Optimal Home Location site helps conscientious buyers

From a recent addition of the Iconocast News that I get comes this story. GEN X homebuyers who are concerned about their carbon footprints and commute times can use the Optimal Home Location website to find a neighborhood that's central to all their activity. Trying to strike a balance between family and commute times, and gas expenses and shrinking budgets, homebuyers are craving tools that empower them to make prudent decisions.

Buyers enter their hot spots like work, school, daycare or the gym and Optimal Home Location will pinpoint the ideal location in-between all of them and compare commute times. I do get a lot of questions from younger buyers about commute times and they seem to be more concerned about staying relatively close to work areas. While many Boomers just wanted to “get away from it all,” most Gen-X and Gen-Yers seem to want to get in the thick of it all. There is also a growing movement amongst the older Boomers to get back to the city, a return to urban environments, mainly to allow walking to places.

The Optimal Home Location site uses stats from Zillow to provide area details like property tax, median home values and median home age. It also maps out schools, libraries, supermarkets and shopping centers.

The site is http://www.optimalhomelocation.com/. Remember too that you can also go to http://www.walkscore.com/ to determine the walkability of that location, which can contribute greatly to reducing your carbon footprint. For more on the whole carbon footprint issues and things that you can do to reduce yours, go to http://www.treehugger.com/.

As I get older, I've started the journey back from being an indifferent, consumption-oriented and possession-centric member of the Boomer generation (although I am actually a pre-Boomer by a year or two). While perhaps not yet certifiable as a tree hugger; I, none the less, am much more conscience of the resource consequences of my actions and activities. Thus, my move from my big old Cadillac to my new Scion xB. I live in a very walkable little village and need to take more advantage of that to further reduce my own carbon footprint. The other result might be a healthy reduction in the substantial print above my feet, which would be a good thing, too.