How to Evaluate a Neighborhood

My clients often ask me “is this area safe?’ when looking at particular neighborhoods.  Certainly the safety of one area versus another is a subjective determination.  Fortunately, there are several websites out there that can help you determine whether an area is “safe.”

The City of Oakland Police Department maintains its own database here.  For a more visually exciting and more easy to read website, point your browsers to the Oakland Crimespotting website.  The San Francisco Chronicle has a map of murders throughout the city that can be found here.

For a statistical picture of a particular zip code, you can consult ZipSkinny.  Zipskinny offers census and demographic information broken out by zip code.  Want to dig a little deeper?  Terabitz offers you homes for sale in a particular neighborhood as well as specific information about airports, banks, cafes, childcare, cinemas, restaurants, transportation, etc.

For information regarding schools, Greatschools.net is a great place to start.  You can also find helpful information regarding Oakland schools here, and Berkeley schools here.