Redfin tool helps house hunters find a home with an easy commute

Real estate analyst firm Redfin has just launched a new tool that should prove especially useful to home hunters who’re looking to avoid a lengthy commute. Launched in partnership with the White House Opportunity Project, the new tool helps buyers to find homes for sale within a 30-minute, car-free radius of their workplace.

Called Opportunity Score, the new tool ranks homes on a sliding scale of 100-0 based on the length of a non-car commute to the searcher’s places of work.

Nela Richardson, Redfin's chief economist, pointed out that the location of someone’s home has a big bearing on many factors in their lives, including their upward mobility and economic stability.

“A family may be able to find an affordable home to buy or rent, but if it’s far from quality jobs, highly rated schools, and other amenities, it could hinder the family’s chances to get ahead,” Richardson said.

A few example of the tool were published by Curbed.com, which points out that several addresses in downtown Daly City and San Francisco have an Opportunity Score of 100, which means there are numerous jobs paying a salary of $40,000 or more within a 30-minute, non-car commute. Unfortunately though, the price of such prized real estate doesn’t come cheap – the average two-bedroom home in San Francisco can cost upwards of $1 million, while in Daly City it’s $645,000.

Alongside the new tool, Redfin also published new rankings that list the most accessible areas for workers that don’t have a car among the fifty most populated urban areas in the country. San Jose, California; Milwaukee, Wisconsin; and Albuquerque, New Mexico came out on top of the list.