--- title: 'The Future's Most Walkable Cities: Prepare to Be Surprised' description: Walkable urban places are the cities of the future, a new study says. And where will those be? New York, Boston? Try Miami and Phoenix. No, we're not kidding. authors: - name: Srividya Kalyanaraman url: https://money.com/author/srividya-kalyanaraman/ at_money_since: 2014 articles: 4 covers: - Lifestyle - Housing social: - https://x.com/thisissrividya former_staff: true published: '2014-06-17T10:02:48.000Z' modified: '2014-06-17T10:02:48.000Z' section: Lifestyle tags: - atlanta - Boston - buying a home - Denver - Detroit - home prices - Housing Market - Miami - New York City - Phoenix - property values - real estate - San Francisco - urban burb - walkability - walkable cities - walkups - Washington D.C. word_count: 381 canonical: https://money.com/the-futures-most-walkable-cities-prepare-to-be-surprised/ type: Article source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![061417_REA_boston](https://img.money.com/2014/06/061417_rea_boston.jpg) *Urbanization of next-door neighbor Cambridge is one of the chief reasons Boston's walkability is on the rise.* If you live in Washington D.C., New York City or Boston and your legs are your main mode of transport, this won't be news to you: These three cities rank among the country's most walkable large cities, and they are destined to remain so. After those top three, watch out: Cities known more for suburban sprawl and traffic jams have new development planned that will shoot them up into the top scores as "walkable urban place," or, WalkUPs, as researchers at George Washington University and advocacy group Smart Growth America call them. Miami, Detroit, Denver, and Tampa will vault into the new Top 10 large WalkUPs, according to a new study released today. Atlanta, Los Angeles and Phoenix will also take a big leap forward. Future rankings are based on things like planned investment in public transportation and commercial clusters. ![jefferson memorial](https://img.money.com/2014/06/061417_rea_dc.jpg) *D.C. ranks No. 1. Its suburbs are as walkable as the central city.* “The WalkUPs are witnessing the end of sprawl,” said Christopher Leinberger, a professor of urban real estate at George Washington University School of Business. “This is a change in how we built the country in the 20th century.” Suburban sprawl, he argues, has constrained the country's economic growth. Walkable urban places, sometimes referred to as urban burbs, have high concentrations of college-educated adults and demonstrate a strong correlation between urban development, education and economic growth. Office rents in urbanized areas, for example, command a 74% premium over suburban. (Researchers focused on the 30 largest metropolitan areas because they comprise 46% of the U.S. population and 58% of the country's GDP.) And homeowners, take note: Walkability and proximity to shopping, restaurants and work are becoming increasingly important to buyers, especially young buyers. Research has shown that increases in measures of walkability such as [WalkScore](http://www.walkscore.com "WalkScore") translate into increased property values. **Today's Top 15 Walkable Cities** 1\. Washington, D.C. 2\. New York City 3\. Boston 4\. San Francisco 5\. Chicago 6\. Seattle 7\. Portland, Ore. 8\. Atlanta 9\. Pittsburgh 10\. Cleveland 11\. Baltimore 12\. Miami 13\. Philadelphia 14\. Denver 15\. Houston Least Walkable: Tampa, Phoenix, Orlando **The Future's Most Walkable Cities** 1\. Boston 2\. Washington, D.C. 3\. New York City 4\. Miami 5\. Atlanta 6\. Seattle 7\. San Francisco 8\. Detroit 9\. Denver 10\. Tampa 11\. Los Angeles 12\. Phoenix 13\. Houston 14\. Portland 15\. Chicago Least Walkable: San Diego, Kansas City, San Antonio ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/the-futures-most-walkable-cities-prepare-to-be-surprised/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Lifestyle", "item": "https://money.com/lifestyle/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Places to Travel", "item": "https://money.com/places-to-travel/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "The Future's Most Walkable Cities: Prepare to Be Surprised" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/the-futures-most-walkable-cities-prepare-to-be-surprised/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/the-futures-most-walkable-cities-prepare-to-be-surprised/", "name": "The Future's Most Walkable Cities: Prepare to Be Surprised", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2014-06-17T10:02:48.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/the-futures-most-walkable-cities-prepare-to-be-surprised/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/the-futures-most-walkable-cities-prepare-to-be-surprised/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2014-06-17T10:02:48.000Z" }, { "@type": "Article", "headline": "The Future's Most Walkable Cities: Prepare to Be Surprised", "articleSection": "Lifestyle", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2014/06/061417_rea_boston.jpg", "width": 1504, "height": 1000, "caption": "061417_REA_boston" }, { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2014/06/061417_rea_dc.jpg", "width": 200, "height": 300 } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Srividya Kalyanaraman", "url": "https://money.com/author/srividya-kalyanaraman/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/srividya-kalyanaraman/#author", "email": "Srividya.Kalyanaraman@moneymail.com", "sameAs": [ "https://x.com/thisissrividya" ] } ], "publisher": "https://money.com/#organization", "datePublished": "2014-06-17T10:02:48.000Z", "description": "Walkable urban places are the cities of the future, a new study says. 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