How Safe Is Your Neighborhood?

When it's time to move to a new house, one of the first questions to cross people's minds is usually "how safe is the neighborhood"? This can be a difficult thing to figure out sometimes, but there are a few things you can be on the lookout for that will let you know just how safe a neighborhood really is.

a) Pay attention to the traffic patterns. If you are looking at a house that is located on a busy street it might be a deterrent for burglars, but if you have children you might want to take other factors into consideration. For instance, if your kids are going to be playing outside at all, you are probably not going to feel very safe if there are cars flying up and down the road all the time. For the safety of your children, you might want to look at homes on quieter streets.

b) See if there is a neighborhood watch in the area that you're interested in. Communities with a neighborhood watch often foster a feeling of safety and security among residents simply because they know that other people close by are watching out for suspicious activity.

c) Check the statistics of the area with local law enforcement agencies. They should be able to provide you with information about break-ins, robberies, and other crimes that have been committed in that general area over the past few months or years.

d) Check to see if there are any registered sex offenders in the area. You can find this information by going online. All convicted offenders are required by law to register as sex offenders, so you should not have any difficulty locating this type of information.

e) Do some research on the schools in the area to find out what kind of reputations they have. Find out what their academic reputations are, their instances of crimes on campus, and whether the police regularly work with the schools to educate kids about crime and safety.

f) Check with a real estate agent so that they can run some statistical data for you. By doing this, you can examine the previous selling data for the neighborhood you are considering, which will tell you whether homes are a hot commodity in that area. This is important information to have because it will let you know whether people are trying desperately to get out or trying to get in to the neighborhood.

g) You should also ask your real estate agent how many rental properties are in the neighborhood. The fact is, people tend to not take care of properties as well when they don't own them, so this can play a huge factor in determining whether a neighborhood is safe or heading towards being undesirable.

h) Drive through the neighborhood on several different occasions and take a careful look around. If you notice things such as bars on windows, people hanging out on front porches, cars parked in front yards, or chain-link fences, you will probably discover that the neighborhood is a bit less than desirable. While it might not turn out to be technically "unsafe", it could be a neighborhood that has the potential to head in that direction, so you might want to steer clear of it.

i) If you see any neighbors outside, try to casually strike up a conversation with them. Talking to people (even those that you don't know) can provide you with some insightful information about the neighborhood you are considering.

j) Try taking an experimental walk through the neighborhood on a Saturday or Sunday to get a feel for the environment. Doing this can tell you a lot about whether the area is one that you and your family might feel safe living in.

Pamella Neely writes about how to bestlogcabinkits.com/howtobuild build a log cabin and how to furnish bestlogcabinkits.com/howtobuild/logcabininteriors.html log cabin interiors.