Looking into the crime rate of a prospective neighborhood is a great idea for home buyers. There are various public sources that provide easily accessible Crime-rate information. However, there are extra steps that need to be taken in order to find out about registered sex offenders who may live closehat could obviously alter the property’s value drastically. As Real Estate Agents, we always recommend that people people find out before hand so that they are not unpleasantly surprised once it is too late to do something about it.
Also, the fact is, the closer a home is to a registered sex offender’s place of residence, the greater the impact on its value, according to James Larsen, a professor at Wright State University in Ohio. Larsen’s 2003 study of home sale prices in Montgomery County, Ohio, found that, on average, homes within one-tenth of a mile of a serious sex offender’s residence saw a 17% drop in value, while houses between one-tenth and two-tenths of a mile sold for 10% less. Those, too, are truly significant numbers.
You can use a search engine such as Family Watchdog to search for addresses and photos of sex offenders. The site also offers email and cell phone alerts as well if a registered offender moves into your neighborhood. For other crime statistics, AreaConnect lets users compare crime data for more than 8,000 different cities.
In order to ensure that the home you are buying is the right home for you and your family, a little reasearch can be a lot of help! If you would like help researching a home that you are considering purchasing, please let The Chappell Team help you in the process. Call us at 281-863-9134 today!
