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Prospective home buyers are often experiencing transition in their personal lives. Perhaps a wedding&苍产蝉辫;鈥� or divorce 鈥� is on the horizon. Maybe their kids have grown up and moved out, or their financial circumstances have changed.

In many cases, though, people are looking to move because they want to start or grow their families, said Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, a real estate brokerage &苍产蝉辫;鈥� making the matter of childcare particularly relevant to their search. 

With housing and childcare for many families鈥� two biggest expenses 鈥� an intersection that Redfin explores in a 鈥斅� leaders at Redfin have been looking for a way to bring childcare into their own platform for some time.聽

Now, they鈥檙e debuting a new feature, in partnership with Winnie, a national online childcare marketplace, that gives families visibility into nearby early care and education programs right there on the property listing they鈥檙e viewing. 

鈥淪earching for a home often coincides with having a child,鈥� said Fairweather. 鈥淚f you鈥檙e trying to do the calculation on how much house you can afford, it鈥檚 helpful to know what your childcare options are before committing to that mortgage.鈥�

Beginning today, Winnie鈥檚 childcare data from more than 250,000 licensed early care and education programs nationwide is available on every for-sale property listing on Redfin鈥檚 mobile and desktop websites. The integration will be available on Redfin鈥檚 mobile application for iOS and Android by the end of September, said Isabelle Novak, a spokesperson for the real estate company. 

The childcare feature will live right alongside the K-12 feature from GreatSchools 鈥� a nonprofit that rates schools 鈥� that has been available on Redfin for over a decade, Novak added. Prospective buyers, scrolling down a property listing, will see a 鈥淜-12鈥� option and a 鈥淧reschool & daycare鈥� option.

The 鈥淧reschool & daycare鈥� feature pulls the Winnie profiles of nearby providers 鈥� including licensed center-, home- and school-based early childhood programs 鈥� displaying up to five options along with the ages each program serves and its distance from the home. A buyer can click the name of a previewed program to see a pop-up that offers more details, including a provider鈥檚 website URL, hours of operation, description, address, options for financial assistance, language and any parent reviews that have been published to Winnie. 

For further information, buyers can click through to the provider鈥檚 profile on the Winnie website, which may have information like available slots and tuition rates, said Sara Mauskopf, CEO and co-founder of Winnie. Winnie pulls from public state licensing databases to create provider profiles on its site, Mauskopf said. From there, providers can update their pages with additional information. About a quarter of the 250,000 provider pages on Winnie have been claimed, Mauskopf added, and providers who are active on the Winnie platform will frequently update the number and type of open spaces they have in their program, since it can change 鈥渄ay-to-day.鈥� 

Mauskopf believes this partnership will be very valuable to young families for whom 鈥渃hildcare is a necessity, not a nice-to-have,鈥� she said. 

鈥淚 think it鈥檚 really critical for families to be thinking about childcare upfront and not as an afterthought,鈥� she said.

Mauskopf, a mom of three, recalled that when she and her husband were trying to find a home in their area, their focus was on home prices, not care options. After they鈥檇 moved, they ended up 鈥渟crambling at the last minute to secure childcare,鈥� even having to consider whether one of them would need to step away from work until they could find childcare for their kids. 

That鈥檚 as important for families moving to quiet rural areas as it is for those in large metro areas, she said. They will want to know if they have many options or few, and if those are within walking distance or require a drive. 

鈥淥ne of the things we know is true is that there are sometimes areas where there is no childcare nearby 鈥� childcare deserts,鈥� Mauskopf said, referencing often used to describe areas that lack access to licensed programs. 鈥淭hose might actually be affordable places to live,鈥� she added, but if care is sparse or unavailable, that could be a dealbreaker for some families. The new feature can help families see whether there are care options near the home they鈥檙e eyeing. 

Indeed, Novak at Redfin said that the childcare integration will only show providers within a 10-mile radius of the address. If there are none, a message will appear noting that no programs were found within that distance of the home. 

One detail that many families will be seeking is the cost of childcare in a given area. Unfortunately, Mauskopf said, a lot of early care and education programs still require families to tour the space before sharing prices, 鈥渨hich is crazy,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 unlike any market.鈥� 

That may soon change, though. She has recently to a shift in the industry, in which providers are starting to post tuition information publicly 鈥� a change likely driven by the fact that families are asking AI about program rates, she noted. 

鈥淎 lot of providers, for the first time, are willing to list prices online, since AI will just give you an answer anyway,鈥� Mauskopf said. 

A majority of programs are still requiring parents to come in first, she said, but there鈥檚 increasing willingness to share costs upfront. She hopes that shift will continue and can soon be reflected in the Redfin integration so families can have a complete picture of their costs before making a move.

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