A recent SFGate article highlights what many in the Bay Area already know: that affordably-priced, walkable neighborhoods near decent schools are few and far between. Redfin, a real estate brokerage firm, conducted an analysis of over 170 neighborhoods in 20 cities, comparing home sales and income data with rankings from Walk Score and GreatSchools. The study showed that a mere 14% of neighborhoods across the country qualify as affordably-priced, walkable, and near decent schools.
The analysis also notes an increase in popularity for walkable neighborhoods among millennials, but notes a lack of affordable housing and better-than-average schools in proximity to these neighborhoods. “Cities have not kept up with consumer tastes,” said Nela Richardson, Redfin’s chief economist. “These balanced neighborhoods are an endangered species right now.”
The Bay Area is among the nation’s most desirable places to live and work. With housing prices continuing to rise and a market need for an additional 660,000 new homes to accommodate an anticipated 2 million new residents, the Bay Area stands at a crossroads for how it grows.
Greenbelt Alliance addresses the challenge of how the Bay Area handles growth. The breadth of our work—from smart growth advocacy in Oakland and Sunnyvale to land conservation in Sonoma County and Morgan Hill—ensures that the right development happens in the right places to create those affordable, walkable neighborhoods with good schools that everyone wants to live in.
Photo: Transportation for America via Flickr
