Home values and Halloween candy

OK, this is pretty silly, but Halloween is tomorrow.

If you have young children as I do, it’s practically national holiday over the next two days between parades at school and parties and trick or treating tomorrow.

I just got back from my five-year-old son’s kindergarten parade – my wife is headed over to preschool to watch our two daughters show off their fairy costumes.

If you are looking to optimize your haul of Halloween candy, Zillow.com has just come up with an index on the best towns and neighborhoods in each metro market to trick-or-treat in.

I know, just what you were looking for.

Anyway, the index, Zillow insists, is not just based on the rather crass and faulty assumption that neighborhoods with big and expensive homes will dole out more treats.

Home values are just one of four factors measures, the Seattle-based real estate site contends.

Disclaimers aside, the top five all happen to be high up on the scale when it comes to real estate values.

I know you really are in suspense right now, so here they are in order: Cambridge, Somerville, Brookline, South End and Charlestown.

What other factors were weighed? According to Zillow, walkability, crime rates and population density were also put into the mix.

This passage from the Zillow index detailing Cambridge is certainly enlightening.

“Home to Harvard and MIT, ”The People’s Republic of” Cambridge got high marks for density, walk score, and affluence (The Zillow Home Value Index is $441,400, up 8% year-over-year), meaning trick-or-treaters can score a lot of king-size candy quickly.''

I think I’ll skip the trip into Cambridge and stay here in Natick.