StreetAdvisor Blog

The world’s most expensive streets

Anyone who reads the real estate and gossip sections of major newspapers quickly becomes familiar with the names of famous and expensive streets and the people who live on and visit them.

Residential street

In terms of residential property prices, the most expensive street in the world may be the private road of Kensington Palace Gardens in London, United Kingdom.

The street houses the embassies of Russia, Lebanon, Kuwait, Japan and Saudi Arabia, and homes of the Sultan of Brunei, Saudi royals, the French and Finnish ambassadors and a Russian oil billionaire.

Photo by Kevin Thompson at Wikipedia, Russian Embassy at 5 Kensington Palace Gardens

Kensington Palace Gardens began as the kitchen gardens for nearby Kensington Palace, and the land was sold for housing in the early 1840s. The freehold still belongs to the Crown Estate, so technically the embassies and billionaire’s homes are only leased.

The reason for this is the UK’s generous tax laws for foreign residents and history as a world center for financial management. British residents who aren't British-born don’t have to pay tax on income earned outside the UK. Combined with the power of ‘the City’ in managing wealth, this makes London an extremely attractive residence for the super-rich.

Neighborhood

The most expensive neighborhood (on average) may be Jupiter Islands in Florida, United States. Jupiter Island is a barrier island on the east coast of Florida. It is a closed community of approximately 620 people, and is home to golfers like Greg Norman and Tiger Woods. In 2006 Woods reportedly paid US$38 million for 10-acre waterfront property.

Photo of Jupiter Island by Trey Ratcliff, licenced under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 United States License

Retail street

In terms of retail, the most expensive street in the world is 5th Avenue, New York, New York, United States (StreetScore 54.00). It may be exciting to shop there, but it is not especially well rated by the StreetAdvisor community – it’s only the 32nd best street in New York City.

Photo of 5th Avenue by Thorsten from Google Earth

That seems strange for the street that includes the Empire State Building at 350 Fifth Avenue, but it is visited far more than lived on. The section between 34th Street (east and west) and 59th Street (east and west) is one of the busiest shopping streets in the world. Note: 5th Avenue is the dividing line between the east and west streets in Manhattan.

Write a review of these streets

If you have visited any of these streets or neighborhoods, log into StreetAdvisor.com and write a review. The millionaires and billionaires are a little busy making money to help us out!

If you go out in the woods today...

StreetAdvisor.com recently received a review of Treeridge Pkwy, Alpharetta, Fulton, Georgia, United States (StreetScore 32.84) by mrskeeblerelf. It is by far the strangest review we have received.

I believe it is genuine, though it has a creepy kind of weirdness to it as well. We'll leave it for the StreetAdvisor community to decide.

mrskeeblerelf starts in his/her review by telling us that:

Treeridge Parkway started out really calm and pretty. Tall lush trees, tons of little sparrow and squirrel families all around. It was like a little hideaway from the hustle and bustle of Holcomb Bridge. But last year it all changed, and it was so bizarre that I had to break my lease and move out immediately. So if you are considering moving into an apartment over there, I'd highly recommend that you take a walk through those woods... notice how there are no longer any birds. That's all I'm allowed to say. If anyone knows what happened over there I'd like to know about it. Because I was too afraid to ask when I lived there. Please, if you have children or a family, or even if you don't-- PLEASE-- don't move there. Thanks, and I wish all my old neighbors in my building the best-- they were all good people.

After another community member requested more details we got more information from mrskeeblerelf:

I could see the woods from my apartment window, and to be honest-- no. No animals living out there at all anymore. I'd see a few little squirrels and birds playing out there every now and then... but they never stuck around for very long. They all cleared out a couple months back. I lived there for 2 years and in winter of 2006 I saw lots of animals out there in the woods, so I knew something unsettling was going down out there.

As to why I am honestly unsure-- but I did notice towards the end of the year was getting frequently disrupted by an unusual amount of landscaping crew who were out there all the time with snow-blowers, but there wasn't any snow out there? And there was this beeping noise that sounded like a dump truck in perpetual backup going off all day intermittently. It got so loud sometimes that it sounded like a TON of construction going on-- but when I'd look out of my window there nothing out there at all. No traffic, no cars... no people... no crew... sometimes not even snow blowers out there.

I noticed that the lightpost overlooking the back parking lot been "repaired" about 2 months back-- oddly enough-- to a 360° covered dome, while leaving the light post in the neighboring parking lot (that flickers on and off all night) untouched. In my unit, I watched deep heavy cracks suddenly started to show up along the walls by the ceiling and even across my stone hearth to the fireplace. I kept hearing these loud cracking noises in my sun room-- like the foundation was sinking or something. It was more than creepy-- a little TOO creepy to stick around. I was petrified. My intuition told me to get out of there ASAP, so I did.

I'm ready to call in FBI Special Agents Dale Cooper from Twin Peaks and Fox Mulder from The X Files...

Vote for StreetAdvisor in the 2008 Webware 100 Awards

StreetAdvisor.com has been selected as one of the finalists in the 2008 Webware 100 Awards in the Search & Reference category. The editors of CNET Webware.com selected 300 finalists from more than 4,600 qualifying Web 2.0 services nominated by Webware readers and company representatives.

Webware users decide which services win by voting. We’d like you to vote for us! User voting for the Webware 100 will be open from Monday, 25 February 2008 at 12pm (noon), Pacific time (UTC-8) until 9am on 31 March 2008. That’s from Tuesday 26 February 2008 at 7am Australian Eastern Summer time (UTC+11) until 1 April 2008 at 4am.

Click here to vote for StreetAdvisor in the 2008 Webware 100 Awards.

The Webware 100 allows users to cast up to three votes in each category. In last year's Webware 100 awards, users cast nearly 500,000 votes. The winners of the 2008 Webware 100 – the top 10 products in the 10 categories – will be announced on April 21.

StreetAdvisor is a 2008 Webware 100 Awards finalist

The StreetAdvisor.com team is excited to announce that it has been selected as a finalist in the 2008 Webware 100 Awards in the Search & Reference category. The main page for the awards program is www.webware.com/100.

The editors of CNET Webware.com selected 300 finalists from more than 4,600 qualifying Web 2.0 services nominated by Webware readers and company representatives. StreetAdvisor.com is one of the 300 finalists.

We need your help! Voting opens next week

Webware users decide which services win by voting. That means we’d like you to vote for us!

User voting for the Webware 100 will be open from Monday, 25 February 2008 at 12pm (noon), Pacific time (UTC-8) until 9am on 31 March 2008.

That’s from Tuesday 26 February 2008 at 7am Australian Eastern Summer time (UTC+11) until 1 April 2008 at 4am.

When voting goes live we’ll post a special link for you to use to vote for us

The Webware 100 allows users to cast up to three votes in each category. In last year's Webware 100 awards, users cast nearly 500,000 votes.

The winners of the 2008 Webware 100 – the top 10 products in the 10 categories – will be announced on April 21.

StreetAdvisor in Nob Hill, San Francisco, part 2

StreetAdvisor has uploaded the second video in our series of street interviews to our Youtube channel. This video continues interviewing people on the streets of Nob Hill, San Francisco.

The residents interviewed in this video are overwhelmingly positive about the area. These are the things they like:

• good public transportation
• it's easy to live without a car
• good area for dog lovers with nice parks
• people enjoying recreational activities including doing Tai Chi in the park

These are some things people would change about Nob Hill if they could:

• real estate is expensive and this makes it difficult to live there
• parking is hard to come by
• residents would like more street cleaning done

Our Youtube channel is at http://www.youtube.com/StreetAdvisor.

If you live in SanFRancisco, or have visited there log into StreetAdvisor.com and write a review, or watch our video in Youtube then make a video response and tell us whether you agree with the people we spoke to.

Streets of the world

We've also set up a group in Youtube that everyone can join. It's called Streets of the world - http://youtube.com/group/streetvideos. You can add street videos you've made or add your favorite street videos made by other people to the group.

Environmental factors that impact on streets

StreetAdvisor recently published a list of the worst 5 streets that have been reviewed recently. Before that, we published a list of the top 10 streets, as well as a commentary on annoying neighbor behavior called Hell is other people. This dealt with issues like noise, messy yards, pets and crime.

When it comes to choosing the right property, there is another issue that is extremely important to all residents - the environment. Noisy unfriendly neighbors may move out in a year or two, but if you have high voltage power lines nearby or live under the descent path to your nearest airport, you may have to live with the consequences forever.

Different people appreciate different things about their environments, so it's not always easy to assume that everyone feels the same way about any of the issues outlined below. Some people, for example, may think that living here would be fun!

Image found here, which may or may not be of the Amsterdamse Bos city park in Amsterdam.

What follows is a collection of community member reviews that illustrate some of the worst environmental factors that most concern residents.

Power lines

At Ruby Street, Essendon West, Victoria, Australia (StreetScore 50.83), Pixie says:

"Over a seven year period we did not make a cent out of the property we owned. People are getting more and more concerned about those dreaded power lines. Whilst every other property in Essendon went up in value - we were luck to break even. It's not worth risking your health, not to mention your children's health. My advice - don't do it!"

Traffic

At Clinton Street, New York, New York, United States (StreetScore 37.02), Spraycode says:

"The thing I didn't realize about Clinton st before I moved there was that all the big trucks coming into Manhattan early in the morning from Brooklyn use it as a short cut from the Williamsburg bridge to Houston over to FDR. From 4am - 6am it sounds like a heard of elephants."

At 35th Avenue, Astoria, New York, United States (StreetScore 35.00), rudolpma says that:

"Street noise is noticeably bad for an area so bereft of commerce as the area is mostly a way point for Queens-Manhattan traffic."

Commercial districts

At Bigelow Square, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States (StreetScore 29.14), rudolpma says:

"This street is in the downtown area of Pittsburgh. I am living here for a job for a couple of months in a hotel. Even for a financial district this area is terrible. Not one bodega or market anywhere. There is a 7-eleven but I don't consider this unless you want a day old stale hot dog. There are not gas stations, no fast food restaurants, no book stores, no libraries, no cafes. There are a few overpriced restaurants in the hotels but their menus are ridiculously small and bland. Avoid downtown Pittsburgh at all costs."

Industry

At George Street, Somerville, Massachusetts, United States (StreetScore 28.03), cheese says:

"George St is right off Broadway and a 5 minute walk from Sullivan Square T station. and is near an entrance to 93 north... there is an ironworks that bangs, clangs and grinds Mon-Sat from about 7am to 5pm and often much later during the summer hours.

Across the street is ... a shop specializing in brakework for large trucks, fire engines, trash trucks, etc so those are often blocking Broadway or are sounding off while backing up and of course the banging and grinding that goes along with a usual auto shop.

This area is in serious need of gentrification however unless the auto shops move out it simply won't happen anytime soon."

At Crawley Street, Merrylands, New South Wales, Australia (StreetScore 29.08), LJones says:

"This is a horrible area to live in. There is an old factory in a back street adjacent to the children's museum that burns chemicals that creates toxic fumes (recently less frequent). The burn-off creates a heavy plastic smell which can linger for hours."

Aircraft

At 10th Avenue, Arlington Heights, Illinois, United States (StreetScore 26.43), dmschaeffer says:

"I think the biggest problem is the air traffic. there is a runway path that runs directly overhead. on busy days you can hear a jet flying by every 3 seconds. we actually tested this out and it's very exact."

At Athabasca Street W, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada (StreetScore 50.55), chris0 says:

"I really wouldn't recommend living here. I really hated it because of the air traffic from the Airforce Base that was always flying over head. The noise was horrendous."

I received some good real estate advice recently, which was that when considering where to buy or rent your next home, you should visit the street at different times of day to see what the traffic is like, who comes and goes, and how the environment feels during the day and at night.

I though this was excellent advice. What advice do you have for the people about to move into that vacant place next door? Log into StreetAdvisor.com and tell us what it is like to live on your street.

Well traveled StreetAdvisors

Some members of the StreetAdvisor community are well traveled, and have written reviews of streets and cities in two or more countries. As visitors and residents of different countries they have the capacity to compare lifestyles in different countries and to describe local streets from this unique perspective.

One reviewer, shauno, has written reviews in three countries. He tells us that Bedford Hill, London, United Kingdom (StreetScore 59.13) is “In the heart of Balham, Bedford Hill is located close to tube, national rail and bus links. There is a Sainsbury's on the street and a Waitrose at one end.”

He goes on to tell us more about the area:

“A weekly farmer's market takes place each Sunday between 10 and 2 in a pedestrian only street of Bedford Hill. It sells a range of meat, fresh fruit and vegetables, breads, cheeses and other gourmet goodies. The area is predominantly populated by young professionals but also has a good mix of families and older people.”

shauno has also reviewed streets in Australia, including Oxford Street, Collingwood, Victoria, Australia (StreetScore 65.19), which sounds like it has a similar vibe. He says that “Oxford St has a great balance of the Collingwood vibe and gentrified luxury making it a great place for anyone who enjoys the energy and convenience of the cosmopolitan inner city.”

StreetAdvisor's most traveled contributor is sandnsurf, who is an expert about streets in the beachside suburbs of Perth, Western Australia, but has also written some reviews of Auckland in New Zealand, Edinburgh in Scotland, UK and also for a street in Belgium.

Of Domaine de Beauseant, Wallonie, Belgique (StreetScore 71.55), he says:

“This street is more like a village. It has an inherent sense of community, despite the transient nature of many of the residents, the warmth provided by the freindly and accomodating neighbours is overwhelming. Many residents are not from Belgium and originate from America, the United Kingdom, Europe and beyond.”

Of Warrender Park Road, Edinburgh, United Kingdom (StreetScore 60.03), he comments:

“Cobblestones, bikes and the fresh winter breeze. Elevated street in the heart of Edinburgh. South of the meadows, but if you are lucky enough to live in one of the top level flats (apart from having very strong calf muscles), you will be impressed with the views…”

We'd like to thank our globetrotting street reviewers for providing their insight into streets around the world. Next time you get back from your next vacation, log into StreetAdvisor.com and tell us about some of the streets you visited.

The long tail of hyperlocal real estate information

The importance of local information on the internet is a topic that interests many people. Back in 2005, blogger Gideon Rosenblatt wrote a post called 'Long tail meets local in the “local tail”'. In November 2007, Alex Iskold in 'The rise of hyperlocal information' writes about "the increasing availability of fine-grained information about locales."

The concept behind StreetAdvisor.com is based on evolving internet user behaviors, including user generated content (UGC), and different ways of categorizing information about the world, like hyperlocal information and the long tail.

Hyperlocal

Hyperlocal information is information created about specific geographic locations, such as streets, suburbs, neighborhoods or even cities. Hyperlocal information is a kind of information that rarely gets covered by the traditional media, even by local newspapers. Information created by ordinary people focuses on the way we live in our neighborhoods, about the kinds of activities we engage in, such as local sporting events, and the kinds of social and business transactions we participate in.

An article that compares two local supermarkets, for example, and says why one is better because it stocks more products, is a perfect example of citizen journalism. This kind of hyperlocal information will never be reported on the evening news, because it would only interest the people that live nearby, but because it is local it is perhaps more relevant and helpful to you than what you see on TV.

Long tail

Another way of looking at the information created and published on the internet is a concept called the long tail. The long tail refers to items that, although they are less popular than other items, are nonetheless useful or relevant. In relation to books, Amazon is a long tail retailer because it can sell millions of different items, even those that are not very popular. A physical bookstore, in comparison, can only carry a few popular titles because only so many books will fit on its shelves, and it has to choose which ones to stock. Amazon doesn't have to choose - it can stock everything.

The long tail concept applies to information as well as to physical goods. Information about what it is like to live on any single street, for example, may only be relevant for a small number of people, but it is very relevant to them, and is thus more important to them.

We all know about Sunset Boulevard and Wall St from TV and the movies, but to its residents, Thunderbird Place in Anchorage, Alaska is more important. By definition, hyperlocal real estate information is long tail information.

The wisdom of crowds

StreetAdvisor aims to provide value to internet users interested in real estate, especially if they are planning to purchase or rent a home in a new area. By aggregating individual reviews and opinions about streets and neighborhoods, StreetAdvisor is able to offer the cumulative wisdom of crowds about real estate to the world.

In the Hyperlocal:ist blog, Ara J. Berberian provides a definition of what he calls the 'local long tail':

"The number of goods and services available locally that would interest you - if only you knew that they existed - would collectively outnumber or exceed the goods and services that you currently buy."

Translated into local real estate terms, this means that the amount of information that could exist about a street, if only it was collected together in one place, would be greater than the amount of information any resident already possesses about it.

Each and every resident knows something about their street that would be of value to their neighbors. The problem is that there is no easy way to share this information. Busy people don't have time to chat with their neighbors like they used to, and we sometimes hesitate to establish neighborly relations with people who are different to us.

StreetAdvisor provides a safe, friendly and fun way for neighbors to share information about their streets and cities, and to describe where they live to other people, helping them to decide where they want to live next.

Rosenblatt concludes by saying that:

"we will hopefully start seeing a renewed interest in neighborhoods, and ultimately our neighbors... This is where you live. News about planned roadwork on your street or improvements to the nearby park really matter."

StreetAdvisor.com thinks it matters too, and we encourage you to log in and tell us about it.

Building a community garden: a StreetAdvisor case study

The residents of Harrison Street, Brunswick East, Victoria, Australia (StreetScore 63.98) are using StreetAdvisor to discuss and plan the creation of a community garden.

Harrison St by babyboo.

These community gardens, where local residents work together to build and tend a vegetable garden, usually on public or vacant land, are popular in many inner suburbs of Australia's big cities, where a European immigrant population that settled in the 1950s and 1960s is mingling with young professionals, often with serious environmental values.

What do Australians of Italian and Greek heritage, now nearing retirement age, and their families have in common with the IT geeks and new urban hippies moving into and gentrifying inner city suburbs like Brunswick?

The answer is an interest in organic gardening, permaculture and sustainability. The Community Gardens website has more information, and one of the best known community gardens in Melbourne is the Veg Out Community Garden, located on the corner of Shakespeare Grove and Chaucer Street in St Kilda.

See also the nearby CERES (the Centre for Education and Research in Environmental Strategies) website. CERES is a community environment project located beside the Merri Creek in Brunswick.

Harrison St by babyboo.

Back in June 2007 babyboo wrote:

"I already have some interest from a couple of guys further up the street but I am wondering if anyone in our street or surrounding streets is interested in the concept of a community garden? I was thinking of the vacant lot at the northern end of the street as a possible space? I am not sure who owns it but it may be the local council as it is too close to the high voltage powerlines to build on...Anyway would love to hear from anyone who is interested."

Discussion has carried on ever since. This is the kind of community discussion and cooperation that StreetAdvisor can help facilitate. We're very keen to see how this project evolves, and we'd love to see some pictures uploaded when the garden is created.

The power of positive real estate reviews

StreetAdvisor.com community members and bloggers reviewing StreetAdvisor sometimes query why we get more positive reviews of streets than negative ones.

There are many complex social behaviors occurring in online social networks, and every social network provider learns new things every day about how people behave online and what they expect from participating in online communities.

So while we have some ideas about why we get more positive reviews about streets than negative ones, there is still much to learn. These are some of our observations, backed up by research from a variety of sources.

Research into the power of customer reviews relates mostly to online purchases of everyday consumer items, but we think the ideas this research has uncovered are also relevant to the kind of online investigation people undertake  prior to buying real estate, even though the eventual real estate purchases happen in the real world.

User reviews are powerful

We know that reviews are an influential form of online content. Most online shoppers use reviews in making purchasing choices:

71% of online shoppers read reviews, making it the most widely read consumer-generated content (Forrester) and 77% of online shoppers read consumer product reviews and ratings (Jupiter) (bazaarblog.com)

Online consumers also prefer 'real' consumer reviews, not marketing spin, and most people trust the reviews they read online:

the majority of consumers we surveyed prefer sites with peer-written product reviews: 58% “strongly” or “somewhat” prefer sites that include reviews, while only 14% don’t trust them. (marketingsherpa.com)

The power of positive reviews

People respond more to positivity rather than negativity, so positive reviews are more powerful than negative ones:

users are influenced by positive reviews than negative reviews (27 percent versus 12 percent, respectively) (yahoolocalblog.com)

According to the research:

Four out of five online adults (80 percent) are likely to be influenced by a review, and seventy-one percent of respondents at least somewhat, if not strongly, find online reviews helpful in making purchasing decisions. (yahoolocalblog.com) 

User generated reviews encourage online sales:

Almost 50% of online shoppers find user reviews helpful. That 50% spends more online than the other 50%. (marketingpilgrim.com)

Why do people write reviews?

This is a subject of great debate. Are people generous or selfish? Do they act to help others or to further their own interests?

There is no simple answer to this question. Here are some of the reasons why people write online reviews.

People like writing about what they like

Research indicates that people are more interested in writing about things they like than things they don't like:

87 percent of the reviews are generally positive in tone... positive reviews outweighed negative reviews 8 to 1. (bazaarvoice.com)

People are also more willing to write about positive online shopping experiences:

Customers are about twice as likely to write user reviews about good shopping experiences than bad ones. Likewise they are twice as likely to write user reviews about products they like than products they do not like. (marketingpilgrim.com)

Sharing makes you feel good

People are willing to help others:

the majority of online adults feel compelled to offer their opinion in order to help others in their community through knowledge-sharing. (yahoolocalblog.com)

They are motivated by generousity:

reviewers are motivated by goodwill and positive sentiment. Fully 90 percent write reviews in order to help others make better buying decisions. (bazaarvoice.com)

Sharing makes you feel connected

Contributing to online communities makes people feel more connected to the community

One in three of those surveyed [by Yahoo] said they felt more connected to the online community when they contributed reviews. (smartcompany.com.au)

one in three adults (33 percent) feel more connected to their community by contributing to online review Web sites. (yahoolocalblog.com)

User generated content, reviews and real estate

How does all this relate to real estate and reviews of streets and neighborhoods - the kind of information published by StreetAdvisor?

Well, just as many people find reviews of shoes and MP3 players helpful in making purchasing decisions, they also like that information to be local, because that makes it more relvant and valuable:

three in four online adults (77 percent) agree that sites with online reviews of local businesses are valuable community tools. (yahoolocalblog.com)

Hyperlocal real estate reviews - StreetAdvisor.com

StreetAdvisor is unique in providing a platform for people to reviews the streets they live in and visit regularly. By writing reviews, community members can feel good about sharing their local knowledge and may feel more connected to their local community.

Their reviews provides valuable information to other community members, who can then make better decisions about the home they want to buy. This is a very difficult decision to make and every form of assistance is extremely useful.

Because people are motivated more to write about streets they like, more positive reviews are created than negative ones. Furthermore, these positive reviews have a more powerful effect on the decision making  processes of other community members than negative ones.

While you should be honest, finding something positive to say about your street and sharing your local real estate knowledge in an online community like StreetAdvisor is good for everyone in the community. It may even encourage some wonderful people to buy a property in your street and help improve the tone of the neighborhood.