Gas Prices Suck, Find Me a Place Close To Everything

The fact that gas prices are high is not news. They just keep going up.

However, the fact that more Homebuyers are now taking more than Granite Countertops in to consideration before committing to a home is still growing news. I have read many posts on and off of Active Rain about people looking more in to Urban Areas to reduce the amount of Gas they are using and maybe even be able to walk or bike to places around the area.

Well, I ran across a Neat Tool for Agents AND Homebuyers to find out exactly how 'Walkable' a Community is. The Website is called Walk Score. If you put in an address, it calculates the Walkability on a Google Map of all of the Amenities in the area, it shows everything from Parks to Grocery Stores to Movie Theatres. Cool! 'The Score' is from 1-100.

I put in 2 addresses to share here. One is smack in the middle of what is Happening near The Galleria which is on the West side of Houston. You can find just about anything there. The other address is one in the Suburbs which has all of the necessities near by but not a whole lot of shopping or movie theatres within a few miles. You can see the difference in the score.

Just thought you all may want to see how it could help with that question that has so many different "So, how's this location?".

This one here is for the Suburbs:

This one is for The Galleria area, Urban Style:

What I like about Walk Score is that it not only gives 'The Score' but it also shows what all is nearby. If the Home Buyer is not interested in having Malls or Movie Theatres nearby, they can take that in to consideration and only look at Restaurants, Parks or whatever they want.

Feel free to share your WalkScore below. :) Especially, PLEASE, if you know of an address in a New Urbanism Type Community.