Walkable Communities Housing Boom

For at least a decade planners have been telling Coatesville City Councils and anyone else who would listen that the City of Coatesville, being a walkable town with public transit including rail transit is in an ideal position for the coming demographic shift. That demographic shift is "baby boomers" looking for smaller housing in walkable communities.

I wrote this about a year ago: 

"Coatesville has walkable neighborhoods and business areas now, an east-west interstate rail line in place that is fairly easy to add a commuter rail system to, a north-south line that with some work could carry passengers again, a regional business jet airport that is soon to have direct international flight capability and it's about to get what is called a WOW factor by community planners in the form of the National Velodrome and that is in an Olympic year. A key phrase from Brookings is: 

 "Consequently, few compact, walkable neighborhoods have been built relative to demand, and real estate prices in them have often been bid up to astronomical heights."

The largest demographic shift in US history has already begun. Coatesville will very shortly be exactly what that demographic is looking for. 

In a nutshell, Coatesville is exquisitely positioned to be the epicenter of the next real estate boom of Chester County." 

FROM: 

MONDAY, APRIL 11, 2011 

Section 8 Housing Turning NIMBY on its head and Coatesville is exquisitely positioned to be the epicenter of the next real estate boom of Chester County.

Well it's happened, that need for walkable communities is happening NOW.

The article and study below concerns suburban Washington, DC area. From a real estate standpoint I think that the D.C. area is not much different than Chester County.

Real estate did not go up much and did not crash in Chester County like it did in some areas.

Real estate in the DC area has remained stable because employment in the DC area has actually gone up.  The explosive growth in security industries has driven real estate prices in the D.C. area. SEE "TOP SECRET AMERICA" WA POST.

The real estate market in Chester County appears to be picking up.  In both areas walkable convenient areas with public transit, preferably train or light rail gets top dollar sales in real estate. If you want to see for yourself try pricing homes near SEPTA trains stops in Chester County and walk them back away from SEPTA train stops.

The AMTRAK/SEPTA Coatesville station is scheduled to open in 2015. A lot of homes in Coatesville are in walking distance to the station. 

Now Coveted: A Walkable, Convenient Place

This is an excerpt Click the link above to the entire article

By CHRISTOPHER B. LEINBERGER

WALKING isn’t just good for you. It has become an indicator of your socioeconomic status. 

Until the 1990s, exclusive suburban homes that were accessible only by car cost more, per square foot, than other kinds of American housing. Now, however, these suburbs have become overbuilt, and housing values have fallen. Today, the most valuable real estate lies in walkable urban locations. Many of these now pricey places were slums just 30 years ago....

Our research shows that real estate values increase as neighborhoods became more walkable, where everyday needs, including working, can be met by walking, transit or biking. There is a five-step “ladder” of walkability, from least to most walkable. On average, each step up the walkability ladder adds $9 per square foot to annual office rents, $7 per square foot to retail rents, more than $300 per month to apartment rents and nearly $82 per square foot to home values. 

As a neighborhood moves up each step of the five-step walkability ladder, the average household income of those who live there increases some $10,000. People who live in more walkable places tend to earn more, but they also tend to pay a higher percentage of their income for housing.

 
SERIES: Walkable Urbanism | Number 16 of 16 « Previous
Paper | May 25, 2012

Walk this Way:The Economic Promise of Walkable Places in Metropolitan Washington, D.C. 

 An economic analysis of a sample of neighborhoods in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area

    •    More walkable places perform better economically. For neighborhoods within metropolitan Washington, as the number of environmental features that facilitate walkability and attract pedestrians increase, so do office, residential, and retail rents, retail revenues, and for-sale residential values.


    •    Walkable places benefit from being near other walkable places. On average, walkable neighborhoods in metropolitan Washington that cluster and form walkable districts exhibit higher rents and home values than stand-alone walkable places.


A PDF OF THE ENTIRE STUDY IS HERE:
http://www.brookings.edu/research/papers/2012/05/25-walkable-places-leinberger