user: Input: Which Bay Area city is the most walkable?
This 1946 cottage sold for 770K—85K over asking—due in part to its "walkable" Berkeley location.

This 1946 cottage sold for 770K—85K over asking—due in part to its "walkable" Berkeley location.

The open concept living room/dining room

The open concept living room/dining room

The open concept living room/dining room

The open concept living room/dining room

The open concept living room/dining room

The open concept living room/dining room

The open concept living room/dining room

The open concept living room/dining room

Which Bay Area city is the most walkable?

San Francisco’s realtors have long-touted the city’s “walkability” as a selling point, with some S.F. neighborhoods getting a near-perfect Walk Score. But as Redfin found in a recent survey, there are other Bay Area cities that also rank high in walkability and also give buyers a little more bang for their buck.

Using Walk Score data—which scores walkability on a scale from 1 to 100, with 100 being the most walkable—Berkeley was the clear winner, with three neighborhoods in the top-10 most walkable neighborhoods. Downtown Berkeley had a Walk Score of 96, as well as a median sales price about half of San Francisco’s $1.25 million median, according to Redfin. Southside was a bit pricer, with a Walk Score of 93 and a median sale price of $1.02 million. North Berkeley had about the same price tag, though a slightly lower Walk Score of 89, which puts it just out of “Walker’s Paradise” range, according to Walk Score. (Downtown neighborhoods in San Rafael, San Mateo and Burlingame also pulled Walk Scores of 90 or above.)

Redfin agent Tom Hendershot specializes in the Berkeley market and says that buyers are being drawn to walkable homes because they don’t want to rely on a car. “A lot of my clients want to live in a place where they can walk to meet up with friends to go boating or biking, or have lunch at local restaurant,” he said. “Being able to walk to every kind of amenity is incredibly important to buyers today.”

Walkability definitely leads to increased competition, said Hendershot, starting at the open house. “People want to get to an open house via the BART,” he said. “They want to know that they’ll have that city feel even if they move to Berkeley. If it’s easier to get to an open house without a car via public transportation and walking, there will be more people there, and probably more offers on the table too.”

Take, for example, 3042 Dohr St. The two-bedroom, one-bath Berkeley home featured in the gallery above advertised that its “Great Location!” was walkable to Ashby BART and Berkeley Bowl in its listing notes when it came to market this past spring for $685,000. Two weeks later the home was in contract—for $85,000 over the asking price. Not bad for a 1946 cottage with only 926 square feet.

But as Hendershot pointed out, people are happy to live in smaller spaces if it means they have easy access to neighborhood amenities. “People are more focused on walkability than ever before and I don’t anticipate that will change any time soon,” he said. “What’s outside your four walls can be as important as what’s inside them.”

Emily Landes is a writer and editor who is obsessed with all things real estate.
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It's about: San Francisco’s realtors have long-touted the city’s “walkability” as a selling point, with some S.F. neighborhoods getting a near-perfect Walk Score. But as Redfin found in…


Q: Georgetown basketball faces important game against Louisville

Georgetown Coach John Thompson III said he had no use for "moral victories" after the Hoyas' gritty late-game rally against Syracuse fell short last Thursday. With four games remaining in the regular season, actual victories are what matters -- whether pretty or ugly, narrow or commanding -- to halt a late-season slide.

After an impressive 11-1 start, Georgetown has gone 7-6.

On Monday the Hoyas fell out of the top 10 (to 11th) following their first back-to-back losses, with the 75-71 defeat to Syracuse (in which they pared a 23-point second-half deficit to one) coming on the heels of lackluster showing at Rutgers.

The Hoyas (18-7, 8-6) have slipped down the Big East standings during the same span, now tied for sixth. And that would make them the seventh seed in the Big East tournament if the five-day, 16-team slugfest at New York's Madison Square Garden were to tip off Tuesday rather than on March 9.

As such, the Hoyas would get a first-round bye and open play March 10 against the winner of the 10th vs. 15th seeds, which currently shapes up as an all-New Jersey battle, pitting Seton Hall against Rutgers.

But Georgetown would lose out on the double-bye accorded the Big East's top four teams, which sail directly into the March 11 quarterfinals without so much as a dribble or a pass.

Thompson insists he's giving no thought to the math, which makes clear that a late-season surge into the Big East's top four isn't out of reach for the Hoyas, who'd likely have to topple Louisville on Tuesday and West Virginia on March 1 to manage it.

West Virginia (21-6, 10-5) is currently fourth in the Big East standings; Louisville (18-9, 9-5) is fifth.

"You just have to worry about the next game," Thompson said. "If I start looking down the road and doing math, I lose focus on what is in front of us. If you play enough good possessions and good halves and good games, then all of that takes care of itself."

For Georgetown fans who suffered through the team's late-season collapse last winter, the team's recent results are sounding alarm bells. Are the Hoyas, who rely heavily on a six-man rotation, running out of gas? Is their chemistry, seemingly an asset, souring somehow?

In the view of ESPN analyst Jay Bilas, Georgetown's tough slog of late is simply a reflection of the rigors of the Big East.

He points to Purdue's three-game slide in early January, in which it lost to Big Ten rivals Wisconsin, Ohio State and Northwestern. Tough conference, Bilas notes. Regrettable stretch. But Purdue (23-3) is now ranked No. 3 in the nation and has reclaimed its place atop the Big Ten.

A:

assistant: With four games remaining, Georgetown can make a late push for a double-bye into Big East tournament.