The highly sought-after home feature that agents are afraid to name revealed

Most Americans say they want to live within an easy walk of shops, parks, and other neighborhood amenities, yet some real estate agents fear that discussing an area’s “walkability” may run afoul of the law.Their concern, in short, is that not everyone can walk.Touting a neighborhood as “walkable” may unintentionally violate fair housing laws by excluding people who use mobility aids such as wheelchairs, some advocates warn.This poses a dilemma for agents: Almost 8 in 10 Americans say walkability is “very” or “somewhat” important when choosing a neighborhood, and nearly as many report a willingness to pay more for it, according to a 2023 survey.This dichotomy spurred a lively discussion at a recent meeting of the Smart Growth Advisory Board at the National Association of Realtors annual Legislative Meetings, where some agents raised concerns about using the term “walkable” in listing descriptions and conversations with clients.

This despite the fact that “creating walkable neighborhoods” is listed as one of the group’s core principles.“I must speak out right now about the nexus between fair housing and our smart growth principles,” one agent said in response to survey data about the importance of walkability, urging the committee to update the language and “look at the implicit bias.”Jan Bozeman, an attorney at Williams Teusink, puts a finer point on it.“Various state and federal laws consider such terminology to be misleading because it is a subjective statement rather than an objective one,” she explains.“What is walkable for one person may not be walkable for another one, and there is no standard for measuring such ambiguous statements.”That leaves the market in a strange position: Buyers are putting a premium on homes near the places they need to go, but the people paid to help them navigate that search are being warned to choose their words carefully.Disability activists and urban planning scholars have long w...