“For my buyers, walkability is almost equal to price as the most important criterion,” says Stephanie Somers, a Realtor at RE/MAX Access who focuses on Center City’s “fringe neighborhoods,” like Fishtown and Graduate Hospital. She lists Walk Scores for all the properties on her website.
“Being close to Center City comes up less often now,” she says. “The focus is more neighborhood-centric — people want to come home and be social right in their [area].”
These are real estate agents talking their book, and I'd hardly describe Graduate Hospital as "fringe" anymore, but it's definitely the case that the number of places I'd recommend as a good place to live in the city has grown quite a lot. It isn't just perception of crime and similar, it's that retail corridors have come back to life in more places, providing people access to things in their neighborhood.