As agents, one of the first questions we are usually asked during any showing or open house is how safe is the neighborhood.
It goes without saying that clients want to live somewhere safe. But just where are the safest cities?
If you are working in Nashua, N.H., your market has been named the safest city in America by personal finance website WalletHub. This city on the New Hampshire–Massachusetts border, about an hour north of Boston, earned high marks for having next to no violent crimes and thefts.
Nashua also boasts low unemployment and poverty rates. It is joined by several New England communities at the top of the list.
In its survey, WalletHub examined 35 criteria in more than 180 cities to come up with the list.
According to the personal finance site, the criteria included home and community safety statistics (e.g., terrorist attacks, other crimes, fatalities); natural disaster risk; and measures of financial safety (e.g., unemployment rate, poverty rate, and median credit score).
According to WalletHub analyst Jill Gonzalez, the top-ranking cities tend to … not only have low rates when it comes to crime, but offer financial safety as well.
“Safety is one of the most important factors that need to be considered when looking for a place to live,” she said in a statement. “Cities that offer a safe environment for their residents do better in other aspects of living as well, such as education and health care.”
The safest markets include Nashua, N.H.; South Burlington, Vt.; Warwick, R.I.; Columbia, Md.; Gilbert. Ariz.; Fargo, N.D.; Lewiston, Maine; Plano, Texas; Portland, Maine and Brownsville, Texas.
Fort Lauderdale, FL, topped the most dangerous cities list for its higher-than-average crime. It also had one of the lowest percentages of households with emergency savings and some of the nation’s highest traffic fatalities per capita.
According to Gonzalez, the most dangerous cities “have high crime rates, with a high number of murder, thefts, sexual assault, and hate crimes.”
“Residents in these cities can also fear for their financial safety as unemployment rates are high, job security is low, and poverty is rampant,” she added.
The “bottom 10” include Fort Lauderdale, Fla.; St. Louis, Mo.; San Bernardino, Calif.; Oklahoma City, Okla.; Detroit, Mich.; Little Rock, Ark.; Orlando, Fla.; Chattanooga, Tenn.; Baton Rouge, La.; and Jackson, Miss.
