Housing
You may not think of housing as a product or service akin to other consumer products or services. But housing plays a considerable role in shaping our day-to-day behaviors. Where you live, and the surrounding infrastructure – the “built environment” – influences everything from how we commute to how we play. Similarly, the design of our homes (and the amenities provided) can affect eating and sleeping habits and our social activity. For the housing industry, we focused on two categories: apartment management and development firms and single-family home builders. These companies aren’t household names, but they play a big part in our health.
Overall Ratings
Company
Category
H-Score
Highlights
The four apartment management firms examined had some of the highest scores of all companies across four industries. These high scores are reflective of the power of location – offering residences in largely urban, walkable neighborhoods that have good access to fresh food and to green spaces leads to positive influences on multiple behaviors.
The single-family home builders didn’t fare as well – often due to the locations that they choose for new housing developments. Each of them typically builds homes in car-dependent communities, with little access to fresh food or green spaces.
Apartment Management and Development Firms
In selecting companies for this market segment, we chose two of the largest managers of apartments – AvalonBay and Equity Residential – that have locations in several regions across the country. To provide contrast, we also selected two startups – Common and Culdesac – that have unique features that differentiate them from more traditional apartment management firms. Common offers a co-housing model – residences that have significant common spaces, such a group kitchens, that require social interaction and collaboration. Culdesac is building a car-free community in Tempe, Arizona, with plans to expand the model to other locations.
Highlights and Opportunities
Culdesac scored very high – in fact it had the highest H-Score of any of the 37 companies in the Building H Index. It is also the only company we reviewed to score in positive territory on all five behaviors. The high score is likely the result of intentional design choices that prioritize active transportation, food accessibility, outdoor common spaces, and even natural light within the living spaces.
Equity Residential and Common both scored very positively, largely due to the locations of their buildings, which were almost always in walkable communities with good access to fresh food and green spaces. AvalonBay, which manages properties in both urban and suburban locations, scored positively, but not as well due to the greater variation in neighborhood characteristics.
Key opportunities for apartment managers include designing amenities such as playgrounds, gardens, and other common spaces (indoors and outdoors). Investing in circadian LED lighting systems (that mimic natural light throughout the day) could aid with better sleep.
Single-Family Home Builders
We selected three of the largest single-family home builders – DR Horton, KB Home and Pulte Group – for review. Each of these builders is developing and selling homes across the country.
H-Score
42
40
35
Highlights and Opportunities
All three builders were rated negatively for most of the five behaviors. The nature of the locations in which each of them builds – newly developed areas that are largely car-dependent, with limited access to parks and fresh food – manifests in the scores for eating, physical activity and getting outdoors. The differences among the three are likely the result of differences in amenities and – possibly – a health-focused conceptual project undertaken by KB Home.
The key challenge – and opportunity – for these companies is in site selection and site development. To the degree that they continue to build in previously undeveloped areas, they might be able to counteract some of the unhealthy location effects by working with other business and local officials to create health-promoting built environments, which could include walking and biking infrastructure, green spaces, fresh food outlets and other attractions. Where such public environmental changes are not feasible, there are opportunities to build amenities, such as playgrounds, gardens and spaces for social gatherings within their developments.
Methodology
The methodology for both apartment management and development firms and home builders was quite similar. For all of the companies – with the exception of Culdesac, which currently has only one location – we selected a sample of locations and then looked at the environmental characteristics for those locations. We also looked at features such as amenities and pilot programs.
For influence on eating, we calculated what proportion of locations in our sample were in Census tracts that the USDA had declared as “low-access to food” neighborhoods.(1)
We used the Walk Score(2) service to calculate the walkability of the neighborhoods where homes and apartments are located as the key measure of influence on physical activity. A higher Walk Score for a neighborhood has have been associated with more physical activity among its residents.(3)
For sleep, we looked at whether the companies have noted specific efforts to improve the sleep experiences of their residents. In addition, we noted the indirect effects of increased (or decreased) physical activity and outdoor exposure on sleep.
For engaging socially, we looked primarily at programming activities (such as social events), but also – for the single-family home builders – the proportion of their new homes for sale that had front porches, a feature that facilitates social connection with neighbors.
The built environment can also facilitate outdoor activity, so we calculated the proportion of locations that are within a 10-minute walk from a public park – an access standard promoted by the Trust for Public Land.(4) As with the other behaviors, we also looked at amenities – such as outdoor common spaces – that promote spending time outdoors.
Team
Research, analysis and writing by Samir Khanna, Samara Shima and Steve Downs. Review and editing by Steve Downs.
Location data acquisition, processing and analysis by Wael Kanj and Steve Downs.
Notes
The “low-access to food” designation means that a significant portion of residents of the Census tract are more than one mile (if urban) or more than 10 miles (if rural) from the nearest supermarket or large grocery store. See U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Food Access Research Atlas: Measuring Access to Food.
Walk Score is a methodology for assessing the walkability of a location, using a proprietary algorithm that factors in walking proximity to amenities and pedestrian friendliness. Walk Score is based on a scale of 0-100. Locations scoring 49 or under are considered “car-dependent;” Locations scoring 70 or more are rated “very walkable.” Those scoring 90 and above are labeled “walker’s paradise.” See https://www.walkscore.com/methodology.shtml for more on the Walk Score methodology.
E Twardzik et al. Walk Score and objectively measured physical activity within a national cohort. J Epidemiol Community Health 2019;73:549-556.
Trust for Public Land. The ParkServe® database: Detailed information about city parks in the U.S. Trust for Public land website.