The Atlanta Metro Area's Peachtree City: A safe haven according to Neighborhoodscout.com

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="493" caption="Based on data from www.neighborhoodscout.com"][/caption]

 

According to Neighborhoodscout.com’s analysis, Peachtree City is one of the safest cities in the nation.  Ranking at #97 of the 100 safest cities scored, Peachtree City is safer than 71% of cities in the US.  Whether or not the methodology is flawless, the statistics do indicate a city that has a low incidence of violent and non-violent crime and residents have a significantly lower likelihood of becoming the victim of a crime.

Where is Peachtree City in the Grand Scheme of Atlanta Metro Area Geography?

Peachtree City is located in Coweta County, approximately 35 miles southwest of Atlanta’s city center.  Proximate to Interstate 85, Peachtree City affords fairly good accessibility to amenities within Atlanta city limits and most of the major metro area employment cores.  A favorite of Delta pilots, Peachtree City offers a short commute to work at only thirty minutes, or 23 miles, from Hartsfield Jackson Airport, the busiest airport in the US.

Why Does Peachtree City Score So Well (Safe) with Neighborhoodscout.com’s Crime Index?

Peachtree City has posted low violent (14) and property (333) crime rates for a total of 347 crimes reported in the past year.   Over the past twelve months two incidents of rape, eleven incidents of assault, and no murders were reported.  Regarding property crimes, the city has posted 22 incidents of burglary, 255 incidents of property theft, and 55 incidents of auto theft. Relative to the city’s population of 31,900, the average citizen has a very small fraction of likelihood of being the victim of a violent crime (0.05%, one in 2,278 people) and a 1.0% likelihood of being the victim of a property crime (one in 96 people).

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="493" caption="Based on data from www.neighborhoodscout.com"][/caption]

It could be argued that even a fraction percentage chance of being a victim of crime is too high, but the stark reality of significantly higher crime propensity in the state of Georgia and the US, in general, highlight the safe enivornment Peachtree City offers.  The likelihood of becoming a victim of violent crime in the State of Georgia (0.5%) is ten times higher than Peachtree City and the national median (0.47%) is a similar multiple at 9.5 times higher. The likelihood for becoming a victim of property crimes in the State of Georgia (4.6%) is 4.5 times higher than Peachtree City.  The national median is lower (3.4%), but still more than three times greater than Peachtree City.

Of course, the City of Atlanta fares far worse than the national median, the state of Georgia and Peachtree City.  However, it should be noted that the crime rate relative to the population is somewhat skewed because the true number of people in Atlanta at any given time is inflated tremendously (estimated 86%) by both employees that commute into the city (62%) and tourists (14%). 

The Conclusion:  The right suburb can provide a much safer environment

The narrative about Peachtree City above is a perfect example why proper due diligence can be rewarding when honing in on a landing area for relocation.  An area like Peachtree City may not be on the radar screen, but if you are one of the 15% of prospective home buyers that find crime to be the most important factor when choosing a home, an area like Peachtree City could potentially be a perfect fit.  More indepth searching that includes other neighborhoods or cities in the Atlanta area may reveal more safe havens that are otherwise not top-of-mind.

For more information on Neighborhoodscout.com and other crime statistics tools, see the following posts:

http://atlanta.homespace.com/2010/02/05/crime

http://atlanta.homespace.com/2010/02/05/neighborhoodscout

 

 

Neighborhoodscout.com: An inexpensive tool for prospective buyers researching crime statistics in the Atlanta area

 

Crime is one of the top concerns for prospective buyers seeking to purchase a home.  According to a survey conducted by Trulia.com, crime was the second greatest concern for home buyers (“’Crisis of Confidence’ – Good News for Qualified Buyers?,” Realty Times, Phoebe Chongchua, October 31, 2008).

Neighborhoodscout.com is a subscription service available by the one month to six month period at a price of $29.99 per month or $14.99 per month, respectively.  In addition to crime statistics, subscribers also have access to school performance statistics and quarterly price appreciation statistics since 1990.  Neighborhoodscout.com coverage area includes 17,000 law enforcement agency jurisdictions, which is far more expansive then crimereports.com.

One significant advantage of neighborhoodscout.com is a customizable reporting area.  The user can find a neighborhood with an address search. Crime statistics can be provided for the area within 1- to 75-miles of the neighborhood.

Benchmarks of greater geographic areas are provided.  The user selected neighborhood or area is shown against the city, metro area, state and national statistics.  Because the statistics are an index score of one (least safe) to one hundred (most safe), an order of magnitude is easy to discern.  For instance, if a city’s score is 64%, the city is safer than 64% of the cities in the US.

Thermal maps (see below) of crime propensity help the user quickly discern the relative safety of different neighborhoods in a city.

Added benefits of the subscription are school system index scores and home price appreciation trending since 1990.

Map of City of Atlanta Neighborhood-Level Crime Rates

from www.neighborhoodscout.com

 

A disadvantage of neighborhoodscout.com’s service is the inability to get the more detailed level of crime rates by type provided by crimereports.com.  It also appears that crime reporting is on an annual basis and cannot be scaled down to a monthly or weekly reporting scale.  However, both of these features are available on the free website interface at crimereports.com, if the neighborhood searched is within the coverage area.

Crimereports.com: A useful tool for prospective home buyers researching crime statistics in the Atlanta area

 

Crimereports.com provides mapping, data, and analytics for more than 700 law enforcement agency jurisdictions.  The service is provided free because of the monetary support provided by the local law enforcement agencies covered.  An easy search and a few clicks of the mouse will allow the browser to map crime reports by different types, such as assault, public intoxication, and burglary.  Maps can show reported incidents by a user selected date range (e.g., 3, 7, 14 30 days or a unique selected date range) and frequency intervals (e.g., daily, weekly, monthly).

In addition, crimeports.com provides analytical reports with crime statistics.  For instance, the following are a bar and pie chart of crime reported by the Sandy Springs Police Department for the month of January 2009.  Potentially, total crime could look high in Sandy Springs, but a quick look at the charts indicates that non-violent crime is much less frequent than traffic violations and theft.  While traffic violations do not seem an important piece of information, a high rate of violations could signal higher auto insurance rates or a need to be very cautious while driving through the area so that speeding tickets or other moving violations are not incurred.

 

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="602" caption="Crimereports.com charts for Sandy Springs "][/caption]

Some disadvantages of crimereports.com:

• Comparative benchmarks on the national or state level are not available;


• Comparisons of one geography to another must be done manually; and


• Reporting coverage is not 100%; for instance, statistics for only select areas of the Atlanta metro are available.

The importance of crime rates in home purchase decisions and how to research crime statistics in the Atlanta Area

 

Crime is one of the top concerns for prospective buyers seeking to purchase a home.  According to a survey conducted by Trulia.com, crime was the second most important factor in choice for prospective home buyers (“’Crisis of Confidence’ – Good News for Qualified Buyers?,” Realty Times, Phoebe Chongchua, October 31, 2008).

Crime is an important issue because it directly affects the perception of safety, ease that business is conducted, comfort-level of walking through neighborhoods, assessment of home values, and need for additional services or community amenities like a neighborhood watch or home security .  

Crime statistics, however, can be difficult information to track down. Only the most technologically savvy of counties, cities, or police departments have crime statistics available on their websites.  Typically these websites are difficult to navigate and do not provide a reference point for order of magnitude, or how bad crime is compared to other areas.  The FBI provides crime statistics up through 2007, but city level data is the finest grain available through the FBI.  To the average home buyer, crime statistics do not become information until compared against other benchmarks to indicate how much better or worse crime propensity is in a particular area relative to previous years or other geographies such as the city or metro area average, state average, or national average.

Good news for prospective home buyers, or residents that like to stay on top of the state of their neighborhoods – there are some excellent resources available on the internet that provide useful and current crime maps, data and analytics.

Two recommended websites providing rich data and information are:

• Crimereports.com, a free service that provides mapping, data, and analytics for more than 700 law enforcement agency jurisdictions. Advantages are cost, the ability to search and map incidents by detailed type of crime, and customizable reporting period.


• Neighborhoodscout.com is a subscription service that provides neighborhood-level statistics on crime, school performance, and price appreciation ($29.99 for a 1-month subscription to $14.99 per month for a six month subscription).  Advantages include benchmarking of neighborhood against city, metro area, state and U.S.; customizable reporting geographies; and and intuitive index scoring (e.g., an index rank of 64 means that the neighborhood is safer than 64% of neighborhoods tracked).  

For more detailed information on each service, please see the following posts:

Crimereports.com:  http://atlanta.homespace.com/2010/02/05/crimereports

Neighborhoodscout.com:  http://atlanta.homespace.com/2010/02/05/neighborhoodscout

Atlanta Home Buyers: There is still time to take advantage of the $14,000 incentive for foreclosure home purchases through the Georgia Dream Homeownership Program

 

The Georgia Department of Community Affairs is currently offering a $14,000  incentive for purchasing a foreclosure home through the Georgia Dream Homeownership Program.  The program is targeted at reducing the inventory of foreclosure homes in counties were foreclosure levels have been severely elevated.  The foreclosure property must be located in counties that have been selected for the program - Counties of Need - because of the large volume of foreclosure properties.    The $14,000 may be used either for necessary repairs to the property or may be applied towards the mortgage down payment. This is not a first-time buyer program, previous homeowners also qualify.

All Atlanta area counties are included in the program, so any homebuyer in the Atlanta market could potentially qualify for this program.  The program commenced in April 2009, but prospective buyers still have six months to take advantage of the program until it ends in July 2010.   Buyers must qualify against a number of criteria.  However, the most significant criteria is the income limits by county because it is a HUD-funded program administered by the Georgia Department of Community Affairs.

Program specifics

• The property purchased must be a foreclosure property located within the designated counties of need (all Atlanta metro counties qualify);


• Short-sales or homes in pre-foreclosure do not qualify;


• Home buyers must have an annual income within the defined income limits (for a table of income limits: http://www.dca.state.ga.us/housing/Homeownership/programs/downloads/NSPIncomeLimits.pdf); generally an annual income of less than $69,000 for a two-person household and less than $86,000 for a four-person household in the Atlanta area;


• Home buyers must attend at least eight live (in-person) hours of homebuyer counseling and education from a list of approved providers;


• A home buyer may also qualify for the US First-Time Homebuyer Tax Credit; however, they may not receive other forms of down payment assistance nor may they use the tax credit towards a down payment;


• The mortgage will be originated and held by a private lending institution;


• Currently 13 mortgage companies or lenders participate in underwriting mortgages for this program;


• A buyer must stay within the home purchased under this program for at more than five years, because a lien placed on the home for this program is not released until sixty-six months after the closing date.

 

For more information, see:

http://www.dca.state.ga.us/housing/Homeownership/programs/gadreamnspdownpayment.asp