Trulia Crime Map is a fantastic tool!

[John Horner]

I just wanted to throw this out there to the newbies, like myself. I have been doing a lot of analysis in Columbus, OH and stumbled upon Trulia's Crime Map.

The Crime Map breaks bigger cities into specific neighborhoods and you can see exactly what kind of crimes and how often for a particular neighborhood.

I am newer to the Columbus area and I'm familiar with the West side, but when it comes to the East side I use this tool to help me find the better areas for buy and holds.

I have no affiliating with Trulia.com, not that they would need me, but just wanted to let everyone know what a great tool this is.

[Levar Wilson]

It sure is. I bumped into it when I bought my first house. I is awesome. It reminds me of what we use in the military called "density plots" to illustrate "hot" areas.

[Joseph Weisenbloom]

I have also been using the crime mapper. I was curious as to the accuracy of this tool. Trulia has some sketchy and inaccurate home prices on their site so I wouldn't doubt that their crime statistics are off as well. Anyone have any positive/negative experiences with this tool? Should we ultimately rely on police statistics if we want a true idea of the crime in the neighborhood? Maybe use the Trulia tracker as a sort of pre-screen before we get police statistics?

[Levar Wilson]

Joseph Weisenbloom: I would take the information as a 75% solution due to the fact of not knowing the algorithm used for the software nor the categories used to determine what is/is not considered "crime". The pre-screen idea is not a bad "method". I took an overview of the map on where I live and it is pretty dead on the mark as far as crime is concerned.

[Mala S.]

I like neighborhood scout dot com. It gives crime rates and avg home prices.

[John Horner]

Thanks Mala S., I'll definitely check that out!

[Douglas Dowell]

Sweeeeet! Thanks for the info.

[Levar Wilson]

Originally posted by Mala S.:

I like neighborhood scout dot com. It gives crime rates and avg home prices.

I took a look at the site and it looks pretty good.

[Todd Plambeck]

Great tip, thanks!

[Ben Skove]

I also use the CrimeReports app - I like the way it gives me fairly detailed information on the location and type of crime committed. Around here, the neighborhoods can go from stable to sketchy in a couple of blocks, so having some (somewhat) more precise data is helpful.

[Ravi Veer]

The spotcrime website seems to be a good one too.

I wonder if there are any good places to identify trends over time:

- quality of schools - improving or declining?

- incidence of crime - increasing or decreasing?

[Jon Deavers]

Does anybody know if the crime map is still active on Trulia? I can't seem to find it on their site even in the market RE overview page. Thanks!

[Account Closed]

@John Horner Nice! Thanks so much! I was just about to make a post entitled "how to know if a town is crime ridden" This crime tool is very convenient!