Whether you are moving to The City Different for the first time or just moving to a new neighborhood in Santa Fe, the safety of your new neighborhood is something to consider.

This is sometimes overlooked when you drive up to that sweet adobe home and fall in love with the carved wooden gate and turquoise trim. It’s easy to get carried away in the moment, but making sure you understand the safety of the neighborhood is very important.

Everyone’s idea of “safety” is different, so do your research and make sure you are comfortable with the neighborhood you are considering living in.Thankfully there are some great tools to help you to be informed about the safety of any given area.

Here are a few tips to help you in your safety search:

1. Hit the Pavement

Sometimes the best way to discover the safety of the neighborhood is to hit the pavement. Simply ask the neighbors how they enjoy their neighborhood. Do they feel safe? How long have they been in the neighborhood and is there any reason they would leave? This is a great personal indication of safety.

2. Check the Sex Offender Registry

The U.S. Department of Justice maintains a national registry for sex offenders that can be easily accessed online. The Sex Offender Public Website (NSOPW) is a great resource and extremely valuable in helping you evaluate a neighborhood and/or adjacent neighborhoods. The website is very user friendly. You simply enter an address you are inquiring about in Santa Fe and it will give you a list of the sex offenders that live nearby.

3. Take a Tour

Take a drive through your potential neighborhood. Sometimes the general state of repair and activities in the neighborhood can be an indication of the safety of a neighborhood. There is usually a couple of houses with lack-luster curb appeal, but usually safe neighborhoods have homes that show pride of ownership and indicate that the neighbors take care of one another. As you tour the neighborhood you will want to look for broken windows, overgrown yards, broken fences and such. Do you see people walking, running, and or biking in the neighborhood? This is also a good indication on whether people feel safe.

4. Track Crime

The amount of crime in an area is can be a powerful indication of the safety of an area. There are several on-line sources to map the crime in your area as well as some mobile apps to help when you’re on the go. These sources will help you map vandalism, burglary, assault, and other crimes. You simply enter the address of the home you are interested in and the interactive maps help you see what crimes have taken place and where. Here are a few suggestions as you search for crime:

mylocalcrime.com

spotcrime.com

crimemapping.com

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Purchasing a new house is a big decision and the more you are informed the better. You want your house to truly be a home, and understanding the safety of the area will give you peace of mind so that you can enjoy living there for years to come.