Moving to Twin Falls The good the bad the ugly. (Jerome: construction, schools)

[prindyrae]

I would like to get some input regarding a potential development. Can anyone tell me what the average price per square foot for a custom home would cost in Twin Falls? Are there many new subdivisions and if so, what is the average price of these homes.

[kimbercutes824]

I read somewhere one time, I will have to find the article that Twin Falls has the most violent crime per capita in the United States.


EDIT:

here is some info

Moderator cut: link removed, linking to competitor sites is not allowed


EDIT:

With a crime rate of 74 per one thousand residents, Twin Falls has one of the highest crime rates in America compared to all communities of all sizes - from the smallest towns to the very largest cities. One's chance of becoming a victim of either violent or property crime here is one in 13. Within Idaho, more than 90% of the communities have a lower crime rate than Twin Falls.
Separately, it is always interesting and important to compare a city's crime rate with those of similarly sized communities - a fair comparison as larger cities tend to have more crime. NeighborhoodScout has done just that. With a population of 34,164, Twin Falls has a combined rate of violent and property crime that is very high compared to other places of similar population size. Regardless of whether Twin Falls does well or poorly compared to all other cities and towns in the US of all sizes, compared to places with a similar population, it fares badly. Few other communities of this size have a crime rate as high as Twin Falls.
The crime data that NeighborhoodScout used for this analysis are the seven offenses from the uniform crime reports, collected by the FBI from 17,000 local law enforcement agencies, and include both violent and property crimes, combined.
Now let us turn to take a look at how Twin Falls does for violent crimes specifically, and then how it does for property crimes. This is important because the overall crime rate can be further illuminated by understanding if violent crime or property crimes (or both) are the major contributors to the general rate of crime in Twin Falls.
From our analysis, we discovered that violent crime in Twin Falls occurs at a rate higher than in most communities of all population sizes in America. The chance that a person will become a victim of a violent crime in Twin Falls – such as armed robbery, aggravated assault, rape or murder – is 1 in 216. This equates to a rate of 5 per one thousand inhabitants.
In addition, NeighborhoodScout found that a lot of the crime that takes place in Twin Falls is property crime. Property crimes that are tracked for this analysis are burglary, larceny over fifty dollars, motor vehicle theft, and arson. In Twin Falls, your chance of becoming a victim of a property crime is one in 14, which is a rate of 70 per one thousand population.

[NW Crow]

Surprising, but I am not sure yet if things are as bad as suggested by neighborhoodscout's reported information for the city of Twin Falls.

In this older thread Crimes in Idaho/Spokane 2009...FBI UCR Report
Sage of Sagle listed information based on the FBI's 2009 report and Twin Falls was indicated to be below national average on overall violent crime rate and only slightly above average on overall property crime (and that come only on felony theft but not burglary or auto theft).

Crimes rates can vary from year to year and / or sometimes errors get made in calculating rates. I am not sure if an error was made by neighborhoodscout in this case but it sounds quite extreme. I wonder if they might have mixed city and county together.


This 2010 Idaho State Patrol report

http://www.isp.idaho.gov/BCI/CrimeIn...s%20County.pdf

indicates a decline in total offenses in Twin Falls county for 5 straight years (among other details) while arrests have gone up.

On the other hand, this page also from the Idaho State Patrol says Twin Falls is 6th highest amongst Idaho counties in total crime rate. http://www.isp.idaho.gov/BCI/CrimeIn...me%20Rates.pdf

Other data from ISP here Idaho State Police - Crime in Idaho - Bureau of Criminal Identification


Is the story that crime in Twin Falls County has been generally lower than the national averages but high compared to other counties in the state, but also that the rate of crime there has been steadily trending down? That is what I make of these other sources.

I can't match that up neatly with neighborhoodscout's information.
Gets tricky sometimes. I don't think things are as bad in Twin Falls as neighborhoodscout suggested. But that is just my take on it from a quick comparison of these data sources. I'd have to see a direct report from a government agency to really believe that Twin Falls had one of the highest crime rates in the country.

[puddintang]

wow i thought all of idaho had a very low crime rate-crimes goes down when the criminals are locked up for a year or however long then go back up when they get out!lolsame ole people doing it probably

[silverfox]

I can hardly believe this.

Are you sure we are talking about Twin Fall "Idaho" and not Twin Falls somewhere else ??

There are many towns in the United States that are close to being Gang War Zones.

SF

[Cyclingfan]

KIMBER, I think you are painting a very inaccurate picture of one's safety in Twin! FBI UCR Stats are posted on their web site up to 2010. MANY if not most of the robberies committed anywhere are by threat of force or fear, not actual weapons related. Although this example may not instill confidence in some, the reality is that the chances of getting a gun, knife, ect. pointed at ya are very very slim. This goes for "Burglary" stats also; SO many of those are people going into a store to shoplift and they are charged with burglary because officials can show they entered a building or structure with intent to commit the theft....so only a fraction of those burgs listed are the felon sneaking into your window when you are at work! Same goes for the assaults...many are just kids punching someone that gets knocked out, not the gangster shooting and stabbing half of Twin Falls!!!! Stats in general are very misleading, and as proven over time, people twist them out of context to make them say what they want...Google "Twin Falls, Id. Detailed Profile" and read stats through 2009....well "below" National average! Peace...

[MotoBuddha]

I've been researching various places to retire. EVERY SINGLE PLACE claims to have a TERRIBLE meth problem -- or at least that's what the people posting on boards like this claim. Gee, somehow I suspect the posters aren't exactly representative, or they're trying to keep people away.

I currently live in a metro area in the top 20 for size. Best Places rates us an 8 for both violent and property crime, yet I've never encountered it. One person I know had their car broken into. That's it. Nationwide, everyone freaks out about crime, but only a few people are ever effected by it. In fact crime has been declining all over the country the past 20 years. Funny how one's perception of crime rates seems to correlate with the amount of local if-it-bleeds-it-leads news one watches, and how the safest people are often the most fearful.

So I take all the talk about crime with a huge pinch of salt.

[boisefan88]

In this case, it's right on - TF has an obvious meth problem. Probably won't affect you in your daily life, but it's there and its in the schools.

[TohobitPeak]

This summer I spent a few weekends in Twin visiting friends and I did not notice anything which seemed meth obvious, but I wasn't looking out for a presence either.

What I did notice was a really clean town with a nice quaint and walkable downtown, a lot of families, a large amount of Asian restaurants for a town this size in bfe Southcentral Idaho which is impressive, traffic, and Shoshone Falls. I'm really digging the planetarium, I had no idea that was there.

[Sage of Sagle]

Those numbers for Twin Falls are horribly incorrect, FYI. The violent crime rate in TF is 17% lower than the national average...almost identical to that of Idaho Falls...


2010 FBI UCR (and % increase/decrease from 2009)