Walk Score has added new “Transit Time Maps” that calculate how far a potential home is from a user’s place of work (or anywhere else for that matter).

The company wrote on its blog that “homes near transit are some of the only properties that have appreciated in value over the last year.” That makes a lot of sense in an economic downturn. And it nicely fits the Walk Score model which gives homes a ranking based on how “walkable” it is to stores, entertainment, schools and more (would you rather live in a “car dependent” location or one that is classified as a “Walker’s Paradise?”

Walk Score scored a major win in January when Zillow.com cut a deal to include Walk Scores on all its property listings.

Zillow published a cute list of walkability for some high profile locations:

– The White House has a Walk Score of 97 (out of 100).
– The new Bush home in Dallas has a Walk Score of 43.
– President Obama’s Chicago home has a Walk Score of 71.
– Mitt Romney’s soon-to-be-for-sale home in Belmont, MA, has a Walk Score of a paltry 31.

Will Zillow add transit times to listings as well?

Walk Score’s new technology uses an open source trip planner called Graphserver.

The site currently works only in the Seattle, Portland and San Francisco areas. The interface is nifty: when you view a Google map, you ask it to visually show you how far you can get in, say, 45 minutes of transit time. You can also set it to display different travel times depending on the hour (helpful for calculating commute hour vs. midday travel).

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