A forthcoming report from LOCUS President and real estate professor Chris Leinberger offers evidence for what many have known intuitively for the past several years: Smart growth areas in more walkable, transit-oriented neighborhoods are the main drivers of real estate market growth right now.
Specifically in the Washington D.C. area — which is at the forefront of this national trend, according to Leinberger’s research — 42 percent of new apartment development since 2009 has taken place in these walkable neighborhoods, up dramatically from 19 percent between 2000 and 2008, and 12 percent during the 1990s. Likewise, rents in more walkable neighborhoods are already surpassing or meeting their more sprawling counterparts.
“That’s the market telling you, dramatically, build more of this stuff,” Leinberger told the Wall Street Journal. “There’s pent-up demand for walkable urban.”
In the report, Leinberger examines 43 distinct neighborhoods he identifies as “regionally significant walkable urban places.” These are neighborhoods that contribute greatly to the Washington area as job-creating centers; most of the economic growth in and around the District is tremendously concentrated in these places.