Everyone knows that the key to a great piece of real estate is location, location, location. While this might be a tired old cliché, there’s still some truth to it.

Studies show that feeling comfortable where you live can impact both your happiness and your health. While walkability, green space, and proximity to amenities all come out near the top of the list of things homeowners desire, the safety of your neighborhood should be your number one concern.

After all, if you don’t feel comfortable walking down the street or you’re nervous about package thieves or even home intruders, you can’t very well relax and enjoy your life.

Whether you’re looking for a new home and want to check the neighborhood before you commit, or you just want to know more about the place you’re currently living, there are plenty of crime maps and other online resources to help you do so.

3 Popular Crime Map Websites

If you want an easy way to view area crimes on a map, the following sites will give exactly what you’re looking for. They’re all similar, so you’ll want to check them all out and choose the one that gives you the best user experience.

1. Trulia Crime Map

The Trulia Crime Map uses data from police agencies, newsfeeds, and several crime partners including SpotCrime, CrimeReports, and EveryBlock to provide viewers with an interactive map showing area crime reports.

The site is free to access, and crimes are visually represented in the form of a heat map. Darker colors represent areas with higher crime, while lighter colors denote safer areas.

You have the ability to search by city, state, zip code, or even specific neighborhoods. You can also filter by crime type, zoom into a particular area, and view reports including crime rate by time period, and the past 2,500 reported crimes.

2. Crime Mapping

CrimeMapping.com is another free website that provides users with local crime data. It’s different from other sites because it doesn’t rely on “scraping” data from other providers. Instead, it automatically imports crime data from participating law enforcement agencies.

The drawback of this is that if your local law enforcement agency doesn’t participate, the site won’t be any good to you. However, if you live in a participating area, it’s one of your best resources for crime data.

It allows you to pull up a map of the area in question and sort by crime type, date, and more. You can also run a variety of reports and set up alerts, so you’re notified when certain types of crimes occur in an area.

3. CrimeReports

CrimeReports.com claims to have access to the largest number of law enforcement agencies, so it’s definitely worth checking out and comparing to the results you get from the other sites.

From the map view, you can easily view incidents that were reported, and click on any incident to get more information. There’s also a simple share button that allows you to share the information on Facebook, Twitter, or by email.

Crimes are separated into violent, property, and quality of life. Sex offender data is also included. Filters allow you to narrow down your search and detect patterns, like burglaries on weekends or violent crimes by the time of day.

You can also report crime tips to legal agencies directly from the site and register home cameras so police can quickly find the evidence they need when crimes are committed.

Beyond the Maps: Advanced Neighborhood Analytics

While crime maps are an excellent way to get a feel for the number of reported crimes in your area, there are other factors that go into how safe and comfortable a neighborhood feels. Check out the following sites for a detailed analysis of what it’s like living in your specific neighborhood.

1. Neighborhood Scout

Although it’s a paid platform, Neighborhood Scout is well worth the investment. This is particularly true if you’re thinking about moving into a new neighborhood and want to make sure you have all of the important information before you do.

The benefit of using a paid site is that it tends to be more accurate, specific, and comprehensive than most of the free options. Here you’ll find not only detailed information about neighborhood-specific crimes, but also important information about housing, real estate trends, demographics, school scores, and forecast analytics.

2. Area Vibes

Area Vibes is another unique way to check out your neighborhood. On this site, you’ll find that each area has a specific livability score. This is a numerical representation of the area’s crime rates, education, employment, amenities, cost of living, weather, and housing.

Since the scores are all based on a scale of 100, it makes it very easy to compare various neighborhoods before settling on one. Over 35,000 areas across the United States have been assigned a livability score, making this site best for comparing one city to another, rather than specific neighborhoods.

3. Niche

Rounding up our list of websites to help you evaluate your neighborhood, Niche is another free tool that you’ll want to check out. This site combines detailed analysis with real user reviews to give you a true feeling for what it’s truly like to live in a neighborhood.

With letter-grade scores for categories including crime, housing, schools, diversity, nightlife, and family-friendliness, this is one of the most comprehensive sites around. Here you’ll find the good, the bad, and some things that are likely to surprise you!

Feel Safe in Your Home, No Matter Where You Live

Now that you know how to use a crime map to check out your local area, you’ll have a better idea of what your neighborhood is really like.

Whether you live in a super-safe neighborhood or one that has more crime than you would like, you have plenty of options for securing your home. Check out our custom security kits and cameras so you can get the peace of mind that you deserve.