Walk Score Adds Transit Info

Embargoed until Nov. 5, 2009, 12:01a.m.
Contact: Aleisha Jacobson
206-522-5622
aleisha@frontseat.org

McMILLIN REALTY AND OTHER LEADING REAL ESTATE SITES ADD PUBLIC TRANSIT POWERED BY WALK SCORE

McMillin Realty, ZipRealty, LPS Real Estate Group, Windermere, San Francisco Chronicle and hundreds more now showing transit.

(Seattle—Nov. 5, 2009) Front Seat, the civic software company that operates Walk Score
(www.walkscore.com), the leading measure of neighborhood walkability, today announced that
McMillin Realty of San Diego, ZipRealty, LPS Real Estate Group (formerly FNRES and Cyberhomes), Windermere, San Francisco Chronicle, and hundreds of additional real estate websites will now provide public transit information powered by Walk Score.

“Accessible public transit plays a significant role in the decision making process for many home buyers,” said Patrick Lashinsky, CEO and President of ZipRealty, which operates in 36 major markets. “This added feature from Walk Score makes it easier for our clients to make an informed decision from the start of the search.”

Public transit information is provided on the Walk Score Real Estate Tile, which is available for free and shows the Walk Score of any property, a map of nearby amenities and transit, and Google street view. Additionally, public transit information will be displayed when looking up scores on WalkScore.com.

“Our rDesk IDX real estate search customers are already using Walk Score as a selling point for properties. Now they can use proximity to transit as another selling point,” said John Hensley, Chief Product and Technology Officer, LPS Real Estate Group.

“A recent study in Denver showed homes within a half-mile of light rail appreciated more than 17% while the overall Denver housing market fell more than 7%,” said Mike Mathieu, Founder of Front Seat. “Public sites of Multiple Listing Services like ColoProperty.com and ReColorado.com now have transit powered by Walk Score and make it easy to find a great place to live near light rail in Colorado.”

Public transit data is currently available in 40 cities throughout the U.S. and Canada. Walk Score retrieves transit data from cities that publish a public Google transit feed. Walk Score will automatically add transit for new cities as more public transit feeds are published. Public transit on Walk Score is funded by a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation.

About Front Seat and Walk Score Walk Score is a project of Front Seat (www.frontseat.org), a civic software company based in Seattle. Since its launch in July 2007, Walk Score has become the most popular worldwide measure of walkability. Over 700 real estate websites show Walk Score on their listings and over 2.5 million scores are distributed to partners each day. The Walk Score team is advised by a ten- person Advisory Board, which includes urban planning, environmental and technical experts.

McMillin Realty has been using Walk Score on their site with great enthusiasm to show how "walkable" many of their community neighborhoods are, and what great facilities they offer. "When I first discovered this awesome feature I was so excited to be able to offer our clients something new, that extra something they weren't getting from their typical real estate search site" says, Liz Klaser, VP of Marketing for McMillin Realty. "I am a mother of three and when I was looking for a home it was important to me to know if schools and parks were within walking distance, but really I got so much more."

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