The “Nearby” Exaggeration in Real Estate

Mary recently moved to Washington, D.C. and is looking to rent an apartment near where she is to attend college. As a first step, she consults a local classifieds web application to explore housing listings within her budget. Upon selecting the first listing in her search results she reads the description. What luck! Not only is the posted apartment near her college, but it is also close to a number of D.C.’s attractions, namely the Lincoln Memorial, National Arboretum, Smithsonian Zoological Park and the trendy U-street district. Reading further, the listing states that the property is close to numerous metro stations and three large grocery stores. Surely this is the apartment for her. On examining the other listings, however, she discovers that virtually all of them state that they are near to many of these same attractions, as well as a few others. Can Mary really be this lucky?