Home values have held up better in San Francisco than throughout most of the state, or even most of the Bay Area. In many high priced markets, home values went into free fall following last year’s credit crisis, but San Francisco, with some of the highest home prices in the nation, has experienced a milder decline.
This is partly the result of San Francisco’s geography and politics, both of which have historically prevented the cyclical building booms that create oversupply when housing markets turn weak. Nor does it hurt that San Francisco always rates among the nation’s most livable cities. But, in addition to its beautiful views and mild weather—highly prized for a long time—San Francisco is abundantly possessed of an asset whose value has been increasingly recognized in the past decade: walkability.
Being within an easy and comfortable walk to shops, parks, schools, and public transit has always been desirable, but, for both psychological and practical reasons, walkability has recently become even more desirable. Many two-car families have become one-car families, and some San Franciscans have found it makes more sense to occasionally rent a car than to own one. A large percentage of disposable national income is still spent on cars, but more of that now goes to fuel and insurance rather than buying the latest, flashiest model. So, while the car retains great importance in American life, its hold on the national psyche has receded as the virtues of walking are more widely appreciated.
When the Wall Street Journal’s weekend realty section summarizes an urban home’s attributes, it now includes the distance to the nearest spot for a latte—a proxy for describing the residence’s convenience to everyday commercial amenities. Last year, the San Francisco Chronicle took an even more direct approach in stories featuring houses for sale: in addition to highlighting price, size, and number of bedrooms and bathrooms, the newspaper listed the home’s “walk score.”
The source for that statistic is a website that’s been gaining home-buyers’ attention: WalkScore.com. The site states that it “calculates the walkability of an address based on the distance from your house to nearby amenities. Walk Score measures how easy it is to live a car-lite lifestyle—not how pretty the area is for walking.” The site’s developers have created an algorithm that records distances to schools, shops, and other urban amenities, assigning its top score to walking distances of under a quarter of a mile, and calculating a weighted total. A score of 90 to 100 is considered a “walker’s paradise”; Walk Score has determined that San Francisco has the highest percentage of walkable neighborhoods of any city in the country, ahead of both New York City and Boston.
Nor is walkability measurable by distance alone. Throughout the city’s history, San Francisco writers have recorded the enjoyment of ambling through the city’s precincts. The late Margot Patterson Doss began writing about the pleasures of walking San Francisco’s neighborhoods back in 1961; her best-known book, San Francisco at Your Feet, has become a classic.
The Realtors’ View
Several leading San Francisco realtors agree that walkability, even though it’s always been a prized attribute here, has become even more important in recent years. Patrick Barber, senior vice president at Sotheby’s International Realty, believes a factor contributing to this trend is that we’re concerned about our children’s safety. Parents often seek locations that make it easy for their kids to walk to school and to various activities. Barber recalls that when he was growing up, “there was always a roll of nickels in the kitchen and when we wanted to go somewhere we took the 3 Jackson bus.” But now, he says, parents find they have to be chauffeurs, and if location can relieve some of that duty, so much the better.
Tim Murray, regional manager of Alain Pinel Realtors, has also seen a noticeably greater emphasis on walkability in recent years “as people have become more ‘green’.” Murray has had clients who’ve sold their cars and are happy to rely on public transit. He cites the number of new condominiums, particularly in the South of Market area, that are sold without even one assigned parking place. He notes there is also “more health consciousness. If people have the option of walking somewhere, many are glad to do just that.”
The emphasis on health and environment affects the Bay Area market well beyond the city. In Marin County, with its many small towns containing well-defined pedestrian-oriented commercial centers, Murray finds that walkability carries a much higher premium than is normally associated with suburban locations. “People who move to Marin are more environmentally conscious than anywhere else in the Bay Area,” he notes. “Some take the ferry to the city, and even bike to the ferry.” Murray notes a similar premium on walkability even in areas farther from the city. The town of Sonoma, for example, is built around a central plaza, and in its surrounding neighborhoods, as Murray puts it, “everyone walks everywhere.”
Charles Moore, CEO of McGuire Real Estate, believes the emphasis on walkability is almost certain to grow. He likens San Francisco to European cities; as he says, “In most metropolitan cities in Europe, you walk.” While it’s true that there are much higher gas taxes in Europe, and—in many major cities—“perimeter taxes” when you drive downtown, Moore sees increasing local government policy inducements that will have a similar effect of de-emphasizing the car’s importance in this area. Parking has become increasingly difficult and expensive, and whole neighborhoods that once catered mainly to the automobile have been redesigned to be pedestrian friendly. The best example, of course, is the Embarcadero, where the city decided that it made no sense to reconstruct the entire leg of a freeway after the Loma Prieta earthquake.
Moore predicts that traffic conditions will continue to be a major force in concentrating the focus on walkability. He points out that the three-year reconstruction of Doyle Drive means that the commuter will have a dilemma. But Moore also cites positive municipal changes, predicting that the city will continue to pursue policies that make neighborhoods more pedestrian centered, as street lighting is enhanced, sidewalks are widened, and more traffic-calming devices are put into place.
Contemporary Urban Planning
The premium that Bay Area homeowners attach to walkability is an element of a national movement loosely known as “the new urbanism.” Of course, the movement isn’t quite that new anymore, and in many ways can be said to have begun right here in San Francisco in 1955, when the nation’s first “freeway revolt” occurred. San Francisco gave new urbanism a further boost ten years later, with the imaginative urban re-use of old waterfront factories and warehouses that became Ghirardelli Square. That complex became a model for “festival marketplaces” that were later erected in scores of other U.S. cities. More recently, Ghirardelli Square itself underwent a further re-use, as some of the shops and offices were converted to residences. That, too, may turn out to be a national model.
But, finally, it’s beside the point whether San Francisco’s architecture and land use planning are replicated elsewhere. The city, in Moore’s words, remains “God’s best creation . . . the equal of Portofino or Paris.” San Franciscans learned a long time ago that walking was usually the most enjoyable way of getting around in the city. As nonresidents who want to relocate here bring similar attitudes with them, it will almost surely enhance the value of the city’s unique and varied neighborhoods.
Steve Stein a writer and financial adviser in Marin County, covers contemporary political economics. His work has appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle and Policy Review Magazine, and he’s written a monthly financial column for the Tiburon Ark.
