Studies are finding that housing in pedestrian-friendly areas has higher property values and is more desirable for home buyers and renters. This is important information for the real estate market, for obvious reasons.
White River Junction, Vermont (PRWEB) January 13, 2014
Maponics, a leading provider of geospatial data, announced today that Realtors Property Resource (RPR), the National Association of REALTORS online real estate database, is licensing Maponics Context Walkability™.
Context Walkability is the most comprehensive and customizable walk rating solution on the market. The product provides a walkability index for US city neighborhoods as well as school attendance zones, subdivisions and other areas. The walkability rating represents accessibility by walking to points of interest such as coffee shops, parks and schools.
“We’re delighted to provide Walkability rankings to a wide array of real estate professionals through RPR,” said Mark Friend, Vice President of Sales & Business Development at Maponics. “Studies are finding that housing in pedestrian-friendly areas has higher property values and is more desirable for home buyers and renters. This is important information for the real estate market, for obvious reasons.”
RPR gathers extensive national, regional and local data that enables Realtors and other members to access data and analytics on properties and market trends.
RPR members include Realtors, residential and commercial broker/agents, appraisers, associations and MLS’s.
Walkability data is increasingly relevant to home buyers. According to the National Association of Realtors 2013 Community Preference Survey, 60% of survey participants prefer a neighborhood with a mix of houses, stores and other businesses that are within easy walking distance of one another. Over half, 55%, would be willing to trade a home with a larger yard for a smaller home within walking distance of schools, stores and restaurants.
“RPR’s mission is to bring the highest value data sets to NAR’s 1 million + REALTOR® members across the country. With neighborhood and community walkability on the minds of so many consumers, it’s vital that our agents and brokers have reliable, comprehensive information to share with their clients and customers,” says Dale Ross, CEO of Realtors Property Resource. “The addition of this type of high-demand information to RPR’s already robust tools, features and reports will assist in positioning REALTORS® as the local market expert in their communities.”
Context Walkability ratings range from 0.0 to 5.0 and include 3 scores: Amenity points of interest, including schools, shopping centers and more; Leisure points of interest, such as coffee shops and pizza places; and Overall, a combination of Amenity and Leisure.
In addition to points of interest, Walkability ratings take into account street types, speed limits and other features that Walk Score® does not consider (see the infographic comparing Context Walkability to Walk Score®).
RPR has been a Maponics customer since 2010. They also license Maponics School Boundaries and ZIP Code Boundaries.
About Realtors Property Resource
Realtors Property Resource® (RPR®), a wholly owned subsidiary of the National Association of REALTORS®, is an exclusive online real estate database aggregating information on over 166 million U.S. properties. RPR’s mission is to empower REALTORS® with analytical tools and reports designed to assist their clients in making better informed decisions while increasing efficiency in the marketplace. For more information about RPR, visit: http://blog.narrpr.com.
About Maponics
Maponics is the market leader for comprehensive geospatial datasets that underpin today's location-based services and analytics. Maponics creates, publishes and updates geographic files for the areas that define where people spend their time and money, such as Neighborhood Boundaries, ZIP Code Boundaries and School Boundaries. Maponics’ customers include many of today's best-known web, social media and real estate brands, including over 70% of the top real estate websites. The company is headquartered in Vermont. For additional information, visit http://www.maponics.com.
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