Home buyers can now see local daycare options on Redfin listings

Families searching for a new house can now view nearby childcare options directly on Redfin property listings. The feature, launched in partnership with the online marketplace Winnie, displays data from more than 250,000 licensed early care and education programs across the United States. This information is currently available on both the desktop website and the mobile application for iOS and Android.

Daryl Fairweather, chief economist at Redfin, noted that housing and childcare often represent the two largest expenses for many households. He stated that searching for a home frequently coincides with having a child, making it useful to evaluate care options before committing to a mortgage. "If you're trying to do the calculation on how much house you can afford, it's helpful to know what your childcare options are before committing to that mortgage," Fairweather said.

The new "Preschool & daycare" tab sits alongside the existing K-12 school ratings provided by GreatSchools. When buyers scroll through a listing, the system pulls Winnie profiles for nearby providers, including licensed center, home, and school-based programs. It displays up to five options, showing the ages each program serves and the distance from the specific home.

Clicking on a provider name opens a pop-up with additional details such as hours of operation, address, and links to the provider's website. It also lists any published parent reviews and information on financial assistance. Sara Mauskopf, CEO and co-founder of Winnie, explained that while some details are available in the pop-up, further information like available slots and tuition rates can be found by clicking through to the full Winnie profile.

Winnie builds its provider database using public state licensing records. Mauskopf said that about a quarter of the 250,000 provider pages have been claimed by the centers themselves. These active providers frequently update their pages to reflect changes in open spaces, which can vary from day to day.

Isabelle Novak, a spokesperson for Redfin, confirmed that the integration went live on the mobile app at the end of September. She added that the feature will only show providers within a 10-mile radius of the property address. If no programs are found within that distance, a message will appear noting the lack of nearby options. This helps buyers identify "childcare deserts," a term used for areas with limited access to licensed programs, which might otherwise appear affordable but lack essential services.

Mauskopf, a mother of three, recalled scrambling to secure childcare after her family moved, a situation that nearly forced one parent to leave work. She believes the partnership addresses a common blind spot where families focus on home prices but ignore care logistics. "I think it's really critical for families to be thinking about childcare upfront and not as an afterthought," she said.

One remaining gap in the data is cost. Mauskopf noted that many programs still require in-person tours before sharing tuition rates. However, she has observed a shift in the industry where providers are increasingly posting prices online. This change is partly driven by families asking artificial intelligence tools for program rates, which encourages providers to be transparent. "A lot of providers, for the first time, are willing to list prices online, since AI will just give you an answer anyway," Mauskopf said.