crime as a factor in buying real estate

[Andrew Brewer]

Hi Everyone, I am looking for peoples experience in buying when considering the crime in an area and how much crime is too much. Personally, I've lived a majority of my life in California (Palms in LA, Richmond CA when it was bad, Oakland, Berkeley, San Jose) and there is always crime everywhere, theres consistently aggresive homeless people, car break ins, burglaries, muggings, etc, even in areas that are "nicer"

a good example would be : the high rise I currently work in in San Jose. Outside on the street and in the underground parking garage we have a huge crime problem, its a daily occurence to have to the police onsite to arrest someone, to have maintenance reapir/clean up vandalism, and to have homeless camping/urinating/defecating/in the corners. Despite this, the top 21 floors are luxury condos ranging in price from 550000 for a studio to over 2 mil for a penthouse, personally I wouldn't want to pay 2 mil only to see someone peeing on my front door. 

I've looked at crime stats in a number of potential markets but have come to realize that I don't really know what I'm looking for in terms of appropriate levels. What do other people look for in terms of appropriate crime levels?