkscore

Post by The Old Man »

Walk Score 93
Studio apartment is $800/month
Long Beach, CA
(6 minute walk to the train, train is an hour to downtown Los Angeles)

Peanut
Posts: 551
Joined: Sat Feb 14, 2015 2:18 pm

Re: Walkscore

Post by Peanut »

Our flat is 95/82/90. I think rentals are $2/sq ft.

Seems it's all mostly just a measure of urban density, although the bike score mentions flatness of terrain (while some bikers might prefer hills?). And clearly some people might desire 1/1/1 over 100/100/100.

walker
Posts: 69
Joined: Wed Sep 17, 2014 3:46 pm

Re: Walkscore

Post by walker »

98, "walker's paradise". Yeaah! Rents are high due to proximity to NYC, but we've owned for a while so I don't know exactly how high. $2000 for a 1-bed wouldn't be unheard of. My office in downtown New York gets a perfect 100 score, and you can expect to pay $2700-3500 for a 1-bedroom apartment in that area. :shock:

I lived in a place with a 20 walkscore for a while and agree the methodology seems a bit off. I walked literally everywhere with no issues -- it's just that there weren't any sidewalks and I shared the road with cars. Every so often a driver would kindly offer me a ride, assuming my car had broken down, and then look surprised when I said no thanks.

slsdly
Posts: 380
Joined: Thu Mar 14, 2013 1:04 am

Re: Walkscore

Post by slsdly »

82. I haven't considered a new apartment in years, but it seems an equivalent two bedroom in my Toronto neighbourhood would run you for at least 1600 CAD/month with utilities. I've considered moving (one day) to other locations -- walk score of 66 in one area I liked. The scoring methodology isn't the greatest... I want choices in groceries and parks, but I could care less about the proximity of culture / entertainment.

KevinW
Posts: 959
Joined: Mon Aug 02, 2010 4:45 am

Re: Walkscore

Post by KevinW »

64 Somewhat Walkable
1BR apartments are $1400-1500 (California)

I would actually rate this neighborhood "Very Walkable." The score is being pulled down by groceries and entertainment. But like some others, there are major shopping and entertainment centers just outside of the proscribed radius, which I actually consider to be within walking and certainly biking distance. Also the site doesn't seem to know about the farmers market 1 block away, or consider the cafe where I buy my coffee beans to be "groceries."

On the other side of the coin, a friend's apartment complex that's across the highway from a car-oriented mall is in the 90s. Because technically, it's possible to walk to the mall, which has one of every kind of store. But in practice that walk would be hellacious because it's all highway underpasses and hot free-for-all parking lots.

So, these numbers are helpful as a rough ballpark. But you should probably scout out a neighborhood in person, or at least in Street View, before moving somewhere based upon them.

BPA
Posts: 150
Joined: Fri Jun 24, 2011 5:02 pm

Re: Walkscore

Post by BPA »

53

My house is worth about $230k and houses like mine can be rented for $1400/month. There are very few apartments for rent.

Like Jennypenny, the walkscore doesn't really mean much to me since I can walk to almost anything I need including work for both my brother and me. I don't own a car and have managed just fine here for over ten years.

DSKla
Posts: 240
Joined: Wed Dec 24, 2014 11:07 am

Re: Walkscore

Post by DSKla »

Moving to a new apartment soon. It's a 75. In truth, the grocery stores aren't very close, but I usually shop after work before busing home.

SallyJo
Posts: 6
Joined: Mon Mar 28, 2016 11:45 am

Re: Walkscore

Post by SallyJo »

My place has a 99 walkscore, 100 ridescore (public transit), and a 63 bikescore.
Last edited by SallyJo on Thu Feb 20, 2020 9:31 pm, edited 2 times in total.

polaran
Posts: 17
Joined: Wed Mar 30, 2016 6:07 pm

Re: Walkscore

Post by polaran »

Mine comes in at 14, which was lower than I expected. I live in a compact college town, and basically anything within city limits is accessible by bike. The house I live in is located on the opposite end from most of the stores, hence the low walk score. The upshot is that it's also located on the opposite end of town from the frat houses. There's one overpriced grocery store within convenient walking distance, and the rest are 3-4 miles away. I mostly drive to access the trail system outside of town and to commute to the cities where I work on the side.

jacob
Site Admin
Posts: 15907
Joined: Fri Jun 28, 2013 8:38 pm
Location: USA, Zone 5b, Koppen Dfa, Elev. 620ft, Walkscore 77
Contact:

Re: Walkscore

Post by jacob »

Walkscore of 73 ... living in the near-burbs of Chicago. I think one can rent an apartment around here for $700/month... alternatively buy a condo for $60k. You can find a fixer-upper house for $100k and then you'd pay $4k in RE taxes instead to pay for past budget excess.

We are one block away from a commercial street which has a two taco restaurants, a bakery, an icecreamery, two supermarkets, dentist, doctor, lawyer, funeral home, American Legion, one bar, a plumber, an electrician, two banks, a Walgreens, a 7/11, a pizzeria, and a few specialty/fashion clothes shops. The library is two miles away as is the post office and the subway system. There's a train station and a hospital about a mile away. The cheapest source of food within 5 miles is almost 3 miles away though! Walmart is 1.5 miles away. Biking into the city from here is moderately suicidal with high speed underpass bottlenecks and no practical way around them. However, local biking is okay.

User avatar
Ego
Posts: 6359
Joined: Wed Nov 23, 2011 12:42 am

Re: Walkscore

Post by Ego »

I just ran it and got 91. It was 89 a few weeks ago. Our studio apartment @360sf would rent for $1300/mo. I just rented a 250sf micro-studio to a guy for $1250/mo.

We have a cross-town buffered bike lane running up our street. Whole Foods, Trader Joe's, Ralph's, a produce market and a farmers market are all within 1.5 miles but we mostly shop at the Asian and Middle-eastern markets which we drive to. The main branch of the public library is a short bike ride away. There are a ton of restaurants, bakeries, bars and cafes in the neighborhood and we have a sushi restaurant connected to our building. Apparently people come from all over the West Coast to go to our sushi place. Our building is adjacent to a 1200 acre city-park that houses the zoo and most of the museums, a few theater and some great running and biking trails. We go for an afternoon walk almost every day. I bicycle 4.6 miles to the YMCA most days with a massive hill as part of the return trip. The bayfront embarcadero park and cruise ship terminal is exactly 1 mile down to the bay and the beach is a short ferry ride from there.

We consider ourselves extremely fortunate to have this place.

Scott 2
Posts: 2824
Joined: Sun Feb 12, 2012 10:34 pm

Re: Walkscore

Post by Scott 2 »

6. Oddly no points given for the massive forest preserve that backs up to my townhouse.

We did no car for about a year here, groceries through the internet. It was isolating. Plenty of shopping within 5 miles, but requires biking on over passes or underpasses, just not worth it.

rfgh
Posts: 43
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2016 2:00 pm

Re: Walkscore

Post by rfgh »

93. But I won't worry too much about walk score in retirement since I buy everything online like a civilized person.

JL13
Posts: 645
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 7:47 am

Re: Walkscore

Post by JL13 »

Walkscore is 28.

Hospital 1.7 miles
Large University 1.1
Library 1.5
Supermarket 1.5
Cheap international grocery 3.9
Major city park 2.1
Rail station 2.4
Trendy neighborhood bars and shops 1.0 miles
City center (pop 500k) ~ 4 miles

Area condo rent/cost - $1,100/$140,000. Roads are very conducive to biking if you take the neighborhood roads, and there are many off-road paved bicycle trails that take you to key areas.

Even more interesting, i'm about one mile away from walkscore 88 addresses.

chicago81
Posts: 307
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2012 3:24 pm
Location: Chicago, IL

Re: Walkscore

Post by chicago81 »

96 in downtown Chicago. but the grocery store figures are misleading, since most of the "really close" options are all high priced "convenience" stores or liquor stores. I can get to a reasonably good supermarket about 3/4 of a mile away though.

tonyedgecombe
Posts: 450
Joined: Thu Aug 30, 2012 2:11 pm
Location: Oxford, UK Walkscore: 3

Re: Walkscore

Post by tonyedgecombe »

12, I guess living in a rural village in England with one shop, a pub and a café was bound to be low. No car but there are a couple of bigger towns 5 and 8 miles away.

OxtheTank
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu Jul 28, 2016 11:24 am
Location: Dallas, Texas

Re: Walkscore

Post by OxtheTank »

86 walk/86 public. Downtown Dallas.
I split a massive 2br apartment for $800/mo Internet included (other utilities add about $75 each).

FBeyer
Posts: 1069
Joined: Tue Oct 27, 2015 3:25 am

Re: Walkscore

Post by FBeyer »

Our walkscore before our recent move was 98. Now it's 28. Currently, we think we live much closer to what we actually need. We have outlet stores, DIY stores, and the library much closer than before.
I'm not certain walkscore has much merit for frugal/ERE/MMM kind of people really. Too much of the score depends on luxury spending IMO.

johnbroker
Posts: 29
Joined: Thu Oct 01, 2015 1:35 am
Location: Europe

Re: Walkscore

Post by johnbroker »

100

I wasn't expecting less. I guess that in midsized eu cities it must be difficult to score below that.

halfmoon
Posts: 697
Joined: Mon Nov 07, 2016 10:19 pm

Re: Walkscore

Post by halfmoon »

Scott 2 wrote:6. Oddly no points given for the massive forest preserve that backs up to my townhouse.
I'm guessing that the walkscore has less to do with "can take relaxing walks" than "can obtain life-sustaining supplies without a rifle or a fishing pole." ;)

I just looked up our score for fun, and (no surprise) it's zero. The nearest store of any kind is a 15-minute drive under the best circumstances, and riding a bike on the narrow roads would be dangerous even if I could make the uphill trip back (no way). DH and I recognize that this will someday be a problem.

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