Americans say a low crime rate (68%), low housing and living costs (66%), and good weather (62%) make a place desirable to live.
Americans say a high crime rate (73%), high housing and living costs (65%), and high taxes (62%) make a place undesirable.
We have a paradox as to our perceptions on crime. Data from Gallup and other sources show a record fear of crime. Polling data states that crime is a primary topic for Americans during the election.
As to official statistics, crimes reported to law enforcement (the vast majority are not) indicate significant reductions in crime per preliminary statistics offered by the FBI for the first six months of 2024.
According to the most recent official data from the US Department of Justice through the National Crime Victimization Survey’s 2023 report, we just recorded the highest increase in violent crime in our nation’s history.
Yet 98 percent of the media reports I read focus solely on crimes reported to law enforcement; they state that crime is falling considerably in 2024.
But we have another survey below as to American perceptions of crime as being a primary driver of families moving from one community to another.
The Survey
The survey comes from “The Best (and Worst) Places to Live in 2024, According to Americans:“
High crime is the most undesirable trait for the third year in a row, with nearly 3 in 4 Americans (73%) saying it makes a place undesirable.
Americans are most likely to move if there’s an increase in crime (58%), the cost of living (52%), or taxes (47%).
in 2024, when moving to a new location, the single most important factor is the cost of homes. Affordable housing is even more important than in 2023, when Americans said it was the third-most crucial factor behind the cost of living and safe neighborhoods.
Methodology
The data featured in this study comes from an online survey commissioned by Clever Real Estate. One thousand American adults were surveyed from June 14-16, 2024. Each respondent answered 25 questions related to where they live, which areas of the U.S. they prefer, and what they believe makes a city or state desirable.
In addition, they examined migration data from the U.S. Census at the state and metro level to determine which states and cities Americans are moving in and out of.
Conclusions
There are endless companies and media sources that offer data on the most dangerous or safest cities. Readers must choose carefully as to methodologies in this and other reports.
But the data above dovetails with reports from Gallup (record fear of crime) and national polling regarding crime as being one of the most important election concerns on the part of Americans.
Coming to firm conclusions as to official crime data is massively confusing based on lower numbers of crimes reported to law enforcement (the vast majority are not) versus the National Crime Victimization Survey from the US Department of Justice stating that there are record increases in violent crime.
But there’s no doubt that Americans are very concerned about their safety and the data above adds one more dimension to our understanding of crime in America.
Moving is incredibly complex and expensive (I’m going through it now) and understanding that crime is either “the” primary driver or “a” primary motivating factor in relocating a family is understandable.
I have suggested in past articles that crime destroys cities and the data above seems to confirm my assumption.
Comments