You can determine if your neighborhood is safe in the following ways:
- Contact the local neighborhood watch group and ask some questions
- Check the National Sex Offender Public Website
- Download a crime mapping app
- Visit the neighborhood yourself
Maybe you’re moving soon and you plan on venturing outside of the neighborhood you currently call home.
If you’re a woman living alone who wants to stay safe, you’ll need as much information as possible about nearby neighborhoods in order to figure out how safe they may be.
But, how do you find out such info?
If you don’t know what to look for in a neighborhood, you’ll need to find out the answers to several questions before moving.
For example, what makes a town a safe place to live? What crime and safety index numbers indicate a good neighborhood?
I’ll answer all those questions and more ahead, so keep reading!
What Makes A Neighborhood Bad?
You probably hear it all the time on the news and during discussions among your community – so-and-so town is a bad neighborhood.
But, how do you know whether the neighborhood you’re thinking of moving to or even the one you live in now is considered bad? To find out, look for the following traits.
Graffiti
Graffiti is public vandalism and thus a crime.
Lots of places have graffiti decorating the walls and are not necessarily poor neighborhoods, but the more graffiti you see, the worse the area of town usually is.
Homeless Population
The National Alliance to End Homelessness says that the United States has about 567,715 homeless people per 2020 data.
Although these people are scattered all over the country, it seems like the homeless always seem to more visibly congregate in bad neighborhoods.
Or perhaps it’s just that neighborhoods like these have more homeless?
Dollar Stores, Cheap Phone Stores, And Liquor Stores
The quality of the area stores is also a big indicator that you’re not in the greatest part of town.
If you see a lot of dollar stores, this implies that the local population can’t afford higher-end stores. Cheap phone stores represent the same thing.
Liquor stores are also usually more prevalent – so much so that reports have been published on this very topic.
One such study is from the Journal of Urban Health.
The research, from 2013, concludes this: “We found that living in a disadvantaged neighborhood was associated with reporting more drinking consequences even after adjusting for individual socioeconomic and race/ethnicity variables.”
Few Upscale Establishments
Further attesting to the economic conditions of the area is that the neighborhood will lack nice places.
Maybe there are a few scattered here and there, perhaps on the town’s outskirts or just outside of the town.
Restaurants may be cheap, retailers are off-brand, and there are no movie theaters or malls around.
Run-Down Homes And Buildings
If you take a drive through a bad neighborhood, especially if you were previously coming from a good one, you’ll definitely notice the difference.
Most of the buildings, including homes, are in disarray.
The foundations look old and weathered, the roofs have damage, the windows are sometimes broken, and the concrete is cracked and falling apart.
Gas Stations and Stores Are Surrounded By Bulletproof Glass
Any wide-open businesses such as gas stations and even some drive-through restaurants may be shielded with bulletproof glass in a bad neighborhood.
This tells you that crime happens often enough here that these shop owners feel a strong urge to protect themselves.
Lots Of Fences, Locks, And Window Bars
Businesses aren’t the only ones who go out of their way to safeguard their properties.
The residents do as well, outfitting their homes with chain-link fences, heavy door locks, and thick metal bars across their windows.
You may also see an increased rate of people owning dogs, especially ferocious breeds like pit bulls.
High Unemployment
With the neighborhood’s condition so poor, it’s unsurprising that most people who live around here are without jobs.
Do you see a lot of people out and about if you drive through town in the middle of the afternoon on a weekday?
This can be an indication that these people should be working, but they’re not.
Gangs And Other Illegal Activity
Such a run-down neighborhood will of course be a hotbed for all sorts of illegal activity, especially gangs.
Rival gangs may dominate the town, sometimes with innocents caught in the crossfire. Drug-dealing may be commonplace as well and not even all that hidden.
High Crime Rate
The above illegal activities can’t help but increase the crime rate.
From robberies to homicides, assaults, and everything in between, you may constantly hear police sirens as well as ambulance sirens in a bad neighborhood.
What Are The Qualities Of A Good Neighborhood?
All right, I’m hoping you feel more confident in identifying and avoiding a bad neighborhood now, but what should you be looking for in your new city or town?
Here are some traits to have high on your priorities list.
Quiet
When you’re in a safe neighborhood, you can hear birds, insects, maybe the laughter of children in the distance.
Otherwise, it’s basically quiet – both day and night. Police and ambulance presence is a rare sight, which makes you feel nice and safe.
High-Quality Stores
Your local mall is 15 minutes away, the retail outlet is 10 minutes from here, and you have a whole strip of restaurants maybe five minutes by car.
All these establishments are high-quality, no off-brands here.
Your neighborhood can afford to have places like this because economically, it’s booming.
Housing Variety
You also notice many different types of living arrangements in a nice neighborhood.
From sizable condos to beautiful studio apartments, ranch houses, townhouses, single-family homes, craftsman houses, and maybe even some Tudor homes, good neighborhoods have diversity.
Well-Lit
Does it ever seem to you like bad neighborhoods are just darker?
Mostly it’s because the area is in such poor condition that if streetlights blow out or get knocked out, the town can’t or won’t immediately repair them.
If the neighborhood you’re in is well-lit, that’s usually a pretty good sign that you’re safe.
Greenery
Instead of the concrete jungle that is common in a bad neighborhood, a good one is generally surrounded by greenery as far as the eye can see.
The homes have front lawns and large backyards. Trees line the streets, often large ones. Nearby are plenty of parks where you can take a walk.
How Do You Research A Neighborhood Before You Buy Or Rent?
Looking at the above qualities of both good and bad neighborhoods can be pretty telling, but it’s not your only litmus test to gauge whether you’re moving to a safe place.
You can also do your investigation into a neighborhood. Here’s how.
(1) Research Property Trend Values
As you begin the house hunt, you’ll naturally learn what new homes cost in the area. This tells you only a portion of what you need to know though.
Property trend values can paint a picture of how safe a city or town has been and is projected to be in the years ahead. Zillow’s home values index is a good place to start.
Just input a neighborhood, zip code, or state that you want to look further into.
(2) Review The Walkability Score
According to ValuePenguin by LendingTree, in 2020, 91.3 percent of households in the US have one car at least.
Even still, not owning a car is not necessarily a sign that you live in a poor neighborhood. In some cities and towns across the country, it’s easier to walk than it is to drive. New York City comes to mind, for example.
If you ever do travel on your own two feet, however, you’ll want to know how walkable your neighborhood is. Walk Score will tell you.
Like the Zillow home values index, just input your city, neighborhood, or address into Walk Score. It will produce a walk score and even a bike score.
The most walkable places in the US are New York with a score of 88.3, San Francisco with a score of 87.4, Boston with a score of 82, Philadelphia with a score of 78.8, and Miami with a score of 77.6, according to Redfin.
(3) Look At The National Sex Offender Public Website
No one wants to live near a registered sex offender, but they can sometimes slip through without you realizing it.
That will no longer be the case when you visit the National Sex Offender Public Website or NOSPW.
Produced and updated by the United States Department of Justice, you can look up purported sex offenders by name.
You can also input your address and expand the search radius up to three miles away.
(4) Ask Around Town
What better way to get a feel for what a neighborhood is like than to ask the people who call it their home?
They’re in the thick of things every single day, so if the place is dangerous in any way, those who live there will probably tell you as much.
What Is A Good Crime And Safety Index?
I saved another method of neighborhood research for last because I want to discuss it separately. It’s the crime and safety index.
Here is the current crime and safety index for the US courtesy of Numbeo:
As of this writing, Memphis has the highest crime rate index in the country at 74.81 and a safety index of 25.19.
That’s followed by Baltimore with a crime index of 74.61, Detroit (73.47), Saint Louis (70.34), and Albuquerque (70.01).
Neighborhood Scout states that any city or town with a safety index of 50 or higher is safer than other parts of the country.
For example, New York, New York has a safety index of 53.04 and a crime index of 46.96. Richmond, Virginia’s safety index is 54.44 and the crime index is 45.02.
You’d be safest in a place where the safety index and crime index aren’t so close.
To illustrate, Austin, Texas has a safety index of 64.20 but a crime index of 35.80. Raleigh, North Carolina’s safety index is 65.55 and its crime index is 34.45.
What’s the safest place in the US according to Numbeo? That would be Amarillo, Texas with a crime index of 22.73 and a safety index of 77.27.
Conclusion
Being in a safe neighborhood is crucial, especially for a woman who is living alone.
If you want to know how safe the area is, you can always take a drive through some neighborhoods to see what kind of condition they are in, how green they are, and how well-lit and quiet these areas are.
Don’t just use those qualities as the benchmark for a safe neighborhood, though.
Also review how many sex offenders live there, how walkable the neighborhood is, and its crime and safety index as well. Stay safe!
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